"Can you warm me up?"

Bandit hops in the snow for the first time, and leans out of the wire to say hi to the cat.

A girl and a boy

Vanna's litter is 2 months old and now we can tell whether the babies are boys or girls. This one above is a girl. Bandit is a boy.

The cat-mother is back

Cow, second mother to the bunnies, has returned after leaving the house for a few days. Bandit was very interested to explore her comfy resting mat.

Bottle Cap Hat

Goodbye nest box

The babies get comfy in their nest box for the last time. The box will be removed tomorrow and they will have to lay around the way the adult bunnies do-on the floor.

Video bonus: Bunny Letter Opener

Perhaps you have seen the clip of the Envelope-Opening Rabbit on YouTube. Well, yesterday I was sitting with the babies and I noticed how ready they are to chew anything you give them. So here is a movie in which I am preparing them for the skill of letter opening. Right now it seems that they just gum the thing. Not a mark!

Bonus video: Bandit steals from sibling

The babies have their first taste of kale, which turns into a "Lady and the Tramp" eating moment, and then Bandit promptly steals the whole thing.

Panda Bottom

Bandit also has the nickname Panda Bottom, because of those black feet and tail.

Genes in action

Bandit as an infant

He later grew to look like this.

Vanna's litter contains two standard hotots, with the white body and the black eyeband, just like the parents. However the third kit (Bandit) is completely mismarked for a hotot. One may wonder, "Where do all those spots come from if the parents are all white?"It is because hotots are a unique expression of the English spot pattern and Dutch pattern. When the gene combination is just right, the baby has a bleached body and color is left in the eyebands only.
For this third little kit, you can see he has a Dutch head and English spots on the body. Nonetheless, he is just as welcome to the family.

Standard dwarf hotot

Dutch

English Spot