mysunwolf
Herd Master
Our San Juan doe, Evie, kindled early early this morning (before I got up). I haven't been able to actually count the babies as it's 25˚F and I don't want to uncover them for too long, but they all look perfect, beautiful, and healthy! She was bred to a young Californian buck, but the kits are dark so no white babies for me.
I have never had rabbits before, so the fact that she did everything right and worked with me through every step of the way was incredibly lucky. Here's her story.
I picked Evie up at a local small livestock swap in mid-October. The woman had a ton of cages and clearly needed to get rid of all her weaned kits. I paid $5 for her as an 8 week old, fascinated because she looked like a cottontail.
She was terrified for the first few weeks. I don't handle my rabbits a lot, but I do make sure to pet them and give them treats. They generally know my voice and my smell, and they know me as the food bringer for sure. Evie slowly made progress, and after about a month she would come to the front of the cage and seek out my hand for pets. She was definitely the sweeter of the two does.
At the end of January, she suddenly turned aggressive. She would attempt to attack my hand when I was cleaning dirty hay from her cage. She began to growl and rear up and scratch me. The worst day was Feb 3: I went to place her bowl of fresh water in the cage, and she lunged forward and bit me. Of course, I dropped the water all over the place. I refilled the bowl, then firmly held her down with one hand while I set the water bowl down with the other. The situation was under control as long as I could hold her down. But the growling was unsettling. What had happened to bring on this sudden change in my sweet doe?
I thought about it for a few hours. I did a bunch of research. She was an almost-exactly 5-month-old San Juan doe during breeding season. I was pretty sure I knew what that meant; I bit the bullet and put her in the cage with the older buck, a skittish Californian.
He got very excited. She attacked him multiple times, but he didn't really mind, just kept trying to get a hold of her. He mounted her head a few times, did the jack-hammer thing. Finally, he managed to find the right side of the rabbit, and he fell of sideways. Evie immediately started growling at him, at me, everything. I put her in her own cage, where she went to the back corner and pouted. I re-bred her about 10 hours later, just to be sure, and this time the buck found the right end of the doe a lot faster. When I put Evie in her cage, she snarled.
However, over the next few days, Evie became herself again. She was sweet and friendly, came up to the cage for pets. Everything seemed to be back to normal.
And the buck was completely changed. Where he had once been skittish, terrified of me and my hand, he now became calm and eager for attention.
I was officially confused by rabbits.
At exactly 30 days, I realized that I should probably either get the nest box built or fill her cage with hay. I sloppily built a 12" x 18" nest box (thinking of my other doe who was larger) with a wire bottom, put some hay in it, and placed it in her cage on the side where she had NOT currently been pooping. First, Evie chewed on it like a crazy rabbit. I rolled my eyes and left her to her rabbit antics. A few hours later, when I came back, she had stuffed every last piece of hay from her cage into the nest box. That evening, almost finished with chores, I checked on her again. It looked like a rabbit had exploded all over that nest box: it was literally overflowing in fur. I hadn't realized that Evie had that much fur to spare. I didn't even see bare patches on her. I was impressed.
At 31 days exactly, I went out to check and found that the mass of fur was moving.
And there they were, Evie's babies! Her first kits and my first kits.
I have never had rabbits before, so the fact that she did everything right and worked with me through every step of the way was incredibly lucky. Here's her story.
I picked Evie up at a local small livestock swap in mid-October. The woman had a ton of cages and clearly needed to get rid of all her weaned kits. I paid $5 for her as an 8 week old, fascinated because she looked like a cottontail.
She was terrified for the first few weeks. I don't handle my rabbits a lot, but I do make sure to pet them and give them treats. They generally know my voice and my smell, and they know me as the food bringer for sure. Evie slowly made progress, and after about a month she would come to the front of the cage and seek out my hand for pets. She was definitely the sweeter of the two does.
At the end of January, she suddenly turned aggressive. She would attempt to attack my hand when I was cleaning dirty hay from her cage. She began to growl and rear up and scratch me. The worst day was Feb 3: I went to place her bowl of fresh water in the cage, and she lunged forward and bit me. Of course, I dropped the water all over the place. I refilled the bowl, then firmly held her down with one hand while I set the water bowl down with the other. The situation was under control as long as I could hold her down. But the growling was unsettling. What had happened to bring on this sudden change in my sweet doe?
I thought about it for a few hours. I did a bunch of research. She was an almost-exactly 5-month-old San Juan doe during breeding season. I was pretty sure I knew what that meant; I bit the bullet and put her in the cage with the older buck, a skittish Californian.
He got very excited. She attacked him multiple times, but he didn't really mind, just kept trying to get a hold of her. He mounted her head a few times, did the jack-hammer thing. Finally, he managed to find the right side of the rabbit, and he fell of sideways. Evie immediately started growling at him, at me, everything. I put her in her own cage, where she went to the back corner and pouted. I re-bred her about 10 hours later, just to be sure, and this time the buck found the right end of the doe a lot faster. When I put Evie in her cage, she snarled.
However, over the next few days, Evie became herself again. She was sweet and friendly, came up to the cage for pets. Everything seemed to be back to normal.
And the buck was completely changed. Where he had once been skittish, terrified of me and my hand, he now became calm and eager for attention.
I was officially confused by rabbits.
At exactly 30 days, I realized that I should probably either get the nest box built or fill her cage with hay. I sloppily built a 12" x 18" nest box (thinking of my other doe who was larger) with a wire bottom, put some hay in it, and placed it in her cage on the side where she had NOT currently been pooping. First, Evie chewed on it like a crazy rabbit. I rolled my eyes and left her to her rabbit antics. A few hours later, when I came back, she had stuffed every last piece of hay from her cage into the nest box. That evening, almost finished with chores, I checked on her again. It looked like a rabbit had exploded all over that nest box: it was literally overflowing in fur. I hadn't realized that Evie had that much fur to spare. I didn't even see bare patches on her. I was impressed.
At 31 days exactly, I went out to check and found that the mass of fur was moving.
And there they were, Evie's babies! Her first kits and my first kits.
![:\](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/side.png "side :\")
But she has been such a good momma. Nice for my first time as well, an easy experience overall! I'm sure my next girl, the false pregnancy doe named Snow, is not going to make it easy on either of us...
