The Nursery

8/1/25 Video of all the babies playing together!

Penelope & Sullivan's Babies - 2 Kits

Date of Birth: Friday, July 11, 2025

Penelope kindled 4 kits, but two were, very sadly, stillborn. The surviving babies are doing well, although Penelope looks to have over-groomed the front paw on one of them. It has a blackened toe and we're waiting to see what will happen. It's able to nurse, which is the main thing. We're praying for it to be strong enough to make it another week or so until we can take it to the vet. One kit appears to be a black tort, but the jury is still out on the other one. I'm guessing it will be an orange. Pictures will be shared on Friday.

UPDATE...7/18/25...We can't believe these babies are a week old already! They are growing so quickly and will be ready to match in five weeks, and go to their new homes in seven. The darker kit is still a black tort. The lighter one is giving us some difficulty. It's not an agouti, so we're leaning towards blue tort, which is a very rare color for us. That little one is definitely the chonk of the litter, while the black tort is more active, even at this early stage of life. We tried to get some close-ups of the injured paw of the lighter baby. It's still swollen and looks quite painful. The discoloration has not worsened, so we're hopeful the baby will just lose one "toe" rather than the entire paw. We have a call in to the vet to ascertain the right time to bring the baby in for an exam. We don't want Penelope to reject the kit by taking it away and returning it following the appointment, but the idea of taking her with the babies together in the same carrier could end in disaster if she feels too stressed out and injures her babies. We will do our best for this little family.

UPDATE...7/25/25...Penelope's babies have found their way out of the nest box and are beginning to explore. The lighter baby's eyes are open, while the black tort kit's haven't gotten there quite yet. They should be fully open in the next day or two. The lighter baby is definitely the active one. The tort is much calmer and prefers to snuggle up close to Penelope. We're still uncertain of the lighter baby's coloring. It definitely is not an orange, but remains solidly in the agouti family because of its markings. The colors I'm thinking it could be aren't showing up as possibilities in my color genetics software, so I'm baffled. We may just need to plug in some more information to get a fuller picture of this little Bun's color. The problem with his/her paw seems to have resolved itself. The injured toe appears to have fallen off (or possibly groomed off by Penelope) and, although missing a digit or two, the baby is doing great and is very active. Penelope continues to be quite the helicopter parent.

UPDATE...8/8/25...We have names and genders! The little black tort appears to be a buck. Evelyn has named him Driftwood. The mystery baby is called Sand Dollar (Dolly for short) and we believe she is a frosty doe (about 95% sure on both points.) They seem to have inherited their sire Sullivan's very laid-back demeanor and are very much smoosh Buns. Driftwood reminds us of Bear (HCB's Porridge). Both are absolute loves! Driftwood was having an intensive grooming session that would have made any teenager going on a first date very proud. LOL

UPDATE...8/15/25...Sand Dollar and Driftwood are doing wonderfully. They are doing all the things baby Buns should be doing. Drifty is still a buck and Dolly is still a doe. The only thing we're holding our breaths over is whether or not they are going to turn out to be fuzzies. Sometimes the angora gene that was brought into the Holland Lop lines while the breed was being developed, rears its head and Hollands with longer than normal fur result. They have additional grooming requirements, but are often exceptionally friendly and sweet. They could just have slightly long fur, which sometimes happens, but we should know by the end of next week if they are fuzzy Hollands or not.

Quinoa and Loofah's Babies - 4 Kits

Date of Birth: Monday, July 14, 2025

We're so excited to announce this litter, because it's Loofah's first as a sire! We had been planning to retire him, but he and Quinoa showed a marked interest in each other, so we gave them time together and let nature take its course. Tiny Loofah accepted the challenge and succeeded. Quinoa had a very easy time kindling, and had four beautiful kits to show for it. Two are solid and two are broken! Pictures will be shared on Friday.

UPDATE 7/18/25...Quinoa and Loofah's babies are wonderful! They are four days old in their first pictures. The two solid colored babies are chestnuts. As much as I love broken patterned babies, trying to figure out their coloring is always more of a challenge. They could be broken blue, broken opal, or broken blue tort. I'm leaning towards broken blue because I don't see the lighter agouti markings around their eyes that would indicate opal, nor do I see any color variations in the blur patches that could point towards blue tort. What matters is that they are healthy and growing well.

UPDATE...7/25/25...The broken patterned kits surprised us by being broken opal after all. Their agouti markings have showed through strongly with a few more days for their fur to grow, We couldn't be more pleased with all the beautiful, healthy kits. They are all still pretty sleepy, but eyes will begin to open in the next day or two. The rich brown and golden tones are becoming visible on the chestnuts' coats. They are always so beautiful. <3 Quinoa is a much more laid back mama than Penelope. She never minds us taking the babies for a cuddle and welcomes them back with a calm demeanor.

UPDATE...8/8/25...We hope to be able to announce genders and names for these little muffins next week. I tried to peek, but all the bits were still too small to be certain. They are all lovely rabbits and my daughter Evelyn and I have friendly arguments over which one is the most adorable. They all take turns at the top of the list.

UPDATE 8/11/25...We took another peek at genders today, as it's their official 4-week old birthday. It looks as though we have a litter of little ladies to dote upon. We're contemplating names for these beautiful does and hope to announce them on Friday, when their new photos are shred.

UPDATE...8/15/25...These little Buns have all been given beachy vacation-themed names to go along with Penelope's babies, Sand Dollar and Driftwood. The two chestnut does are Scuba (slightly more petite and with ears that stand out a bit) and Cabana (chunkier body and build). The two broken opals are Kayak (does not have a white spot on her nose and her ears are fully lopped) and Frisbee (a white spot on the nose and an ear that sticks out a bit.) Originally we had them both gendered as little does, but, upon re-checking them this week, it looks like Frisbee is actually a little buck, with 98% certainty.