"I just wuv 'em, wuv 'em!"

Hi! I would like to welcome you to Durham's Snuggle Bunnies Rabbitry! My name is Tanya Durham and I am a Netherland Dwarf breeder running a small rabbitry in Western Montana. I exclusively show and breed Netherland Dwarfs. My goal is to breed show quality animals with pet temperaments. I have outdoor hutches for spring, summer, and fall. I also have two outdoor play yards for my bunnies to run and exercise in. Each bunny gets out every other day for several hours of fun and exercise. During winter months, my rabbits move indoors into my basement. It too, has two play rooms, complete with tunnels, bridges, hay bags, & plenty of toys to play with. My winter rabbitry has controlled lighting and temperature, so I am able to continue my breeding program year round.

My rabbitry is located in Ronan, Montana, about halfway between Missoula and Kalispell. I live in the beautiful Mission Valley at the base of the Mission Mountains with my wonderful husband (and website designer), Jody, my two beautiful daughters, Naomi & Candace', and my handsome son, Jesse.

I began raising rabbits in 1997 with mutt bunnies. I immediately fell in love with having baby bunnies around. My daughters had just joined 4-H and wanted to show the babies in the fair. We studied and found out all we could about raising baby bunnies. The following year I became the rabbit project leader for our 4-H club. Over the next three years we tried raising different breeds of bunnies. We started with mini-lops and moved on to fuzzy lops. Then we tried American chinchillas. We loved all the different breeds and enjoyed every minute of raising the babies. We continued to show rabbits in our local fair and continued to increase our knowledge of rabbits and how to best care for them and each breed's special needs. We also continued to perfect our showing abilities.

By the third year of showing my two daughters were always the Grand & Reserve showman every year in the fair. We decided to start raising babies for the 4-H kids. We also started teaching workshops showing other 4-H kids how to train their rabbits for showmanship and how to properly care for their rabbits. But we still weren't decided as to which breed we liked the best. We found that the intense amount of grooming that fuzzy lop babies required was too much for young 4-H members. The chinchillas were easy grooming but got too big for the younger members to handle easily. By the beginning of our 2003 - 2004 4-H year, we decided to look into a more appropriate breed of rabbits for younger 4-H members just starting out in the rabbit project. We wanted something that wasn't high maintenance in grooming, was small enough to handle, and had a sweet temperament, so that it would be easy to train for showmanship. We did a lot of research and decided that we'd like to try out Netherland Dwarfs. We got our first two dwarf, "Jazz", a sable point doe, and "Otter," a black otter buck in March of 2003. We lost "Otter" due too the stress of the move shortly after we got him. But we finally acquired a wonderful black buck, "Jake", and a beautiful blue otter doe, "Jewel," in April of 2003. Durham's Snuggle Bunnies officially began in March 2004 when our first litter of Netherland Dwarfs were born and we absolutely fell in love. Our search had ended, and we decided that this was the breed we wanted to dedicate all our efforts on.

The first year as a Netherland Dwarf breeder was a hard one for us. I hadn't realized that as beautiful as this breed is, it was also one of the most difficult breeds to raise due to the small size of the rabbits. Stuck kits became an obstacle we had to learn to endure, and the number of babies born was considerably less than that of Chinchillas. But still our love for the breed encouraged us to press on. I also was continually encouraged by other dwarf breeders to not give up. I was also encouraged to begin entering ARBA shows, so that fall we entered our first show, and the first of our babies, "Lil' Will," earned his first leg for Best of Variety. We were so excited, and obviously hooked on showing now. We continued to breed & show our beautiful "Gems of Fancy." The following spring "Lil' Will" won Best of Breed in two shows in Great Falls and became a Grand Champion. His full sister, from a second litter, followed in his footsteps winning not only Best of Breed, but winning Reserve in show. She too Grand Championed and our addiction to this wonderful breed was complete.

In 2003, I started a new 4-H Club in Polson, Montana, the Flathead Nessie club. I have been the rabbit project leader in Lake County and the rabbit barn superintendent at the Lake County Fair since 2000. I truly enjoy teaching the kids and sharing my love of these bunnies. My daughters continue to mentor and educate younger 4-H members about rabbits and rabbit showing. Candace', my younger daughter, has been writing for ARBA judges at rabbit shows since the spring of 2005. She hopes to continue on to become a registrar for the ARBA eventually.

I hope you will enjoy my site and will come back often. And please find me at local shows and tell me who you are. I'd love to see your rabbits and show you mine -- no purchase required!

P.S. When I could pry him away from his fly-tying desk or favorite fishin' hole,
this website was designed by my resident genius,
high-tech redneck and husband of TWENTY years, Jody Wayne.

Durham's Snuggle Bunnies Rabbitry

Tanya Durham
Ronan, Montana

(406) 675-2361
E-mail: foreverbabybunnies@hotmail.com