Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Ok, so Paprika's babies have been visible in the nestbox for most of the past week, and are active little chunkers all about the same size. Cinnamon's babies have been hidden this whole time, so I decided to take the nestbox out and count them since I didn't know how many were actually in there. There's 6, two big ones and 4 small ones. I would say they are runts except there's 4 of them. I don't think they are getting enough milk. The big ones are still smaller than Paprika's kits, which makes sense because they are only a few days behind.

Should I move one or two of the big ones over to Paprika? Or change out Cinnamon's nestbox so it's smaller? I know kits don't take well to bottle feeding. Should I try holding the small kits under Paprika to see if she'll let them drink? I can't handle Cinnamon, she's always been a hands off rabbit but Paprika enjoys being petted and doesn't freak out when I handle her babies.

Cinnamon's last litter was in a different nest box and ended up only 3 kits by the end of the first week. Not sure why the current babies are not being fed, she had plenty of milk last time for the 3 babies, they were very chunky.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Looked at a few of Cinnamon's babies this morning and the first three I grabbed seemed fed. Last one seemed thin, belly didn't look full. I brought it over to Paprika and she sniffed it and actually cleaned it off a bit (it peed on me as I was carrying it). The kit tried to suckle but I couldn't tell if it was actually getting much milk. The belly did look bigger but not super full, but I was running out of time so had to put everyone away. I'm hoping it was enough to help and that Cinnamon won't freak out that Paprika touched the kit.

Paprika is such a great mom and great personality, I really hope I can get a good doe out of her that's just like her.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Paprika's babies, there's 4 of the white ones.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Some of Cinnamon's babies

These two pictures are same bunny, one of the tiny ones

 

[Baymule]

They are so cute.

 

[Bruce]

SUPER cute!

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

So, with the three colors of kits Paprika had, I know that Paprika now carries REW, so her genotype I believe is A_, B_, Cc, D_, ee. And Frost I think would be __, __, cc, __, Ee. I know he's cc because he's REW. One kit is chestnut, which requires E, and Paprika only has ee, so it had to come from Frost. Similarly, in order to get a red kit like Paprika, Frost has to have e, because both parents have to contribute that to get red.

Is my logic correct?

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Grumpy baby bunnies

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Cinnamon's babies are doing better, but there's only 5. I can't for the life of me figure out what happened to the 6th one. They are all much bigger now. I still can't figure out their colors easily, except I'm pretty sure there's a chestnut/castor and a light one just like Sugar from the last litter. I think all the kits are agouti, none of them look self or tan to me.

 

[Bruce]

Is my logic correct?

I have no idea, all looks very confusing to me!