I use the rabbit ringer and I like it. There is some bruising, but not as much as the broomstick method. It's also faster and very humane. I might try the quick cut method next time to see if it reduces bruising/pooling. But it's still way better than a hammer or a knife (and i can't easily use...
This is super interesting. I am not in the position to do this now, but want to in the future, so following the discussion. I do keep my does/offspring from 3 weeks to about 3 months (removing the doe at about 6 weeks) in a 3x3 yard tractor pulled across the lawn. They never dig out. It's made...
Wow. That is really good idea. Thanks for that very much. I will save groomed hair from now. And lets see if they will make it. First timer doe, so i am realistic anyways.
Thanks all. THey are alive for 2 days now. Seem warm enough...and she is SUPER protective. She's relatively tame but she is very protective. I go in with some food and hay and have a look at the kits, and she immediately jumps on top of them and hovers and licks and presumably feeds a bit. Let's...
Hi All,
Sorry for the delay and thanks for your comments. I did try oats, she ate a bit. I'm also giving hay and she continues to eat that, and some crunchy kale from the garden (she is accustomed to eating that regularly in small quantities).
She kindled this morning, - yes her first- so...
Hi all,
She is due any day, has quite eating pellets a few days ago. Still eating hay and a few green leaves from the garden i give her, but she's also licking the wooden nest box presumably for nutrients she isn't getting from hay/greens.
Any advice? It's her first kindle...
Thanks for any tips.
Yes! This is my working theory too. And ultimately looking for someone who has experienced this just out of curiosity. She takes sperm into both sides, fertilized one side, gives birth, stores the eggs on the other side, then releases again from the other side after a month or so when she is...
Ole "Runty" passed away two nights ago. Seemed quite agitated after the last feeding. I figure bloat. I sheepishly confess, though I raise rabbit for food, I was a bit sentimental about it. Sad.
There are a lot of mixed signals out there. I am relatively new to this venture, but I feed pellets everyday, plenty of hay, but at night I give a handful of greens (endive, kale, comfrey, etc.) For my 'feeder' rabbits (young ones raised for meat) I keep on the grass in my yard, feed them hand...
Hi All, thanks for those comments and request for update: the kit was sooo far behind its litter-mates and was quite weak. I saw no chance of it getting to the teat in order to survive. @nawma, perhaps I should have just done that and let nature take it's course. This is my first experience with...
Thanks for your comments cwrabs...ultimately, you're right, it doesn't 'matter' really. Its just a major curiosity... and indeed seems very strange as no one has fed back with any info with similar experience. Will keep the story going in a few months when we breed her again. Also going to breed...
I guess the mother pulled this week old kit out of the box? It is still squirming, bit cold and reaching for milk. Not sure what I should do. I put it back in. Also, i live in Kenya, so dont have access to Kit Milk. Any substitute?
thanks.
Above are the images. The overworked freak of nature is the one whose showing us her behind in the cage with the nestbox. The NZ is the Male. He stays in the cage to the far left. The large NZ/CF cross outside in a separate pen is a monster female from the first litter...i am saving her to...
THANKS for your comments!
Look, i understand your skepticism! Please go back and see my earlier part of the story. I explain clearly my cages and methods. Will try to get the pics up online. But know this: I live in a walled compound in Nairobi, Kenya. No wild rabbits, no one messes with these...
Bred Golding (the miracle bunny) on the 1st December; didn't look like a successful attempt, BUT... month later: 8 kits. Then, whilst weaning, she fought the babies off at 4 weeks and popped out another 8 babies. Just like last time. That's 16 kits in two separate births, a month apart, having...
Small update: same female (Golding) had one MASSIVE baby a month after the second litter. Still born, or she killed it quickly. Again, she's never been bred by me, only supposedly bred on June 7th a week before we bought her. 2 full litters and 1 stillborn giant. :(
If she gives birth again...