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:yuckyuck

Yep, scent glands. They only show if they're swollen, they have something caught in them, you push the skin next to them just right, or that sort of thing. If the health change really did happen at the same time as the food change, I'd switch back ASAP. Nothing you listed would cause diarrhea...

I'd just scoop out the wet shavings and replace them with dry ones.

Good question! I have no true medical idea of the chemical consequences, but I would do it. Ivermectin is a med they give dogs, too.

It is important for the nestbox to be clean, but do not keep it perfectly clean 100% of the time! Remember that the babies get their gut flora from nibbling their mother's poop as they start to move around and discover what is edible and what is not. Without this infusion of her gut flora, the...

I agree with the others. Lone kits don't usually survive, it's supposed to have something to do with needing littermates in order to properly regulate their body temperatures, but I don't understand the details. Sorry for the loss of the rest of the kits. Bunnylady is right on the idea of...

Rabbits will indeed chew through them. They chew through plastic bottles, too. It's no big deal with the plastic bottles since they're cheap and all it does is dump water through the bottom of the cage and maybe get the rabbit wet in the process. If the ice is still frozen when the bottle is...

I had a kindling that was mostly full term normal kits that also had three premature kits in it. I assume it was a double breeding like you described. Of course the three premature ones did not survive, they were already deceased when I saw the litter the first time. It happens a lot to some...

Yes, that will require a LOT of does. I'll walk through some of the numbers... A doe is pregnant for about 31 days. If your breeding day is Monday, for example, you breed one on the first Monday, then second Monday, then third Monday, then fourth Monday, then fifth Monday - and the first doe...

Like others have said, the issue is rigor mortis. All animals that die go through it. It causes the muscles to stiffen up after death, and stay that way until enough time has passed. If an animal is cooked while the muscles are still stiff from rigor, the resulting dinner will be difficult to...

The plastic resting mats are GREAT. They let the urine and poop fall right through. The wood, on the other hand, lets the urine soak in to it, and poop stay on the top and get stepped on, and the rabbit's fur can end up matted from exposure to the wet and dirty conditions. If the wood is just...

Congrats! A litter of five has a normal chance of living, I'm really glad for you that she had the additional ones! Post pictures when you can!

Do not reduce the amount of nesting material! You'll soon see the kits "swimming" in the nest - they go down when they're seeking warmth and up when they want to be cooler. They won't have a problem with the nesting material - at all. But if you reduce it and it drops a couple degrees the kits...

Once I *know* the doe is pregnant, I start free-feeding, keeping food in the feeder all the time. But that's not usually until a couple days before kindling, when the rabbit starts nesting and I can feel the kits for sure. (Incidentally, my does tend to not eat much - if at all - the day they'll...

If you keep that 12-week butchering schedule, then you have a nice breeding schedule automatically. Breed all three does on the first day of the month. They'll deliver approximately the first day of the second month. They'll nurse for approximately 6-8 weeks, so they'll be in the growout cage by...

1 - You will have more temperature problems with newborn kits in the nestboxes than you will have with older kits in the growout pens. Older kits can tell they are cold, know that snuggling brings warmth, see the other kits, and make the appropriate moves to end up snuggling in a pile for...

You are right about the Cali coloring being temperature-dependent. They must be at different temperatures in their different nests. It's nothing to worry about, I've had Cali buns that were almost as grey as your darkest one, and it lightened up normally by about 12 weeks (which is also when...

A good hand-held propane torch is great to use for sterilizing. It burns off any hair or other junk off the cage wire without having to scrub it off. Much easier on your hands. After that, a good metal scrub brush (like the kind you'd use to clean the surface of an outdoor grill) will remove...

When my kits get to that annoying age, I flip my nestbox upside down. It still lets the kits have an "assigned" area to go to sleep and snuggle for warmth (under the upside down nestbox, that they can still get into), but then mom can get on top of the nestbox and escape the little kits for at...

Remember, for a grow-out pen, you're only going to use it for one month. Usually 3-6 weeks. That's IT. And only the rabbits that are going to be butchered go into it. Ones you are going to keep for future breeding go right from mom into their own cages - this keeps them from getting injured by...