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Moonstruck Meadow, the home of Jody’s Rabbitry is located in the beautiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Our one acre hobby farm is nestled in the West Coast rainforest. The weather is very moderate with sun, rain… lots of rain and a few weeks of snow in the winter. We made Moonstruck Meadow our home nine years ago. I moved all my numerous critters to the farm and have been enjoying the space of the acreage and three barns since. I live here with my partner and grandson son but I am the only rabbit fanatic. This works out very well since I have not been good at sharing the barns. *laugh*. I however, solicit help with the feeding and lifting on the show weekends. My herd consists of approx. 25 Mini Lops and 12 Silver Martens. I have downsized to two barns and a few out-side fryer hutches. The third barn is becoming a wood working shop where I will be able to tinker with my other interests. I included a page on items available for sale out of the wood shop. Approx. 20 years ago I began breeding Mini Lops. I purchased stock from Derek Carnahan from California, Jan Coffelt from Washington State, Kim Nelson from Washington State. I have added many lines over the years. I also purchased an unusual marked (F1X: Harlequin X Mini Lop) rabbit from a breeder out of California; this is where my tri-colored Mini's began. I am now on the 15th generation of tri's. I keep my tri's and the tri gene completely separate from my other lines. More recently, I have introduced Vail, Velotta, Rah and Posey bloodlines to my main Mini Lop herd. Most of my own lines were originally named after my married name Wonnenberg. In 1999 I began naming my stock Mitchell and Moonstruck.
The range of colors I normally produce in my Mini Lop lines are, Chestnut Agouti, Black, Opal, Blue, Chinchilla, Seal, Squirrel, Ruby-eyed white, Tortoise, Golden Steel, Silver Steel, Tri-colored (black/gold/white), and on rarer occasion I also produce, Blue Tortoise, and Harlequin (non-showable variety).
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History: I began my passion for rabbits when I was very young with five pet rabbits, consecutively owned, all with the name Harvey. *laugh* At the age of ten I purchased my first trio of New Zealand White rabbits which I raised for meat. I grew up as a farm girl so this wasn’t too foreign for me. I also raised many different small animals (mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, budgies, canaries, doves, quail, pigeons, fancy bantams and the occasionally litter of kittens and German Shepherd puppies) out of the garage and barns for sale to pet stores and private buyers. My world changed when I met Lorne French, a kindred spirit, retired rabbit/chicken judge. He introduced me to show rabbits and chickens. He bought me my first blue Dutch rabbit and Silver Duckwing Old English Game Bantam. I had the bug! Over the years I have raised and shown Standard Rex, French Lops, New Zealand Whites, Californians, Satins, Dutch, Netherland Dwarfs, Polish, Himalayans, French and English Angoras, Holland Lops, Tans, Belgian Hares, Flemish Giants, Mini Lops, American Cavies, Abyssinians, and American Satin Cavies.
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| Genetic Quality Guarantee of Jody’s Rabbits: During my education and years of raising animals I became very intrigued with genetics and the testing and selecting of genes to enhance health, productivity, confirmation, coat quality and purity of coat colors. I have incorporated the genetic testing techniques to identify and selectively breed out or in different undesirable and desirable traits, respectively. My Mini Lop herd is the culmination of my many years of work with genetics. Recently (two years ago) I have introduced Californians into my barns again and I am developing a tested herd, free of specific genetic defects with them also. The genes I have been tracking and/or testing for are malocclusion, entropin (turned-in eyelid), split penis, and white toe-nails. Traits I have also been tracking but haven’t identified in years are splay leg, monorchidism (one testicle), chyptorchidism (no testicles),patent ductus (no- tear duct). My Mini Lop herd is 99.9% free of all these genetic defects with exception to the occasional white toenail appearing in the dilutes only. In addition to genetic defects I, as all breeders of quality show and breeding animals select and cull strictly according to the ARBA Standard of Perfection. |
Jody
Mitchell Website created by Cristina Posey Please bring any questions or concerns to her attention. |