Monthly Archives: January 2009

Holly Hope: Countdown Begins

I caught Holly Hope collecting hay early Sunday morning (2am!). The Bermuda Hay (opium-LOL!) must have caused her motherly instincts to kick in. Building a nest 1 week ahead of time just like her mom, Noobie. I am praying very hard for a smooth delivery for her and I hope she inherits her mommy’s good motherly instincts.

I am very anxious at the moment.

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And so, the countdown begins to 12th January 2009. I am not putting too much expectations since this is her first litter. Not trying to be pessimistic and over optimistic either. Just enjoying the moment!

Everybunny else is sacrificing their run times for Holly Hope. I am trying to ensure that she gets all the exercise she needs for this last “lap” so that she could have loads of stamina to do all the pushing.

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Let us all cross our fingers and toes that she will have a safe delivery!

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Told Ya This Was Coming!

WE’RE ON THE NEWS AGAIN!!!

Remember that I mentioned Ms. Sheila Rahman of Malay Mail was working on a new year’s special for the CyberSpot column? It is out today!

If you want to know how the person behind Tru-Luv Rabbitry, make sure you grab a copy. LOL!

So it is time to unveil who is really behind this blog as I will no longer edit photos of myself on the local daily (more LOL!!!). Here you go….

cyberspot

A huge huge big BUNNY hug and thank you to Ms. Sheila Rahman & the great peeps at Malay Mail for this great feature!

Now, who wants that rabbit on the newspaper!? I think I might be changing my mind on selling Tru-Luv Moesha. LOL…

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Golden Triangles!

The term Golden Triangle was the name given to a number of countries in the Southeast Asia Region in the 50s. These countries are known for their huge productions of opium. Today, the word opium can be used quite loosely to describe a certain addictive. I can refer to my daughter’s pacifier as an opium because it gives her a natural high and the moment she gets the pacifier in her mouth, she falls asleep. It is quite similar to someone taking opium back in the 50s. Since hay is the most important part of a rabbit’s diet and they smell OH SOOOoooOOooo GOOooooOD, I am using the term opium to describe how it relates to rabbits. And sometimes they do look like some kind of “weed” too. LOL!

I am not using this post to promote drugs. I would like to teach the general public how one can recognize a rabbit owner through certain common habits that they exhibit.

The followings are the characteristics of an “OBSESSED” rabbit owner:

1) His/her house smells of grass

2) There is a certain smell that only you (as a guest) can smell the moment you step into his/her house

3) He/she talks, eats and sleeps RABBITS

4) He/she always surf in rabbit forums, websites and blogs

5) He/she spends tons of money buying grass (no one can explain this phenomenon)

6) His/her neighbors suspect him/her of being marijuana dealer (seeing him/her with packs of grasses of all kinds)

7) He/she always have fur stuck to his/her shirt at work

8) Contrary to popular beliefs, he/she do not like carrot that much

9) And this is the ultimate, you can always find a big box of grasses in one of the rooms such as this……

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On a lighter note, I was trying to arrange the hay nicely in the box above when I found my little girl helping me with feeding Skor his first strand of Bermuda Grass:

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P/S: These are hay for ruminant household pets such as Rabbit, Guinea Pig & Chinchillas. So please don’t jump into conclusion and accuse me of having “WEED” or “BONG” ok?

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Must Owner Be Breeder or Breeder Be Owner?

I have done an observation for quite a while and I cannot help but to notice that breeding one’s pets seemed to be the natural order of things. No, I am not encouraging everyone to breed.

But as the topic of this post suggest, I would like to post a few questions. Must every rabbit owner be a breeder? Or must every breeder be an owner? I think the latter seemed to be a stupid question right? Of course every breeder happens to be owners. If they do not own the rabbits, how could they breed them?

WRONG! You can breed rabbits even if you are not a breeder. That is because you can create a market for rabbits so that breeders based on your demand, breed their rabbits. That is indirectly breeding I believe.

But as for the first question. Must every rabbit owner be a breeder? The answer is NO. I always like sending my rabbits to people that wants a pet exclusively. To be honest, I enjoy that more than sending my rabbits to people with intention to breed. Not because I am afraid that one day they get nicer offspring out of them and beat me in my own breeding program. That is the least of my concern and in fact, I hope those breeding my rabbits do well because at the end of the day, those rabbits carry Tru-Luv in their pedigrees. Alright, I think I better make my twisted words clearer for the simple minded. I will always be happier to share my rabbits with people who wants to breed the rabbits and beat me in quality. Meaning to say, these breeders have a clear intention to get quality that exceeds mine. I fully support people with such intention. I am not afraid of “losing” business because as I have mentioned many times, this is plainly an enjoyable hobby not money making business.

That being said, please don’t come to me and tell me simply you want to beat me in breeding quality rabbits. Show me how you can do that and convince me that you really can do it. Then you can have my rabbits.

Coming back to that question (I have wandered too far away). Again, I must say that I really prefer to send my rabbits to people who wants them solely as pets not because I am trying to belittle people in general in the topic of breeding. Mind you, I know people that keeps only one rabbit at a time and they make superb breeders too. They have so much knowledge in that area. It is something that they choose not to venture due to many reasons.

I am not going to dwell into why one should not breed because I have done that a million times and by enforcing it further, we may see a total backfire. So it is just a very simple post to enforce and drive home the point that, you can have a wonderful pet without breeding it. Forget about old mother goose story of how you want your pet to experience motherhood/fatherhood and things like that. Those are sheer nonsense. You can never beat an animal in their basic instinct to reproduce so let’s not impose your drive on an animal. We humans are the greater kind with a brain to make judgments.

May you have a great time with your PET rabbit.

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Tails From Meadow Haven Chapter 6: Back By Popular Demand

“WoaaaaAaaAHhhHhh….I am floating in the air!!!”

“What’s happening, BlueBerry?”

“I don’t know, the tentacles took a chunk of my back and another is still holding on to my butt!”

….silence…

“Are you alright?”

“Hello….are you there?”

“I am feeling a little dazed…”

“You got tranced! I can see you right there”

“What’s happening to BlueBerry, Skor?”

“Master’s using his tentacles and some weird tools. Let me figure out what’s written on the tools”

“Tools? Like a heavy metal head?”

“No, this one looks more like a shiny tentacle and it has got Fur…..Mee….Later written on it”

“Did I hear fur? What is master doing to BlueBerry’s fur? I heard in The Stories of Old told by my moomy that our ancestors were always lined up to meet The Soul Extractor. She said that our ancestors will pass through this little gateway and the moment they reach the gate way….erm….”

“What happens next mommy? What happened to them?”

“I am not too sure if there was a gateway or not. I am sorry, I don’t think anyone knows what happens after that. This story was told by a lucky rabbit that did the almost impossible by escaping the gateway”

“Hey, BlueBerry’s losing loads of fur!”

“And I thought it said fur me later?”

“WoahhHHhhhhHhh. Here it goes again. Wonder why the tentacles like touching my butt like this”

“BlueBerry, master collected some of your fur just now while you were tranced”

“Argh! I have been waiting for those fur on my butt to get bushy actually. Now it is not as bushy as before”

“You do not need a bushy butt, BlueBerry…”

“I sure need one to shield me from Skor”

“What!?”

“Hey babe, I am the great stud of Meadow Haven”

“My dear, I am keeping my options open but I must say we make good kits don’t we?”

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Winds Of Change: Holland Lops Available For Sale

After keeping and evaluating both Tru-Luv Luna and Moesha for 5/6 months now, I have concluded that they will not be beneficial in my breeding program for the traits that I am looking for. Therefore, I am offering them up for sale strictly as pets. If you are interested please feel free to inquire through email to truluvrabbitry@gmail.com.

Here they are:

Tru-Luv Luna

Color: Broken Siamese Sable (very rare)

Age: 6 months

Tru-Luv Moesha

Color: Broken Black

Age: 5 months

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Let Us All Be Good Stewards

Happy New Year again everyone! What a great year 2009 will be for us. I am sure it will be another interesting year for Tru-Luv Rabbitry. I hope it would be a good year for all of you too.

As this is the first “official” post to start off the new year, I would like to touch on the topic of being a good steward.

In order to relate to this topic I would like to mention some characters from my favorite trilogy movie – Lord Of The Rings. We were introduced to this character called Denethor somewhere in the second part of the trilogy. We all know that Denethor was the Steward of Gondor who mourns for the death of his elder son Boromir. He even went to great lengths to deny Faramir (his younger son) of his due rights as his son.

While mourning for his losses, Denethor failed to be a good steward to the people of Gondor.

We can all relate to this story very much. Our daily commitments and priorities sometimes hinder us from being a good steward. We are in our own special ways, stewards on earth. Although some of us may not have pets, we are in this case a steward of our own lives. So, what is needed of us to be a good steward?

God has so graciously blessed us with our lives first and foremost and that should be the main priority for us. We must first be good steward for ourselves. We must be able to manage ourselves well.

When we have pets, we must of course take charge and be good stewards especially in taking care of the daily needs of our pet.

Sometimes I never fail to feel that to a certain extend, we like to play God. This can clearly be seen when breeders make their decision to breed their rabbits, cull their rabbits and also judge their rabbits.

Just like Denethor, rabbits like Gondor, are given to us to be cared for and by being a bad steward to them, we can see how the condition of our rabbits deteriorate. Just like the White Tree of Gondor high above the city was dry and dead before the rightful heir reclaim the throne, our rabbit(s) will also deteriorate as time passes.

It is the same with any pet be it a dog, cat or rabbit. The more we shower them with love and care, the more they thrive to be very beautiful creatures. We should take pride in that if we have a beautiful pet that is full of confidence and shine. Yes, we can get our pets from the worst places but with gentle care and nurturing, they will blossom.

That being said, for me, it is very important that our pets have a very good headstart. It is always good to get pets from a very good environment to begin with for example a breeder that clearly shows that he/she cares for even the runt of the litter. Every single rabbit kit matters and each get their fair share of handling time.

There are many parts to a living creature. Outer beauty that shine from inner beauty is something not easily attainable. When we nurture a pet, we must be good stewards to both their physical and psychological aspects. Then only we will get a wholesome pet.

So what happens when we are bad stewards? Like Denethor, I believe there will be a self destruction of some kind. Remember him jumping off the cliff? No, that will not happen to us physically. There will be a death of “character”. We just kill that part of us that like pets. We stop keeping the pet for good. We put our pets up for adoption or we just make a quick exit by abandoning them. No matter what it is, we see death one way or another.

But let us walk down memory lane. What made us decide on making that decision to bring Fluffy or Bunny home? Is it because he/she is so cute? And our love for our new found pet quickly fades away as fast as how they grow out of their cuteness?

No matter what death it may be, the real heir to the things we are given to steward upon will return. Just like when Aragorn returns to his rightful throne, The White Tree of Gondor blossoms again!

As we are faced with the devastation and wrath climate change is bringing upon us, let us also ensure that we be good stewards of our environment. We start with ourselves. Let’s make a difference in this world. We start with 2009. We start in our homes.

We start from our HEART! We make this the starting MOMENT!

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How Should A 8 Weeks Old Look Like

I have been encouraging people interested in getting rabbits to get those that are above 8 weeks old. I believe it is hard to know without seeing how a 8 weeks old should look like. I personally have not found any website providing such information and therefore, using my own rabbits as an example, I am using this post to enlighten new comers how baby rabbits look like on a week by week manner. I will also be disclosing some common “tricks” used by unscrupulous breeders/sellers. But what’s all the fuss about getting rabbit older than 8 weeks about?

Many new comers to the hobby has been very lucky to have gotten baby rabbits a little older than 4 weeks old and survived till adulthood but I am not about to encourage you taking chances like that. Losing a pet is very devastating and nerve wreaking. I also noticed that there is another big group of rabbit owners who are lucky in the sense that the rabbits they bought were indeed older than 8 weeks. But these are those that survived being kept longer in the shops that has taken them in much earlier.

The main concern that I have for younger rabbits being purchased is that, they are under-developed especially on the part of their digestive system. What you see is not usually what you get in young rabbits. Though they may seemed to be healthy at 4 weeks and nibbles on solid food, it does not mean internally they are fully developed.

I know some of us not only purchase on impulse but also through sympathy. There is nothing wrong buying based on sympathy if you know well enough the consequences or else to save yourself from heartache, I will strongly discourage you from getting the rabbit unless you have a nursing doe at home ready to help foster this little one.

“Those are imported rabbits”. Do not be fooled. If you are given this reason to justify the price tag, please ask to see the imported parents of the rabbit in question. True imports should have tattoo on their left ear. And should come with 3 to 4 generations of pedigree. The tattoo number on their left ears should match those of the pedigree. This is one of the reason why I would like to tattoo my rabbits. But it is a very painful procedure for the rabbits and I do not want them to go through that.

Please take note that it is harder to identify with larger breeds because their sizes do not normally reflect their actual age. Looking through the following photos you can roughly get an idea. Holland Lops are dwarf breeds and I dare say this is applicable for other dwarf breeds as well. Try to look at the overall physical appearance and try to identify them when you pick your pet rabbit.

Enough of words, let’s look at some photos.

1 Week Old


2 Weeks Old



3 Weeks Old


4 Weeks Old

This is the most crucial age. Most rabbits are taken away from their mother at this age and be distributed to many locations. Highly stressful for them. Just don’t be fooled by how matured they look. They are under-developed internally. If someone tries selling you a baby rabbit that looks like this, just say “NO THANK YOU”. Cute it may be but please do not be fooled! That’s exactly how most are being cheated.


5 Weeks Old (approximately)



6 Weeks Old

Most sellers are afraid of this age because they really look ugly at this age. Most baby rabbits look ugly from this age till they are about 6 months old. Some may start to look better earlier between 3rd or 4th month. If I were you, I won’t judge them at this age. But for those using cute-ness as their main selling point, this is definitely a NO NO. If you are a newbie looking for a rabbit, this is also NO NO. Still too young. Rabbits at 6 weeks need their mother’s cecal to help balance the flora in the stomach.


7 Weeks Old


8 Weeks Old

Junior (4/5 months)

This is the time they start to blossom…

Senior (6 months & above)

There you have it, not only a repeat of the photo collections that I have but it serves as a good guide for all of us on how to evaluate the rabbits that we are about to take home.

Hope you all the best in choosing your pets!

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A New Dawn 2009

Happy New Year everyone! It is a new morning with great hopes and aspirations. It will be another great year for Tru-Luv Rabbitry and this blog shall be very much alive and kicking. Thank you for being a faithful reader.

Here are 10 new year resolutions for TLR:

1) Chocolate Holland Lops

2) Continue promoting ethical breeding & responsible ownership

3) Making more bunny friends around the world

4) Importing nicer foundation stocks

5) Praying harder to have constant Oxbow supplies

6) Renewing HLRSC membership

7) Continue posting on a daily basis with quality contents

8) Continue sharing quality Holland Lops at reasonable prices to highly intellectual individuals (LOL!)

9) To master color genetics

10) Revamp Meadow Haven

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