Rabbits

There has been so much stuff going on that I decided to break my sabbatical. Is that called taking a sabbatical from my sabbatical? LOL. Anyway, I have good days and I have bad, and today is a good day. 

I have a lot to share, so this post will be on rabbits. 

Below is my Rex buck, Rexy. He's a fat, friendly boy.

Juniper is a Rex doe-she is not very tame or friendly, and may not be around much longer. I'll get to that story later.

Carmella, another Rex doe, who might not be staying either. 

Tulip, Brittany's Rex doe. She's raised a nice litter before and is on her second-she is a keeper.

Spruce, the littermate of Tulip. She's a very good doe too, and is staying. She is also very tame-my favorite rabbit. 

 Ralph, my New Zealand buck. He's wild and crazy. 

 

Tulip's litter of five, almost two weeks old. New Zealand/Rex.

 Juniper's litter-New Zealand and Rex cross. After three previous failed breedings, she was due last Friday, the 21st, but was showing obvious disdain for her box by using it for a toilet, chewing it up, and throwing it around the cage. On Saturday morning she began pulling hair and attempting to pile it in the corner of her cage. Carmella was doing much the same, and so, as I was helping with last minute wedding preparations and getting ready myself, I was running back and forth to the barn, collecting all the hair and piling it in a box for later use. 

Juniper ended up having her babies after we got home from the wedding, at about 2200. She had them on the floor of her cage, and as fast as they were born, Mom was picking them up and putting them in her (new) box. She had seven kits total, and I piled some hay and hair in the box, and called it a night. 

As I mentioned above, Carmella had no use for her nesting box, and was piling hay and hair into a corner. Sunday morning, I came out to see six dead babies, piled like cordwood in her box. They had been scattered all over the cage, and Mom had put them in a pile. 

I scooped them up, brought them into the sauna, and put them in ziplock bag suspended in a bucket of warm water. After about five minutes, I saw one start to breath! And then another, and another, until I had four breathing, squeaking, and wiggling. I left them there while I went to finish chores. When I got back, only one was still alive. I fed the dead ones to Kate, and gave the live one to Spruce to raise with her litter. 

Below-Carmella made very sure to pull plenty of hair for her babies! 

Spruce had a litter of six pure Rex babies on the 21st. They are all doing good.

 This is Carmella's surviving kit who is also pure Rex. He's not doing the greatest in terms of weight gain, I think simply because the others are a little older than him, and probably push him out of the way at the milk bar.

So he's getting special feedings three times a day. I hope he makes it, poor thing!