Smoke Signals & Pinto Patches

london show

2011-10-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while since i last updated, so i'll start with our results from the london champ show
Minerva won best of breed smoke pearl, 3rd in the section challenge and 4th U5 fur
D'artagnan went best of breed sable, 3rd in the section challenge and 7th U5 fur
to say i am pleased with these results would be an understatment

West Midland Champs and Wolsingham Show

2011-09-03T10:48:00.001-07:00

Two big shows with lots of stock shows from today and last week, some very pleasing results for our rabbits

West Midland Champs
Heathcliff - 2nd dwarf lop AOC self
Blaze - 1st AOC satin, CC
Odin - 2nd Adult Marten Smoke
Minerva - 2nd U/5 Marten Smoke (out of 12 ! very pleased with her)
Marrion - 2nd U/5 Siamese Smoke

Midland Lop
Heathcliff - 2nd dwarf lop AOC self

National French and Dwarf Lop
Heathcliff - 1st dwarf lop AOC self, CC

National Smoke Pearl
Odin - 1st Adult Marten Buck
Minerva - 2nd U/5 Marten Smoke Doe
Marrion - 2nd U/5 Siamese Smoke
-----------------------------------------
Wolsingham
Heathcliff - 1st AOC self dwarf lop U/5, 3rd lop challenge U/5
Dollar (argente) - 2nd AOV fur Ad
Minerva (smoke) - 2nd AOV fur u/5
D'artagnan - 3rd medium siamese sable U/5

National Sable
D'artagnan - 1st medium siamese sable U/5, 2nd normal fur u/5, CC

Northern Sable
D'artagnan - 3rd medium siamese sable U/5

Shooting Binkies

2011-08-16T13:12:00.001-07:00

I had fun today trying to photograph some bunny binkies, my willing models were lilly, juniper & bryony... sadly as you can see i failed rather miserably with my shots... guess i'll have to try again.

New Arrivals

2011-08-16T13:04:00.001-07:00

Thought i'd introduce you to some new additions....

first up is bryony an absolutely tiny baby rabbit, she's very thin and was so nervous and shaky, however she's starting to come out her shell and is a real sweetie she's a tri-coloured nethie cross
This is blaze my gorgeous young sooty fawn satin doe

And Juniper a beautiful agouti netherland X boy from my good friend ann, he's a cheeky charlie and has quickly won my heart.

RIP Snoopy

2011-08-16T13:02:00.001-07:00

Sadly yesterday we had to say goodbye to our beautiful baby snoopy, our handreared cashmere baby, she fought well and had a good happy year, but sadly in the end she was just not strong enough, sleep tight little girl, your friends are missing you

Sedgefield show

2011-08-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

We were at sedgefield today, only took two rabbits for the show and one to have a go at the jumping, overall had a fun day even if we didnt come away with much
beyla was 2nd marten sable
heathcliff was 2nd self dwarf lop

and gerri did me proud by jumping really well which surprised me as it was her first time out, she won a big bale of timothy hay

Babies

2011-08-16T12:56:00.001-07:00

Some photos of our very beautiful mini babies, a lovely little rew doe (staying with us) and a gorgeous little opal buck (reserved) and their beautiful mum Aspen the opal butterfly

Partner's in Crime

2011-08-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

Spitfire my little polish boy has decided to move in with troy and monty (or they decided to get into his run with him) the three boys seem very happy together... however his mischievious polish ways are rubbing off on the other two
Somehow the trio managed to find their way out and spent the day charging around the garden... monty's vice is strawberry leaves they managed to munch the whole pot full...

But that wasnt enough... somehow crippled old troy managed to get up onto the lower tier of the planter and well, he was chewing on leaves... but was also dropping leaves onto the floor for his two buddies below... now thats team work

Think i'm going to have to keep my eyes on this group...

New Scrapbook Pages

2011-08-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

'Spring has Sprung' a baby bunnies theme page for a season theme

A family tree page, i really like this one, very classy and sparkly, doesnt really pick up in the photo... for a monochrome theme

A page featuring memories of yellowstone... no theme but just needed to fit yellowstone page into my album.

And finally for this update a page dedicated to my beautiful smoke pearls

Cleveland Show

2011-07-25T10:08:00.000-07:00

Just a few photos of me judging the adult sable stock show at cleveland, my first stock show, i really enjoyed it...

New Dwarf Lop Does

2011-07-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well as i've decided to expand on my dwarf lop project i've added three beautiful new young does to the stud, i'm looking forward to watching them grow and hopefully produce youngster for us next year.
Left to right
Tabbitha - a blue otter doe (carrying choc) bred by mandy at stars stud
Cleopatra - an orange doe (carrying self) bred by keving and louise wakefield out of one of their stunning agouti does and an alan buttler butterfly buck
Jemima - a lovely mismarked agouti butterfly doe, sister to cleo above, i just couldnt decide which i liked best... hehe

Nethie Litter

2011-07-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic of aspen feeding her beautiful 2 week old kits, a rew doe and an opal buck, both babies will be looking for loving homes when old enough (individual photos will follow when theyre a little older)

Little John

2011-07-22T14:20:00.000-07:00

Here's an updated pic of my gorgeous little john now getting bigger and beautiful :D

Little Box Show and BBQ

2011-07-10T14:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a fab evening with a few friends round for a bbq and a mini box show, sandra did the judging for us and we all had a good natter...

BIS on the day was dennis' gorgeous seal rex...

Here's the challenge line up (caroline's buddy the dwarf lop, jazzy's scabby the nethie and my marrion the smoke)

Kids having fun...

The judging 'table'

Enjoying the sun (eventually)

Scrapbooking

2011-07-06T08:57:00.000-07:00

As well as my rabbits my other main interest is photography and scrapbooking, i recently started a new album (an 8X8) with random pages based on different memories/photos depending on what takes my fancy when i'm scraping. I also get together once a week with my mum and neighbour and we scrap together with a 'challenge', i thought you might like to see my pages so far...

Heres my cover, i made it myself i think sometimes i enjoy making the albums as much as the pages...

'Heart of a Cowgirl' based on a layout sketch we all had to use.

'Wonderful Experience' a cape cod whale watching page

'Woodland Trail' we had to use our favourite embelishment, something we'd bought and loved but never found a page to use it one, mine was the lovely die cut woodland image, so glad i finally used it.

'Moments' for this one our challenge was to create a page built around the quote, i also included a mini album on this page... just a selection of my favourite 'moments'

And finally a page for last weekends trip, a few of my favourite shots from the day as well as a few publicity shots and a recording of the concert on CD :) pleased with how this one turned out as its quite a change from my usual (neutrals) colourschemes

Marrion & Minerva

2011-07-06T08:47:00.000-07:00

Heres a quick shot of marrion (siamese) and minerva (marten) the two smoke does ive retained from my last litters, looking forward to getting these two out onto the show bench

Escapee recaptured

2011-06-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know the notorius butch cassidy is safely behind bars again tonight after falling victim to my cunning plan - the strawberry baited trap was just too tempting for him to resist

Runaway Butch

2011-06-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sadly butch one of my young winter white hamsters managed to escape from his cage (my fault i hadnt fixed the catch properly) im hoping he's still in the shed somewhere and i'll be able to catch him tonight, however the door was open at the time so he could be anywhere by now :( vibes wanted to help me catch the little man, hes such a gorgeous ham i just want him home where he belongs and his brother sundance is missing him too... i'll keep you guys posted

Hard Rock Calling

2011-06-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

Well what a weekend, me and Ann (Jazzywoo Rabbits) spent the weekend in london to see Bon Jovi perform at the hard rock calling festival, and it was utterly fantastic... here we are (somewhere to the left and slightly in front of the big screen lol)...
and in case you couldnt spot us (as if lol...) here we are enjoying the sun

Sorry for the lack of updates on the website recently i'm re-jigging it again and it should be up and up-to-date again shortly, please bear with me

North Yorkshire Agricultural Show

2011-06-20T00:04:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely day at the show yesterday and a very busy day on the touch and feel table, results as follows

rabbits:
Beyla - 1st and CC in main show 3rd in stock show
Dollar - 1st u5 argente
Flint - 3rd mini lop

hamsters
Wicket - 69pts 3rd lh patterned
Latara - 72.5pts 2nd Lh aoc female

New Food

2011-06-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well after a lot of thought and a lot of time researching i've decided to try and get my rabbits onto a more natural feed (obviously alongside their hay) i'm hoping to increase the natural hays/herbs/grains in the feed and reduce the content of manufactured pellets, heres what their feed looked like a month ago... plain breeder pellets....

And here's the new improved version so far...

The same pellets but with added apple pellets and chopped hays (barley straw, alfalfa and timothy hay), i've been adding each new componet slowly and gradually, i'm not done yet as i have plans to add lots of other interesting goodies for them so watch this space, so far the buns are loving all are really excited to get their mix and the condition on them has dramatically increased.

Bad Boys

2011-06-16T01:58:00.000-07:00

These two gorgeous boys are two of the babies from our last lot of litters, they became very ill with entertis and i thought we were going to loose them, amazingly against all odds these two pulled round and are now happy bouncy and healthy again, still a little underweight but gaining well, another week or so and they'll be ready for their new home, these two will have to stay together as theyve become very closely bonded, and even more friendly do to all their one on one time... just wanted to share the good news :D

New Litter

2011-06-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

This morning Pearl our white doe kindled 4 babies to magic our satin buck. Shes a first time mum so i havent poked about yet just checked that they're moving, so fingers crossed all goes well, and again we could have some satins in there so fingers crossed we get lucky. So we're looking at possibly having smokes, sables, whites and satins

Yarm Show

2011-06-12T01:32:00.000-07:00

We had a good day today with our rabbits, our lops (rocky and flint) didnt do too good and both placed last in very good classes, however our furs did really well
Odin the smoke won a CC and then placed 3rd in the adult challenge
Dollar our argente won his CC, placed 1st U5 fur, 2nd members and came 4th in the U5 grand challenge (our first time having a fur rabbit out for BIS)

Meet Jovi

2011-06-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

Well this gorgeous little dude is my new red satin, not a breed or variety that i was planning on taking on, but when i saw him i just couldnt resist, this variety is not yet standardised and theres a long way to go before they're up to scratch but he is such an amazing little bunny....

New Litter

2011-06-11T01:35:00.000-07:00

Well litter might be a bit much lol, this morning our gorgeous Shoney (dark smoke doe) kindled a single baby to magic (our smoke satin buck) looks to be a single siamese smoke doe, she'll be staying with us if all goes well... and keeping our fingers crossed as she could be a satin

Bonding Time

2011-06-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

As i've been changing my groups around a bit lately i thought i'd show you an 'almost' group shot of my mini girls group...
snoopy the black charlie cashmere (with an uppy ear), gerri the sooty fawn mini, flick the tri lion lop and bella the smoke butterfly mini

these girls are a real pleasure to watch explore and interact with

Look who followed me home

2011-06-07T12:30:00.000-07:00

This gorgeous little girl was just too cute to leave behind, i'm not yet 100% sure on colour but i believe she is a lovely dark grey, and a lovely new addition to my hamster family

New Arrivals

2011-06-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

At the weekend my good friend Amanda called round with a lovely surprise for me, a beautiful new netherland doe, a gorgeous dark marten sable :D i've called her Pocahontas and shes been mated, but as if thats not enough....

Meet Mulan, her marten smoke daughter only 9 weeks old and just a real cutie...

They've been bonded with tigerlilly and have settled in great, so heres a pic of my gorgeous new nethie group.

Tigerlilly - Pocahontas - Mulan

Look who's visiting

2011-06-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

Thought i'd introduce you to this lovely lady, a beautiful year old marten smoke lion lop doe who's having a holiday here with us, shes very kindly on loan from jane at upton lops, and has been mated to our own rocky, so fingers crossed in a few weeks time we'll have some fluffy baby lion lops hopping around.

Hedgie update pics

2011-06-05T02:29:00.000-07:00

This is little bushra a chocolate snowflake from zulu's last litter

Here's buck my gorgeous little boy, he's a special snuggle monster (well as snuggly as a hedgehog can get i suppose)

And my beautiful girl Zulu

RIP Aero

2011-06-05T02:15:00.000-07:00

It's with a heavy heart i have to inform you aero passed away on wednesday morning. We didnt even notice anything was wrong untill tuesday night when he bit me picking him up, which was really out of character, we gave him a check over and found a huge growth in his abdomen, we had a hard night just cuddling and kissing as i knew it was a tumour and there was nothing that could be done, it was obviously starting to cause him pain. We booked him into the vets for his last trip, but he passed away in the early hours with his best friends (troy and monty) on either side. It was heartbreaking but i'm kinda glad that he got to pass at home with his boys instead of afraid and nervous in a strange place, i'm just gutted i hadnt noticed sooner,

He came to us by chance (found dumped up the woods by hektor) but quickly won our heart, he attended many touch and feel tables and was a favourite of many at the summer shows, he was a great jumper although has not been interested this year (now i know why i'm gutted) and he was featured in newspapers showing off his jumping, he was my baby and even if the naughtiest cheekies bun in the shed soo special, i still cant believe hes gone its just so quiet without his thumping.

bye my sweet boy, me and Hektor will always miss you

Pontefract Results

2011-05-30T02:21:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday we were at pontefract show and took a few bunnies with us, there were two shows a 2* and a 1* surprisingly we had quite good results which i wasnt expecting

Tigerlilly - went out for the first time and won a cc in both shows
Rocky - again won a cc in both shows and placed BOB in the main show comming 4th in the lop challenge (and i nearly left him at home - face palm)
Beyla - came 2nd in her class both shows
Dollar - won 2 ccs and placed 3rd in the fur challenge
Odin - came 2nd in both shows

all in all a really enjoyable day

Hoglets

2011-05-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

A couple of pictures of the girls, theyve now moved out of zulu's house they'll only be here for another week or so before going off to their new homes...

Alice is the lovely little grey pinto and Bushra is the stunning chocolate snowflake... hope you enjoy

RIP Esme

2011-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sadly last night we lost our beautiful lion lop girl, esme, she'd been struggling with stasis for a few days and unfortunatly we just couldnt save her, sleep tight little one

Introducing...

2011-05-15T14:53:00.001-07:00

Well as this little lady has been here a week now i thought i'd better give her a formal introduction.
This is tiger-lilly a stunning siamese smoke netherland dwarf doe, a beautiful little thing who has joined us from my good friend Caroline, thank you very much... It's been a few years now since i've had nethies at the stud, and i'd deffinatly forgot how much fun they are...

Darlington Show

2011-05-15T14:50:00.000-07:00

We headed out to darlington show yesterday, didnt take much just two smoke boys,
Odin beat Porthos today and came home with a cc, had a lovely day chatting with friends, nice friendly show :)

Harrogate Show

2011-05-07T09:44:00.000-07:00

Had a lovely day out today at harrogate with a great bunch of people, we took a few rabbits along, didnt do brilliantly as several still too moulty but not too bad either

beyla was the only sable at the show, so managed a best sable by default
flint got a cc and best mini lop
and porthos placed 3rd/5 in the aov fur class

New Gerbil Litter

2011-05-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well another gerbil litter arrived today this time from pebble and simon, it came much sooner than i was expecting so the pair have been split (simon with the boy baby from the last litter and pebble has been left with her three daughters and the new babies)

we have three little ones looks to be two agoutis and one dark eyed pinkie... fingers crossed it that long awaited siamese

Gerbil Litters

2011-04-30T14:44:00.000-07:00

Well sadly eleanor decided she didnt really know what to do with her babies and unfortunatly we lost them at just a few days old, her and theo are now having a bit of a break and chill out before they re-try (actually ive not seen any sign of them showing any interest in each other since, theyre even sleeping seperatly)

However Lilo and Indi are happily looking after 4-ish little ones that arrived this morning, although lilo is a first time mum, indi is more experienced and has helped with the nest... these babies should all be doves (if i have my genetics correct...hmm watch them be something different) which mean i should have lots of nice youngsters ready for the next show

Baby Gerbils

2011-04-25T15:32:00.003-07:00

Well the babies are charging around now, so i thought a mini photo shoot was in order, hope you enjoy the pics...

Both the baby doves will be staying with me, but the argente and agouti girls will be looking for a loving pet home x

Hamsters have returned

2011-04-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

Yes ok so its been about 2 years since i last had hamsters here at moorcroft, and after a lot of thinking, discussing and general too-and-fro-ing on colours i toddled off to a breeder to pick up my first boy... and strangely enough a little girl followed me home too...

This is wicket he's a longhaired yellow domiant spot male... i need yellow in order to be able to breed smoke pearls down the line ... he's simply stunning and has the most beautiful markings... he is however a fidget and a nightmare to photograph...

Kneesaa on the other hand, my gorgeous longhaired dove girl, is a laid back lady and a real poser... i got loads of nice shots of her, but this one has to be my fav for today... fingers crossed we will shortly be showing our hams and may have the pitter patter of little hamster feet shortly

Baby Updates

2011-04-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Just some new pics of all our little ones Gypsy's two cashmere babies, lilac butterfly buck on the left, black butterfly doe on the right, we're retaining the buck for showing, doe will be available to a pet home.

Gypsy's two dwarf lop babies, chocolate doe and black buck, retaining the buck to show doe will be available for pet/breeding

Smokey's three smoke boys, 2 medium martens and 1 dark marten, we are retaining one of the medium martens the other two will be available to pet homes...

Smokey's 3 white pearls, two boys and a girl, all will be available to pet/breeding homes

Saga's three sable boys, two martens show/breeding/pet one will be retained the other will be available and one siamese which will be available to pet home.

Saga's three smoke girls, two martens and one siamese, all will be retained here for show / breeding

Pebble's gerbil babies (sorry for the rubbish photo... will get a better one when they open their eyes) One dove boy, one dove girl, both being retained, one agouti girl and one argente girl will be available for pet/breeding

Eleanor's three agouti babies only a day old.....

Zulu's chocolate pinto hoglet, super friendly little thing and very cheeky, will be available to a loving home.

and Zulu's chocolate snowflake baby, lazy little one, will be available to a loving home.

Snails

2011-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well i thought i'd give you an update on my snailies, then realised i'd never introduced them, about 3 months ago i became the proud owner of 2 giant african land snails and 2 pleirodonte isabella land snails.... first up kang and kodos the giant africans, these were about a cm when the arrived, now measuring in at a whopping 5... ok so not that whopping rofl but they're getting there... SNAIL PORN... yeah ok these guys are too young to breed yet, but they seem to like practicing...

And pinky & brain the two pleirodonte isabella land snails, now measuring around 3 cm, these are slower growing and smaller than the giant africans

Branching out

2011-04-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

No pun intended lol, well i'm animal obsessed obviously, but i also love trees and plants (not neccisarily flowers mind you) and most things nature and natural, i've never had much success in the past with keeping plants, but i've decided to give it a go again, i've selected my three favourite groups (conifer trees, catcti/succulents & orchids) have spent time researching up and now they have arrived... I've purchased three young orchids to join the larger hybrid we already own, i'm very excited to get them established... i've started by mounting one of the specimins onto a piece of sand blasted wood, this will look fab in my room once its ready... Then i've potted up some seeds, we have mixed cacti (including my favourite giant seguaro) as well as several species of lithops (living rocks), and a few different connifer species (which will most likely be trained as bonsai) including rocky mountain juniper, sequoia, ponderosa pine and whistling pine

the larger plant pots contain 'snail salad' lol so nothing exciting in there

We have lino

2011-04-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

The lino is layed in the shed now and wow does it look better than the stained old wood... much cleaner and brighter... and look its blue.... do you sense a theme comming, hopefully this week i'll get the hutches started as well... i'll keep you posted

Ginger's Eggs

2011-04-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well i'm sure you remember about little solo, well after the breeder found out about my really poor hatch rate, she sent me another dozen eggs as a gift... i really couldnt face the heartache of handrearing the chicks again and was preparing to just throw the eggs away when a thought struck me... ginger our bantam had started brooding yesterday, so instead of breaking her i've given her the quail eggs to sit... i dont yet know if she'll stick at it, if they'll hatch or if the babies will survive ... we'll just have to wait and see....

Meet Dollar

2011-04-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

Dollar is a beautiful argente bleu buck who 'followed us home' from the show yesterday, i've been planning on adding a couple of these for us to play about with, mainly for mum as she does so much work for the rabbits and at shows yet doesnt have any of her own... they'll be a joint project tho (as in i'll feed and clean and water them etc... and mum will cuddle them...) Thanks to Denise (and Robbie...) for this gorgeous guy, hopefully he'll grow up to be a great stud buck

Darlington Show

2011-04-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Had a rubbish day to day, i could rant for a while about the people that take you for granted, run you off your feet in the kitchen and then moan when for the first time in the 6 hours you are there making them cups of tea you sit down for 5 minutes and have a cake... really annoyed and loosing faith with rabbit fanciers... however i'm going to choose to let it pass as there are some truely wonderful people about, they know who they are and thank you... we didnt do too well today with our young smoke messing himself and our lion lop being dq'ed over colour querries ... well our old boy remus managed to get a lovely big rosette... lol (well he looked pleased with himself)

New Gerbil Litter

2011-04-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely little litter of 3, look to be agoutis born this morning from eleanor and theodore, these gorgeous babies will be nutmeg carriers and will hopefully help us in developing our line of nutmegs... fingers crossed.

RIP Solo

2011-04-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

sadly my gorgeous brave little chick passed away today at just 2 days old, i'll never forgive myself for not being able to do better by you angel xx

Little Solo

2011-04-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

Well for the past couple of weeks i've had a set of chinese painted quail eggs in the incubator, sadly 6 of the 7 eggs were duds and didnt develop, however on sunday one of the eggs pipped... And out popped (with a little help... eventually) this little chap (or chapess)....

So i am now mum to one beautiful but lonely little quail, nick named little Solo, standing proud at 2 and a half cm tall... the brooder i had ready was waaaaaaaaay too huge for one little chick... so enter a stupidly small hamster cage (this cage is pretty much A4 paper size... no use for anything but it makes a fab mini brooder for mini chicks lol)

To give you a size of scale thats little solo sitting in the normal hamster tunnel sized window on the right, he's so small we have to use the herb grinder on the right to grind the chick crumbs smaller for him.

His set up from above... and the little man himself :D

Cheep...

Spring Cleaning

2011-04-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Well with all this spring in the air i felt it was time to start a clear out in the shed, everything has been taken out and washed down, all the rubbish i've allumulated has been dumped so i only have things i need in the shed... and now i plan on getting the hutches painted and some lino layed, i'll get some new pics when its all done, but for now i thought i'd share a pic of my display wall with my super cute 'bunny fairy lights' that i just couldnt resist and needed a reason to use

Update on the babies

2011-04-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

Because i know that baby photos are the only reason you read this blog :) The little black butterfly doe, believed to be a cashmere at this point, this doe will be looking for a loving pet home when old enough to leave. Shes extreemly friendly and very kissy

The little lilac butterfly buck, also believed to be a cashmere, i'm provisionally running him on before making a final decsion on him, named 'Moorcroft's Romeo'

Chocolate doe, has a very doe-y face but a lovely chunky body, something i'm missing in my does at present, so again i'm running her on to see how she develops, named 'Moorcroft's Tabbitha'

And finally the stonky black buck 'Moorcroft's Heathcliff' who will be run on and hopefully become my new show buck... about time i hear you say...

Baby piccies

2011-04-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

First up is the first pic of our week old hoggie babies, looks like it'll be one choc and one choc pinto... time will tell And a group shot of our gorgeous dwarf lop babies

1 - Lilac Butterfly buck, stunning type really chunky and gorgeous ears, too much white to show tho, so sadly he wont be staying... however he is already 'on hold' to a super home...

2 - Black buck, again lovely type, looks like he might be a little narrow than above buck, but is still looking promising... im keeping my eye on this one for now.

3 - Black butterfly doe, very cute, seems quite nice, decent markings, wont be retaining this one tho, just not the colour i want to pursue.

4 - Chocolate doe... she is much nicer honest, photos really dont do this fidget justice, will try again when shes older at the moment she's my fav of the bunch, depending on how her ears come down, again im keeping my eye on her, a possible keeper?

Good News and Bad News

2011-04-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well first off i'll let you know the good news, we had a lovely litter of 4 gerbils arrive yesterday from pebble (indi is the dad but she has since been repaired with simon but shhhh he doesnt know they're not his), looks to be 1 agouti and 3 dove/argente And on a sadder note we sadly lost 2 of the baby hedgehogs, leaving just 2 in the nest, keeping fngers crossed that they do well

Hedgehog Babies

2011-03-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well Zulu had babies this morning, we have 4 prickly little ones in the nest, she was extreemly gorgeous and a lovely girl... she didnt want to have the babies in her nest tho She woke me up early in the morning (as she usually does for a mealie) and getting her nose rub i noticed she was straining, after a few minutes it was obvious she was in labour and showed no interest in returning to her nest, so i opened up her cage and she just tried to climb up me, i couldnt get her into her house, she just kept returning to my hands, she popped her first baby on my hand, cleaned it and started to feed it. She happily allowed me to pop her in her nest after that with baby who was later joined by 3 other brothers and sisters, fingers crossed all goes well and i'll get to show you pics as these guys grow, it was a really special experience being able to witness the birth of the first little one, and even more special to know that zuu was that trusting of me.

Litters are like Buses

2011-03-27T11:04:00.000-07:00

Yep and now i have the second litter of the DAY this time from smokey and magic, looks like 3 smokes and 3 whites, keeping everything crossed that i'm really lucky and we've got a satin in there.... i can hope lol

New Litter

2011-03-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

Saga and Porthos became the proud parents to 6 little wiggly pinkies this morning, at first glance we appear to have 3 smoke, 2 sable and 1 thats either dark smoke or light sable (cant make my mind up lol), cant wait to see how these grow and develop

Gypsies babies

2011-03-27T09:07:00.000-07:00

Some pic of the dwarf lop babies now they have their eyes open, we have one chocolate (believed to be a doe) one black (buck?) one black butterfly (doe?) and one lilac butterfly (buck?) at the moment i'm keeping my eye on the chocolate... and possibly the black (although i really dont need another buck), both butterflies will be looking for new homes once their old enough and i've established which, if any are cashmeres.

Gypsy with her babies

And this is cookie's stomach (the doe living with gypsy) she's plucked like crazy to make gypsys nest... gyspsy still has a full stomach of fur...

And the nest clearly showing all that BLACK furr...

Spring Snapshots

2011-03-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Just a couple of shots taken in the spring sunshine today in the garden Hektor posing... he doesnt like it when i take too many bunny shots...

Ginger enjoying foraging for bugs

Troy my old man who's fur is growing back grey after his spring moult, he's looking a bit worse for wear and his sight is going, but he's still enjoying life to the full.

Troy's hutch companions monty the sable and aero the english, saying hello to ash the polish who is now out of quarenteen after his nasty dust allergy reaction, hopefully ash will bond in with this group as he is unable to go back to living in the shed and will need to remain outdoors... if not i'm going to have to fit another outdoor hutch in...

Jumping Tryouts

2011-03-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well after the winter season where i did very little jumping training, i thought its about time i dusted off the jumps and took a look to see who's going to make my training team this year... i set up a few low jumps in the garden and tested around 12 of my buns without harness to see which ones had a natural flare and enjoyment for jumping (three of these were on last years 'squad' but the rest were first timers) after the fun of seeing the buns go back and forth i've narrowed my selection down to 6 rabbits that will be getting trained up for jumping, i'm not saying all 6 will make it to competitions, but hopefully some will get good enough to compete.

Up above is gerri, it was her first time over the jumps and she could do quick high and acurate, her dad rocky is also on my team and her brother sam is also a jumping rabbit in his new home (deffinatly something in these genes), i have high hopes for gerris place on my squad i just want to work a bit on her confidence as she is quite a nervous rabbit

First up is aspen my nethie X doe, she was fast and nippy and jumped better than expected.

Rocky the mini lop, who was trained up last year, and happily jumped up to 4 bars, so hopefully he'll soon be back up to that level and we can build on that.

Darcy who although a little slow and plodding really enjoyed the jumping and following me around, i have my doubts as to how fast or high this slow paced guy will manage, but just for sheer enthusiam i've decided to try training him up a bit more.

Marley the english who is also an exsisting jumper, although he's been poorly so its been a while since he was out, marley is slow but careful, he can jump high without knocking bars off, we just need to build up his speed and slowly get him back onto the higher jumps after his op. Aero was our main jumper last year, he can combine speed and height making him a great rabbit, however he is stubbon and often does his own thing in competitions, we're gonna focus on getting his obedience up this year.

RIP Alvin

2011-03-24T01:50:00.000-07:00

Sadly yesterday morning we found our beautiful alvin dead in his cage, this was a real blow both to me (as he was my secret favourite gerbil) and my breeding program, being my only dove... all i can think of is he must have worn himself out chasing his new girlfriend. Lilo will be kept alone for a little while in the hope he may have managed to 'do the deed' so to speak before passing on, if nothing comes of the pairing she'll be put to indi (alvin's dad) to try and produce some more doves, its really hard going into the shed today without his little face popping up to say hello. Sleep tight my baby boy you will always be missed.

Gerbil Pairing

2011-03-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Today i decided that the new gerbil girls were old enough to be paired up, so the difficult day came to split the chipmunks... i cant say that the boys seems particulary sorry to see their brothers replaced by very nice young ladies. I've paired up to hopefully produce some new lines so fingers crossed things will go well... i took the opportunity while they were 'getting aquainted' in their show cages to snap this pic... they are now settled back into their houses getting on really well...

At the top we have simon (argente cream) paired with pebble (colour point agouti) - although pebble is simon's mum i've put them together in the hopes of doubling up on pebbles colour point gene and getting some siamese/burmese out... although i'm expecting a ton of other colour possibilities as well... such as agouti, cp agouti, black, argente, white and others.

In the middle i have paired alvin (dove) with lilo (pink eyed white) this pair are my corner stone to my current breeding plan and should produce a mix of doves and whites. Which as im hoping to concentrate on doves a lot more this will be an important addition.

The bottom pair shows theodore (agouti) and eleanor (nutmeg) - ellie is the first nutmeg i've actually seen in the fur, so want to have a go at working on a small breeding program for them, this pair should produce mainly agouti (unless i'm lucky and they're carrying other recessives) these two are already raring to go and were mating before even getting back into the cage, so fingers crossed babies will arrive soon.

This Weekends Shows

2011-03-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

On saturday we attended Darlington show, i took a few rabbits along

Porthos came 1st in the adult smoke pearl class followed by Remus in 2nd
Odin came 1st in the young smoke pearl class and took the cc, he also placed 3rd in the u5 fur challenge
Beyla was the only one in the young marten sable class however she beat the adult and won the cc, she also placed in the fur challenge, comming 2nd and 2nd in the the fur/rex challenge
Rocky won his class and gained a cc while flint came 3rd in his class...

I also had the pleasure of judging the fur/rex in the 1* new judges show, i placed a gorgeous marten seal best rex and a lovely new zealand white best fur... while in the joint judging we placed a lovely little red eyed white dwarf BIS.

On sunday i was offered a lift from a good friend to attend the carlisle show, hosting the norther lop and national mini lop shows, although i didnt take any rabbits i had a thoroughly great day and just had to mention this super show.

New Litter

2011-03-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

Pleased to announce that gypsy our dwarf lop produced 4 beautiful babies this morning, into a lovely nest (built with help from her hutch companion cookie) father to this litter is darcy our stunning choc butterfly boy so a range of colours are expected... at the moment looks like we have one blue based butterfly, one choc based, one black based butterfly and one black based solid... i'm hoping to keep a doe back from this litter but the others will be available to new homes when they are old enough, if you'd be interested feel free to get in touch to be placed on my waiting list, pictures will follow when they are a little older

Updates

2011-03-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well first up we have a lot of expectant mothers here so i'll break down the spring litter plans for you...

Gypsy (frosty dwarf lop) X Darcy (chocolate butterfly dwarf lop) gypsy has started to look very close, both her and her hutch partner cookie have been nesting all day and the babies can be felt squirming inside so fingers crossed all goes well, we're expectin agouti, orange, black, sooty fawn, opal, fawn, blue & beige in self and butterfly, i'm hoping to keep back a nice doe from this litter

Gerri (sooty fawn mini lop) X Flint (marten sable mini lop) gerri is feeling very round and im pretty sure she's pregnant however is not yet behaving that way, its her first litter so a good chance things might not go to plan. We are expecting black otter, black, sooty fawn, sooty otter, marten sable, siamese sable, seal point, marten seal point and possibly himilayan, blue otter, blue, beige, beige otter, marten smoke pearl, siamese smoke pearl, blue point and marten blue point... so the possibility of lots of colours from this pair... fingers crossed they'll be something nice in the shaded/pointed varieties that i can keep back.

Smokey (smoke pearl) X Magic (smoke pearl satin) smokey is again feeling very fat and started nesting today, keeping everything crossed for this litter, should be smokes, expected to be all marten (darks and mediums) as well as whites, all will be satin carriers, however if i get really lucky we might get satins out of this pairing.

Saga (marten sable) X Porthos (marten smoke) again saga is very large so pretty sure she's expecting, we should get marten sable, smokes and whites from this pairing and possibly siamese. Hoping for some nice smoke doe from this pair.

Wispa (marten smoke polish) X Spitfire (dark siamese smoke polish) not confirmed yet for wispa, but she is started to look large, this pair should produce smoke pearls and dark smokes in marten and siamese, would love a nice little show rabbit to keep back.

Shoney (dark siamese smoke) X Remus (marten smoke) no signs that shoney has taken this time so need to wait and see, we should be looking at dark and medium smokes in marten, with a chance of siamese.

Zulu (algerian chocolate snowflake pinto) our african pygmy hedgehog has been mated to Edward (a chocolate boy owned by a friend), zulu has been busy shreading paper and building a nest, so everything being well we're looking forward to our next litter of hedgehogs

Pebble (agouti colourpoint gerbil) X Indi (lilac gerbil) mating has been witnessed from this pair, expecting black, dove, agouti, argente cream/gold.

Lilliput X Gulliver the african pygmy dormice have also been seen getting frisky, so keeping everything crossed that we have some mini squiggles arrive shortly.

As well as the potential arrival of lots of spring babies we've had a few other updates to share... firstly we've attached our old block of 2X2 hutches to the side of a block of 4fts, creating lovely large 6X2 hutches with a nice dark nesting area on the end. The top hutch is now home to my small girls trio (gerri, flick and aspen) and the bottom is home to my dwarf lop pair (cookie and gypsy)

The polish girls have gained a nest box so that if wispa does litter she has somewhere nice and secure to do so (nest box is about 1ftX10inches ish... shows how small these girls are) picture taken with the lid lifted lol

And ginger the chicken has also gained her own new little hen house... she seems to really like this and it keeps all her stuff and mess out of the shed and gives her somewhere nice to lay her eggs...

So thats about it for now, hopefully i'll have some good litter news to share shortly

Spring is in the Air

2011-03-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

ooh yes.... spring is here... and how do i know

i have lots of does mated up, now looking a little rounded and starting to nest, so fingers crossed we'll have some beautiful babies running around soon

the chicken is fluffy and happy and out and about again. Today she laid her first egg of the season... spring is deffinatly here

and i've seen mating going on in both our gerbil tank and the dormouse house... so perhaps a baby boom is on the way

ARRRRGH dog food!!

2011-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Oh my word, we've been looking at changing hektors food and wow i never actually realised how much crap is put into dog food, it really has amazed me that every single brand on offer at our local feed supplier is made up mainly of ingridents that is indigestible to dogs.... WHAT? i hear you cry yes i was equally as amazed, and more importantly so ashamed that i'd never looking into his feed before now...

we've never exactly fed him on cheap feed, having him on a 'kibble' diet (although the pre prepared tins also have the same junk in them) but on a medium-top price that we thought was a highly reccomend and well known brand... wrong its full of rubbish...

we have now made the decision to switch to a grain free diet, as grain are pretty much indigestible to dogs and stuck in as a filler leading to bad weight maintenance, joint problems and poor digestion (POOP issues), there are three great grain free diets available in the uk and after discussion with other owners and our vet hektor will shortly be eating the taste of the wild brand

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/dogs/dry_dog_food/taste_of_the_wild

and hopefully this will be much better for him, i hope by posting this and showing how amazed i am at finding how unsuitable dog feeds actually are for dogs at least one other dog owner will also look into what they are giving to their precious pets.

Wallsend Show

2011-03-06T00:31:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday we attended wallsend show, only took two rabbits and didnt really expect too much, we had

Beyla our young sable doe, who won her class and the CC but was too young to go any further

Spitfire our smoke pole, who again won his class and the CC but is just not of the same standard to compete against the whites

we had a great day and really enjoyed ourselves, will be attending yarm next week with a couple of rabbits, not sure who yet, will decide nearer the time

New Arrivals

2011-03-04T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well over the last few months i've been bringing in several new animal ready for the new season... so thought i'd introduce you to a few of the new faces here at moorcroft

Lilo (pink eyed white) and Eleanor (nutmeg) two new female gerbils because i realised i had a very male heavy breeding program (4:1)

And Lilliput an african pygmy dormouse, a new friend for gulliver, maybe at some point we'll get little baby dormice running around.

Maya a beautiful beige chinchilla girl

Esme a gorgeous smoke lion lop doe from jane @ upton lops, and what a gorgeous girl... gorgeous type, amazing personality and i think she will win me over on the fuzzies ;)

And Bella a beautiful little smoke butterfly mini lop doe, so as you can tell im back into the mini lops haha... theyre an addiction, cant ever give them up for long.

Bradford Champs

2011-01-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

Well it was a busy weekend, no rabbit results to report but alvin my little dove boy won the novice gerbil class and came best self adult, so really pleased with the results from our first gerbil outing.

Happy New Year

2011-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Well after a break due to a lack of computer over the christmas period i'm back and sorted so yeay. This year i'm going to be re-designing my setup slightly to maximise on the space available for the rabbits (less hutches = more space). I'm going to be concentrating on developing my smoke pearl lines in each breed, so watch this space as litters will begin arriving in the spring.

The amazing adventures of BUCK the wonder hog...

2010-12-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well last night little buck managed to escape from his cage :O (it is now secured so we wont get a repeat performance) he was swiftly caught but to his great pleasure he got to have a bit of a christmas adventure around the house... i hope you enjoy these pictures

I sees a Christmas Tree

Dear Santa... for christmas i would like some mealies

Oooh is that hektor

I can be a Christmas decoration Peek-a-Boo

And ready for bed

House for a Mouse

2010-12-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

So gulliver the dormouse has now completed his fortnight quarenteen and im happy hes fit and well, so its time to turn his rather simple abode into dormouse heaven... Gulliver is an african pygmy dormouse, these tiny creatures are about the size of your little finger, they are fast and agile and love to climb, they are friendly critters who rarely bite, but dont tend to sit still long enough for cuddles. Gulli currently lives alone but i hope to find him a mate in the new year (once i'm 100% sure on his sex).

Step one, take one tall glass tank, in this case i've got an exo terra for her, this is an idea tank as it allows front access and top access, making it easy to clean and gives a great view of the mice.

Then i took some natural cork bark backing boards (used for reptile and amphibian keeping) and covered the back wall, its a nice snug fit so shouldnt come loose, but not fixed in place so it can be removed and cleaned down when neccisary.

Now for the fun part, i've included some items of interest, the cage features around one large twisted piece of gauze bark (which i collected from the local woods about a year ago and have been waiting to use, to treat before use this piece has been washed in boiling water, frozen and then baked in a low oven for 6 hours...) this provides a fun climbing frame. I've also added some smaller pieces of vine branches. There is a small willow wigwam with bedding (natural jute nesting material... fabulous for all small aniamals) and the substraight in the tank is carefresh paper based bedding (great for absorbing odours and less messy than shavings). I had to use a bit of brain power to figure out how to attach the water bottle into the pen and in the end found a 'teddy bear stand' on one of my shelves that does the job perfectly. I've sprinkled a bit of food around (budgie seed, hamster mix and dried meal worms) and added a millet corn and now its all set.

Finally take one happy little dormouse...

and watch it scarper straight to its bed, lol, i'm sure he'll enjoy it more once the lights are out

Boring Blog

2010-12-03T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well yep its official, i am really bored of writing this blog so im sure you guys are bored of reading it, so from now on i promise to put in some more interesting and informative posts as well as my usual litter updates and show results, i promise to try and keep this place more interesting... on a plus side while ive been snow bound i've given the site a bit of an overhaul, hektor now has a photo diary (link on the main page), the pets all have upto date galleries and info pages so go check out all those new photos, i've also added a photo page for all our previous litters so lots of cute baby pics to look at, and on each pets page i've added in their pedigree, offsping and who they live with so more info for you... i'm in the process of re-doing the articles page into handy species based care guides, a few of these pages are already up and the others are comming very soon (they are rather time consuming so please bear with me)

Snow still...

2010-11-28T12:17:00.000-08:00

The snow hasnt stopped and it the deepest ive ever seen, pretty much 10 inches in the back garden

SNOW!!!!!!

2010-11-25T12:17:00.000-08:00

We've had a sudden flurry of snow overnight and the weather forcast says there's more to come... the bunnies are all fine and snuggled up keeping warm, it just means i get very soggy trousers doing the cleaning out... it also means it looks doubtful that we'll make the lincs champs show on saturday.

Darlington Show

2010-11-20T12:16:00.000-08:00

We had a lovely day at darlington today, fantastic show, our bunnies did their best and made us proud, we took

Remus - 3rd in smoke pearl class

Porthos - 2nd in smoke pearl class (although judge loved his coat, his patches let him down)

Magic - best aov satin - cc

Flint - best tan pattern mini lop

Jackson - 3rd aov mini lop

Spitfire - 2nd smoke polish

Fable - 3rd black rex

Bukhali

2010-11-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

Zulu's baby is now getting handled and what a lovely little BOY he is, he has the most adorable white patch on his face leading to a multi coloured nose. I can't wait to watch him grow. He has now been named Bukhali (buck - ar - lee) which means spikey (the name of his dad) in zulu (the name of his mum... he is still staying with me and will be known as buck for short.

Yarm Show

2010-11-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

We had a great day at yarm show today, with some fantastic company. Fable came 3rd in the adult black rex class, while spitfire went best AOC pole and won a CC. Just to make the day even more special Sandra Grainger very kindly gave me a lovely new mini lop to bring home, flint, a beauitful marten sable.

Hedgehog Update

2010-11-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

Well sadly Zulu decided she was only going to raise one baby for her first litter, now doing well we have one fat little pinto girly named Thandi... who yes will be staying here.

Little Prickles

2010-11-07T12:12:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to let you guys know that zulu safely delivered 3 teeny prickly bundled this morning. I'm very excited to see how they develop, this is our first litter of African Pygmy Hedgehogs so we're keeping everything crossed that all goes well. At present it looks unlikely that any babies will be available for sale, but i do know of other breeders with youngsters available, so if you're looking for a hedgie, as always, do feel free to get in touch.

New Babies

2010-11-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

Of the many legged kind, yep one of Fluffy the Taiwan Mantid's egg cases hatched today, i will seperate and count up the babies tomorrow, but looks to be about 2 dozen at first glance... and yes i will have some available hehe

New Chinchilla

2010-11-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well no one came home to claim the little lost chin, so we have decided to keep her, and naturally she needed a friend, so i contacted a local breeder and yesterday we went out and picked up 'Aztec' to live with 'Inca'.

Aztec is a beautiful ultra violet female, a really gorgeous girl.

New Breed

2010-10-27T12:09:00.000-07:00

A new breed arrived at Moorcroft today, we've collect our first trio of beautiful polish rabbits, spitfire a smoke pearl buck, wispa a smoke pearl doe and buttons a chocolate fox doe, which when combined with ash who we already own, we now have two breeding pairs of this gorgeous little breed.

Chinnie Chin

2010-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Look what we found today, a gorgeous little chinchilla, shes very sweet and friendly, we're currently trying to track down her owner, but oh my word, how much am i in love with chinchillas hehe.

New Litter

2010-10-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Saga has just had a beautiful litter of two gorgeous babies to Porthos, fingers crossed theres a little smoke doe in there for me...

North East Champs

2010-10-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Been a busy day today, sadly i wasnt very well so didnt really get a chance to enjoy the show, my three boys did very well Remus came 1st and won the CC, followed by Aramis and Porthos in 3rd.

Wallsend Show

2010-10-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

Took my two smoke boys out today, Porthos came 1st and won the CC out of 4, very pleased, he then went on to place 3rd best fur, the highest i've placed with my smoke pearls so far, i'm really pleased to see that my efforts are paying off and my smokes are showing big improvements from generation to generation.

More Litters

2010-09-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Two new litters born today, first is a lovely litter from smokey (smoke pearl doe) to apollo (white pearl) shes been a great mum but protective so i havent had a peek yet, but expecting whites and fingers crossed smokes.

Cookie also produced three beautiful black and white babies to darcy, there is one nicely marked butterfly in there and two very cute ones, so i cant wait to see how their type develops.

Hedgehog News

2010-09-26T12:03:00.000-07:00

Zulu my beautiful little APH girl has left home today and gone for a 'dirty holiday' visit spike the hedgehog, if all goes well we may experience the pitta patter of little hedgehog feet in the not too distant future.

Stokesley Show

2010-09-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

An incredibly busy show today and a tiring day on the touch and feel table, the rabbits did well too, with both my u/5 sables placing well in their class and aramis my siamese smoke buck winning his class and taking the AOV cc out of 5, a really nice achievement to see my smokes start placing over other breeds, i didnt think we'd ever get there, he did me proud by also placing well in the challenge, sadly he only managed 4th so stayed out of the cards, but i was proud of him.

Sleep Tight Casper

2010-09-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sadly today my beautiful little boy casper passed away, he had been ill for some time and we knew it was comming but it was still a very sad event. He was the last youngster off jasper and will be terribly missed, night night my little cuddle bun XX

Stanhope Show

2010-09-11T12:01:00.000-07:00

We attended stanhope show, didnt expect to do very well, but came away with a 2nd place sable ticket, 2nd AOV and best of breed satin with magic, a really enjoyable day stewarding on the fancy table under derek medlock.

Wolsingham Show

2010-09-04T12:01:00.000-07:00

A nice day out at wolsingham, a great day with good friends and a nice birthday cake ;), all in all we didnt do too badly, earning a sable cc with saga and placing 2nd U16 sable with kelda. Porthos came 3rd in the biggest aov class ive ever seen (16!! u5s) so i was really pleased with him.

More Gerbil Babies

2010-09-01T12:00:00.000-07:00

A new litter of gerbils born today 2 slates, an argente cream and a dove, very excited to see how these little ones develop.

West Mids Champs

2010-08-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

A busy day today as we headed off to the first smoke pearl stock show in years, we didnt do too badly winning 2nd adult marten, 2nd u5 marten buck and 2nd u5 siamese buck, so quite a nice day, cant wait to see how we do with next years youngsters.

The warren project

2010-08-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Today ive released a new website, it has instructions and recipies on it to help you make some wonderful home made toys and treats for your bunnies, for more details visit the warren project.

http://www.moorcroftrabbits.com/warren

Drowned Chicken

2010-08-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today we had a sudden thunderstorm and poor ginger was caught out in the open trying to shelter under a bench in the garden, poor little mite was sodden through and we brought her in to be dried off... but there really is nothing quite as funny as a very wet chicken. Here she is after being dryed off a bit.