Hard to Get Used to

We had a litter born yesterday morning. My huband checked on them and I went out about an hour later and found them cold on the wire. I do not understand why she did not use the provided nest box. I managed to warm up three of them but one had crawled away from the others and never revived. Two of the three lasted only about 2 hours before they expired. The one remaining was doing alright last night. I fed her some kitten replacement as the mother would not nurse her. And I have a cat who is nursing a kitten so I put the baby at her teat and she drank. Today, however, she just did not make it. I tried again with the mother and even tried holding her while the baby drank but it did not work. I will definately not re-breed this doe.

The 5 week old babies are doing great. Took some pictures of them today so will post them later this week. (I really want my digital camera back). They are very sweet and their fur is so long already. Their mom took good care of them. They are black but have rings on their hair shaft. Their dad is black and does not. Need to look up colors again. I doubt I will ever get them memorized.

I rearranged the rabbitry and cleaned out the corners. I put Thor's cage lower to the ground as he kept jumping out of his cage. I was grooming him on a grooming table and he just jumped right off it. My daughter Anna lured him back with yogurt treats and then grabbed him. He kicked her in the face. She let go laughing. We did eventually catch him. I thought it would be less dangerous if he gets out of the cage to be closer to the floor.

Last night we heard a commotion in the rabbitry around midnight. When my son David went out to investigate he found that Thor was out and had pushed open one of the doe's doors and was having a good time. We have since wired his cage shut to keep any more unwanted breedings to occur. I can't help it. I find this buck very amusing. He is quite a character.

Anna purchased a lovely broken black polish doe to breed to her black polish buck. He is wonderful except that he has a small spot of white on his nose and another on his front paw. So, broken black seemed the way to go with him. I took a picture of her too and will post it soon. Anna tried breeding but the doe was reluctant. So Anna wants to wait until the doe feels more comfortable.

We have two more litters due on the 8th and now one due on the 27th. I hope that they all make it. It is hard losing these new little lives. And I will do what I can to prevent this from happening.

Practical Matters

I thought I would talk a little bit about how I manage my rabbitry. Now, this is not the best way to do this nor the only way to do this. This is just the way I am doing it right now. I always learn and am willing to read more and take suggestions.

Food - I have read a lot of comments on the type of feed, how much to feed, brands, mixes etc. I have to admit that I have found the Wal-Mart has the best prices and where I live they carry feed. I use Animal World (I think that is the name of the brand) for rabbit pellets. Whatever is the cheapest calf manna and black sunflower seeds. I use two bags of the rabbit pellets, one bag of calf manna and 1 bag of sunfower seeds mixed together. I keep it in a big tub and can tell by looking at the mixture what I need to add next. Right now, it is sparse on sunflower seeds so will add that. Now, I have two angora bucks who are a year old and underweight and I have been adding sweet feed to their diet. As to how much I give them, it depends on the rabbit. I have a small herd so it is not that hard to do. If they are dumping their feed and wasting it, I give them less. If they are eating it all I give them a bit more the next day.

I recently added a day of pellet fast a week after reading about how that helps with wool block. I do watch the poop of the rabbits when I clean the cages. (I worked as a school nurse and would ask kids who presented with abdominal problems what their poop looked like. I got a lot of weird looks ;)). So, on the fast day I give them a mixture of oats, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds and garlic powder. Just 1/4 cup. The first week I did this none of the rabbits ate it enthusiastically. Today, which is the 4th week they chowed down immediately. I also give them a pinecone and hay. At first they eyed the pinecones distrustfully but today they dug right in. I have seen less pearls of poop and some really nice big ones over the last four weeks. I gather the pinecones (ponderosa pine) in the mountains just a few miles away from my house.

I give them alfalfa hay or fresh alfalfa in the summer 3 or 4 times a week. And, of course, fresh water is available at all times. I have found some yogurt treats that I give after grooming. Thor loves them. As do most of the other rabbits.

Well, I think this is long enough for today. I am always open to what others do that work for them and will give it a try.

Musings

My children seldom keep me up at night anymore. There are no more waking for feedings and they seldom have bad dreams. I have also become better at allowing them to do their own thing with minimal interference from me. I have fed, bathed, housed, clothed, comforted, played, counseled, protected and many more words could be added. I think they have turned out alright. They have kind hearts and are considerate of others. They are on their way to supporting themselves. Maybe not the way I envisioned ;).

Last night one of my cats kept waking me up. She had a kitten that we were keeping in my bathroom in a lovely bed. The kitten is about 2 weeks old now. He is black with blue eyes. Just adorable. I liked this arrangement as it protected the kitten and was a quiet place. Well, Odie, did not think so last night. She kept waking me up by meowing and clawing the rug under the door. She kept going in and out and I kept getting up to let her in and out. One time I woke to find her trying to shove her kitten under the door. Of course, I, wanting to maintain what I thought was the best environment for the kitten, put them back in the proper place. Well, Odie persisted. Finally, I just gave up and watched where she was taking the kitten. She made a place under my bed. And that is where they are now. I needed to respect the mother cat and trust that she will do what is right for her kitten.

I was out in the barn just awhile ago. And after the chores are done, I sit and enjoy the rabbit and duck energy. And I started thinking. How I take care of my rabbits is what I used to do for my children. I feed, house, protect, and clean them. I try to counsel but Thor pays me no mind about staying in his cage ;). And rabbits are different from kids in that they do not verbally tell you that they really want captian crunch instead of raisin bran for breakfast.

I wonder if I am afraid of the empty nest syndrome and so am beginning to transfer my need to take care of children to rabbits. Now, on one hand that is not a bad thing. Rabbits are affectionate...they rub my hand as I put their food dish in the cage. They are quiet, well, unless they are throwing their dishes around at the joy of seeing me. And I have always been a little odd (not like the other mothers ;)) and so do not mind growing into the title of crazy rabbit lady. ;)

On the other hand...I still have to make sure someone is around to feed and water them, still no spontaneous, let's take off to the mountains for a week. And my "extra" money is going to provide food and housing and going to shows.

But all in all I think that life after children (living in the house) will be alright.

Growing Up

I thought my kids grew up fast. Not compared to the baby rabbits and ducks.

The litter that was born on Easter is down to 2 that have survived. One was found exposed on the wire and one was a runt that succumbed. The two remaining bunnies are wonderful fun.

Here is a picture of the three. You can see how much smaller the white one is.


And here are the two black ones at 2 weeks.



Tomorrow they will be three weeks old and are already nibbling at hay and some pellets. They are funny to see crawling under their mom upside down to eat. We brought them inside every night due to the cold and brought them out every day to mom to feed and take care of. This picture was right after they had fed. Their bellies would get so full I thought they would burst.



The baby white ducks we got have bonded and are growing up too. They are able to stay outside now.


Bought a blower for the angoras. It works rather well. Better than I thought it would. And I did my first tattoo last week. I need practice. I was concerned about the pain of the tattoo and used some essential oils to help numb the ear. I think I am going to place my rabbits into two groups. One group will get baby orajel and the other group will get the essential oils. Perhaps it won't make a difference.

I finished my pair of socks...the ones that I made at the same time. They are great and I have started another pair. I must say that I love being able to wear the socks as soon as they come off the needle. I also found some circular needles I love. They are from KnitPicks. Wooden circulars size 1. Oh, I have never fallen for needles so hard before. If you get a chance to try them you will see what I mean.

Time is whizzing by

Not a lot of time to write tonight and am waiting for pictures to be developed so in a few days I will be back with pictures.

Meanwhile, we went up to the NMRCBA Convention in Farmington NM this past weekend. I had a great time. I even wrote for one of the judge's. Not all day but for an hour or two. Did not show any rabbits but my daughter had her polish and dutch evaluated. The polish is lovely and his only problem is that he has a tiny spot of white on his nose and one of his paws. So, we will look for a broken doe to breed with him. Her dutch had mottled eyes so we picked up a doe and a buck and bred them tonight.

Did my first tattoo tonight. Will post more about that in the upcoming days. The babies are growing in leaps and bounds...more pictures of them soon.