Meet The Hot Cross Buns
We would like to introduce you to the Hot Cross Buns. Each and every one of them holds a special place in our hearts and in our breeding programs. We love color and lots of it, which is why you will see a wide variety of colors in our herd. Even more important than the color of their coats is the temperament they each exhibit. We love our Buns and want the very best for them. That means we need to know each of them from tip to tail, inside and out. We welcome your questions about our herd and their care.
The Hot Cross Bucks are the building block of our rabbitry. Without great sires, we can't breed great kits. Since we breed for sound temperament, our boys have to be sweet, curious, and loving. It would be impossible to choose a favorite out of these handsome boys.
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Little Boy Blue is a gorgeous solid blue buck who loves treats and head rubs. He is absolutely yummy with his fat head and chubby cheeks! Little Boy can be a bit shy around people and the does (which can be a turn-off for some of them) but we are hoping age and experience will help him become a more eager breeder. We really want to bring more of his correct Holland Lop type into our lines. |
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Luigi caught our attention a long time ago. Born and raised by the wonderful folks at Hook's Hollands, this gorgeous chestnut charlie buck came to live with us on his first birthday. We are so blessed to have this friendly, well-socialized little man in our lives. Tiny and of excellent type, Luigi is absolutely delightful and loves cuddles and attention. Because he is a charlie, every time he is bred to a solid colored doe, all of his kits will be broken patterned. |
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Gulliver is a beautiful broken magpie who brings much joy and laughter to Hot Cross Buns. During his first photo shoot, he has tried to climb UP the wall and has decided to try bonding with our laser printer several times, which makes getting some decent photographs very tricky. Gulliver is very sociable and friendly, when he takes the time to notice that there are people nearby. He loves spending time with the ladies!
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Joey has taken his sire's place in the rabbitry. This son of Wee Walter and Dulcie (and brother of our doe Primrose) is sweet and playful. He lacks Wee Walter's impish streak, but did inherit his wonderful litter box habits. Dulcie got carried away when cleaning him up at birth and nibbled a couple of his toes off, so his feet are a bit wonky. We have a soft spot for this little buck and enjoy his quirky temperament.
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Pumpkin Roll is a gorgeous broken orange buck out of Goldilocks and Luigi. We planned to keep this Bun very early on and originally thought he was a doe. Imagine our surprise when we saw boy-bits when he was nearly 5 months old. That was quite a shock! Pumpkin Roll has inherited the loving, gentle disposition of both of his parents. We hope that he will be a great sire when he is ready to breed in a few more months. |
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Honey Ham is our newest keeper. He is out of Goldilocks and Gulliver and is an absolutely scrumptious little bundle of love. Miss E. named him and I'm trying to talk her into calling him Hamish, but she thinks we should call him Hammie, so we shall see. Honey Ham is friendly, sweet, and gently playful. His temperament is the perfect combination of his mama's mellow outlook on life, and his sire's "life of the party attitude." We love this little harlequin buck!
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The Hot Cross Does are the ladies who do all the real work in the rabbitry. They have to deal with pregnancy hormones, build a nest, give birth, nurse multiple babies at once, deal with babies climbing all over them and eating all the food in their bowls, go through weaning...we get tired just thinking about it! We enjoy our special Hot Cross Does and provide them with lots of TLC.
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Goldilocks is a very special girl to us. Gifted to us by our dear friends at Hook's Hollands, she has become a favorite in the Hot Cross Buns rabbitry. Ever sweet with an incredibly gentle and nurturing attitude, she is made to be mama and loves her babies to distraction. Usually devoted mama buns tend to be a bit overprotective (in other words, willing to defend offspring and cage space from any perceived threats, which could result in an unexpected nip as a warning) but Goldi was sweet and welcoming any time we needed to check on her or her babies. We are her friends and she knows it! :) Goldilocks will do just about anything for a Sherwood Digestive Tablet and goes wild when she catches a whiff of one. We absolutely adore this darling doe!
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Molly is another doe out of Tootsie and Hamlet's litter. Sister of Dulcie and Tabitha, Molly appears to be a broken frosty, but is possibly Vienna Marked.*** Usually broken patterned rabbits have solid-colored ears, but Molly has a streak of white on her right ear that leads me to suspect that she may carry the Vienna gene (the gene that presents blue eyes in rabbits). She is more reserved and slower to warm up to people than her sister, but is curious enough to stick her nose out to see what's going on. When she has playtime in the exercise pen, she most frequently hunkers down, muffin-style, and enjoys watching the goings-on around her. She is definitely an observant bunny!
***Vienna carriers are not supposed to be bred to a broken patterned rabbit because it makes it difficult to tell which rabbits are true Vienna Marked rabbits as opposed to non-vienna carriers who are simply broken patterned. Molly and Tabitha prove this point. Their sire, Hamlet, was a beautiful broken blue-eyed buck, so it was easy to tell that he carried the Vienna gene. |
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Isla (pronounced EYE' luh ) is another darling junior harlequin doe we added to our our rabbitry from Cranberry Trails. She is a gentle, quiet girl with a temperament very similar to Trixie's, but Isla has more of a quiet dignity about her, while Trixie is a bit of a clown. We have all fallen in love with this little girl and her lovely symmetrical facial markings and honeybee stripes.
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Beatrix (Trixie, for short) is a lovely little harlequin girl, with a gentle nature. She can be a bit shy, but she is curious and wants to be kept in the loop. She hops to the front of her cage every time the door is opened, ready and waiting for love, nose rubs, and playtime. Trixie is a possible VC, so we will be very careful about always placing her kits in pet-only homes, so as not to throw any breeders a Vienna gene curve ball. Her head is on the narrow side, but we will pair her with a buck who will bring the potential for more width to their kits' crowns. This little girl loves to eat and munches her hay and pellets with gusto. We are already quite fond of this wee girl. :)
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Primrose is a gorgeous, compact chinchilla born to recently retired Wee Walter and Dulcie. She has a wonderfully inquisitive temperament, with a love for cuddles (short ones!) as she hops off to explore new things in her environment. She has a gloriously thick coat, which will mean extra-care during her molts, but we can't resist sinking our fingers into it. With her wonky ears and happy demeanor, she had us wrapped around her wee paws very early in her life. We hope to breed Primrose for her first litter this spring.
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Cupcake is our little doe from Cake Pop and Little Boy Blue. She has a wonderfully cuddly disposition and loves to snuggle. She will happily play and bounce, too, but she always comes back to our laps demanding more cuddle time. We fell in love with this little girl. She carries sable and dilute, so her babies could be a fun mixture of colors.
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Genevieve (Jenny for short) is a beautiful cream doe gifted to us by our friends at Hook's Hollands. Isn't she lovely? She looks like a false dwarf girl, which will make kindling easier on her and removes the risk of her having any peanuts. Jenny is very sweet and spunky. We are planning to breed her for the first time in March or April, so that will give us plenty of time to get to to know her (and maybe spoil her a little!) over the next few weeks. We're so excited to have her join the Hot Cross Buns family!
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Will-o the Wisp is a personal favorite of ours. She is sassy and playful, while still being very sweet and snuggly (when she wants to be). She literally walks (hops) all over us in her determination to get what she wants or to go where she pleases. She's a very good little Bun for all of her independent ways and we look forward to seeing how she handles motherhood in the not-too-distant future. She is the daughter of Joey and our now-retired doe, Millie. |
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Boopsy is a rather shy little girl who is still trying to find her place in this world. A sensitive soul with a very loving heart, we hope she will embrace motherhood with a sense of joy and purpose. Boopsy received her name from her propensity to "boop" everything with her nose to see if it does anything. She is the daughter of Trixie and our now-retired buck, Joshua. She is a chocolate carrier and we are hoping to see some lovely chocolate babies from her at some point down the road.
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Smudge is a delightful little doe who is very quirky in her likes and dislikes. She never fails to make us laugh out loud with her comically quizzical facial expressions. She is very camera shy (mainly because of the flash) but she is absolutely beautiful. Smudge's name comes from a little character my 3rd grade teacher used to draw on her students' especially good schoolwork papers. Her Smudge was actually a little dog, but Smudge the bunny looked so similar to him, that I couldn't help remembering those little drawings and all the happy memories of her class.
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