Well the the title should say it all! We have a lot of Chinchillas on the ground! Seth and I are also very pleased to represent both the Standard & American Chinchilla breeds in this recent issue of the Domestic Rabbit. We can't thank the DR team for using our rabbits to be ideal representations of both coat & rings and the breed. In the magazine you can see Lola's coat used as the representation of ideal ring color & definition and Athena pictured to represent the American Chinchilla. Besides our rabbits being featured the article was beautifully written and is extremely useful to help understand the chinchilla breeds and coats!

As for litters on the ground: 
SVR's Garnet x SVR's Jericho- 4/2? (Need to get exact date from Seth!) 5 Live
SVR's Athena x SVR's Jericho- DOB 5/23   2 Live 
Metzger/Thomas Venice x Metzger/Thomas Mr. Steel Yo Girl- 5/23   5 Live
Lima Bean's Lola x Metzger/Thomas Mr. Steel Yo Girl- 5/24   1 Live
Metzger/Thomas Rome x Metzger/Thomas Mr. Steel Yo Girl- 5/25 7 Live 

At this time we have a live count 20 kits on the ground! Also as for prefixes all chinchilla rabbits will have the prefix "SVR's" on their pedigrees for future reference. 

Seth and I attended the Crazy 8's show last saturday. We were extremely excited to actually have a rabbit to show! We actually took SVR's Ice Box Betty, she placed 1st in her class and managed to pull a Best Opposite Sex of Variety. We were super proud of her as we are thinking she will probably develop into a "normal" doe compared to her siblings who are significantly smaller than her at this age. 

I also spent the day judging the 4-H show and we spent the day catching up with some of our close from who came up from california as well as my grandma! Overall it was a great day spent with those we love! Louis also graced us with a new Black Otter Junior Doe who we are extremely excited to add into our program!

Sorry this is a bit late, I have had a fairly busy weekend and some other things happening in my personal life so I am just getting around to this!
Thank you everyone for the inquiries of purchasing rabbits from us but unfortunately we will not have any rabbits available from our  current litters until at the earliest July, however this is subject to change. Sorry for the wait but our top priority is the health of the rabbits and at this time we would like to monitor the growth and development of our litters before, below I will post more on the litters. 

If you are still interested in purchasing a rabbit from us we also have an older male available on our for sales page or please continue to follow our social media for future availability. 

We just recently weaned this litter and are very pleased with their development which is why they are not available at this time as we would like to continue to watch them mature. Most likely we will be keeping 3 out 4 in this litters. Please remember we don't keep a waiting list and everything is done by first come first serve at the time of availability. 

SVR's Avalanche Ava Black Otter Junior Doe

SVR's Ice Box Betty Silver Marten Junior Doe

SVR's Snowpocalypse Black Otter Junior Buck  

SVR's Snowmageddon Silver Marten Junior Buck  

I unfortunately did not have time to snap some new pictures of these babies but they are still young to start evaluating or even wean at this time. However they are all growing and very active little fellas!

While many sites highly recommend spaying and neutering, personally we do not recommend it. While there can be some benefits from spaying/neutering in behavioral changes, avoidance of hormones, and for does a lesser probability of uterine cancer. However a lot of those issues (minus the hormones) can be avoided by responsible and careful breeding. While we understand it is the owners choice whether they spay or neuter their rabbit we try to support that by providing contact information of our rabbit friendly vets at the time of pick up. 

Why we do not suggest spaying & neutering a rabbit purchased from us. We carefully plan out each litter for their genetics/confirmation, temperaments, and avoid using animals with temperment issues, or bucks who known sprayers (believe it or not spraying can be genetic!) Also we raise two of the smallest breeds in rabbits who are known for they extremely flat and large heads, they are like pugs with less respiratory and breathing issues, but there is still a higher risk for them compared to larger rabbits breeds when being put under. There is also a risk a lot of vets are not highly educated in rabbit care, anatomy or sensitivity to anesthesia. Unfortunately, we  have had prior bad experiences with this with other members of our Lucky Charm Lop's and Sierra View Rabbitry family. 

If you are considering getting your rabbit spayed or neutered consider doing research! Find a vet who specializes in rabbits. Although males generally become sexually mature around 3-4 months and females generally become sexually mature around 5-6 months, we suggest waiting until your rabbit is at least 8 months to a year of age as the the rabbit would be fully grown and mature. This would provide the least amount of risk on the table. Also will the avoid the issue of bucks retaining a testicle. 

However rabbits can still live happy and healthy lives as household pets without being spayed or neutered!
If you are wanting a multi rabbi household considering keeping them in their own cages and have supervises play times (only suggest with females, there will most likely be mounting) 
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We find it best for our rabbits to keep them in wire bottomed cages. While there is controversy whether this is humane, we found it to be the most humane way for us to keep our rabbits clean, happy, and healthy. 

For us making sure our rabbits stay clean is one of our top priorities which a solid bottom cage would not provide as we would constantly have to be cleaning (yes rabbits can be litter boxed train but that is not always successful & we have a lot of rabbits.) Keeping our rabbits clean also helps keeps them happy and healthy! 
 
Wire cages help us give our rabbits adequate air flow and ventilation. Which is key in avoiding respiratory issues. We also provide our rabbits with plastic resting mats that still allow urine & feces to drop down into the drop pan while still giving them a place to step off of the wire (we purchase ours from KW Cages & have made our own from latus.) We also try to provide them with other forms of enrichment to keep them happy, by giving them balls, chew sticks, and other toy. 

We generally try to keep our Holland Lop & Netherland Dwarf does in cages that are 24x24x18 this provides enough room for them, a nesting box, and eventually a litter until they are weaned. We generally keep our bucks in 18x24x18 they are a td small but still provide space for the rabbit. Eventually I would like to keep all senior aged small breeds in24x24x18 cages. 
Our Standard Chinchillas & American Chinchillas are kept in 24x24x18 cages but we move our does in 24x30x18 cages when expecting litters. 

*Pictured below are our new cages we installed a couple of winters ago*

Because all of our rabbits waste is dropped into a drop pan we only have to clean our pans once a week. Generally does on litters we will clean twice a week. It also helps us manage our time with care of the rabbits.

We also bleach and power wash our cages every 6 months to keep them in good condition. 

When a rabbit no longer resides in its cage the cage is disinfected immediately before a new rabbit is housed in that cage as a biosecurity measure. 

 Unfortunately we have some not so happy news from our Sherwood barn. 
Basically all of our Netherland Dwarf does had single babies and unfortunately none of them survived. We had one first time mom who had hers a week early so that was a bit of a surprise as it was fully developed. Our other 2 mom's are proven does but they have not had litters in well over a year so we didn't actually expect them to get bred! Also as expected our Holland Lop does were not pregnant. 

Although our last round of does were unsuccessful we rebred the dwarf does about 3 days after they had their litters (although it seems soon it is extremely vital to get them rebred as soon as possible as typically they will be more likely to get pregnant the sooner they are bred.) We also have come up with some new breeding plans and methods for these Holland ladies as they have been drawing me blank since I decided to start breeding them again (most people don't know that I had announced I was no longer raising Holland Lops at the beginning of Fall 2018 but that obviously didn't last long!)
We are hoping for some better luck next month and still hopeful for the remainder of the does due at the end of this month! I am also extremely excited to see my current babies next weekend!

Seth and I had our first successful American Chinchilla litter born at our Corvallis location since our last litter from last summer which had been born in Sherwood! This litter is out of SVR Garnet and we have a second litter due soon out of SVR Athena, both are very crucial does in that program. Both litters are by SVR Jericho. We are extremely hopeful for some promising convention prospects!

I also recently designed new business cards! I had not updated them since I started in 2010 so this was a very exciting for me! I feel as if thy make me feel more like I am 20 years old instead of 11 years old! 

We have some more exciting updates! At our barn we have lots of does nesting this week! Hopefully we will have a few other does due later this next upcoming month!
We also are extremely excited to have added Ormond/Obdabashain's Buzz into our herd and excited to hopefully see some changes in our line! We will also be working on getting some updated photos of our rabbits in couple of weekends!

We have lots of does that we bred this last month so we are hoping all got pregnant, Grandma has not quite gotten down the fine art of palpating so it's honestly like a really disappointing game of russian roulette with our ladies when we start giving them boxes! Anyways here is our list we do have a few does hopefully due within the next few days as due dates a typically tentative! Also surprise we bred our Standard Chinchillas (Yes, we do still have a trio of does!)
ND Himi Jr x Kamino Due 4/28 (Probably did not take)
HL Cake x Max Due 4/28 (Probably did not take) 
HL Circus x Benny Due 4/28 (Probably did not take)
ND Tootsie x Videogame Due 5/1 
ND Rosalita x Giddy Due 5/1 
SC Venice x Steel Due 5/21
SC Rome x Steel Due 5/22
SC Lola x Steel Due 5/23

If does did not take last month we will be rebreeding them. 
HL Chloe x Buzz 
HL Goose x Buzz
ND Yeti x (Have not decided) Will be bred at end of May to give break between litters to get her into condition. 

We have two Netherland Dwarf litters that we had born earlier this spring! We are extremely excited to have had some extremely good sized litters out of two different moms! Yeti's litter has a total of 4 and Rosa gave us a whopping total of 8 but 6 were viable. Luckily we had a Holland Lop doe, named Becky, due the same day as Rosa, who unfortunately lost her litter of two (this doe was a new mom so we were expecting this along with her having peanuts, but luckily we have high hopes for her next litter as she has been raising 3 of Rosa's kits beautifully!) 
          We will hopefully have some of these guys available late summer! 
I am hoping that posting blog updates will help us be more interactive and informative with our visitors, help promote responsible rabbit care and ownership, and advocate for a hobby I am extremely passionate about!

We are extremely excited about our "Snowstorm Litter" out of Yeti and sired by Shumaker/Mesick/Potter's Videogame. This litter so far looks extremely promising but time will tell hopefully next time I go home we can get a better evaluation on these guys! 
In this litter from our last gender confirmation it looked like we had a Black Otter buck, a Black Otter doe, a Black Silver Marten buck, and a Black Silver Marten doe. 

This is our first litter where we have gotten Silver Martens so I am excited about that fun surprise!

This litter is a tad younger than Yeti's litter so we do not know genders yet but I still can't believe that little mama pushed out 8 little beans!
Due to being a dwarf breed it is fairly uncommon(obviously not unheard of) to see litters of this size, typically at least in our barn on average our Netherland Dwarf does will have 1-5 kits, with only 1-2 being viable as it extremely common for dwarf breeds to have what we call peanuts, which are kits born with a double dwarf gene which typically affects the kits ability to take in nutrients and unfortunately typically the baby fads within a few days with extremely stunted growth compared to the other kits. 
Also with having a large litter like this we were lucky enough to be able to foster 3 of them onto Becky to ensure every baby would thrive and have amble growth at this critical age. 

Thanks for bearing with us! I have slowly been trying to revamp our website to be more interactive and informative with our visitors as we want to be able to reach more than those who have added a rabbit from us into their family or herd. 
Please feel free to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more updates!