Harlequin Health

I purchased 7 young Harlequins (5wks to 3 months) right before Christmas. Last week Georgia's temperatures dropped drastically, the coldest we've had in literally years. I lost three of my Harlequins (plus a pet Dutch of unknown origin and age) over the course of four-five days. All were magpie girls - 1 five week old and 2 seven weeks old.

With the first death (the five week old), I suspected enteritis. The whole herd got extra hay. Two days later I lost the Dutch and an older Harlie. Now I begin to suspect (and still do) dehydration or just due to the extreme cold - the rabbits were purchased locally so they are accustomed to hot Georgia summers and relatively mild winters. None of us are accustomed to cold weather like this. Other breeders I've talked with from my area have experienced losses as well.

All of the rabbits, minus the Dutch, acted normal and then were dead in the cage the next day. The Dutch, the day before she passed, sat in a corner in her pile of hay (I give extra hay in winter to keep the buns warm) and wasn't interested in food or water. Before, she was VERY food driven. In fact, she escaped once and was lured right into my lap by rattling a bowl of food.

All but one of my remaining Harlies are japanese colored. They are very robust and growing extremely well. So I'm wondering if the magpie variety is less robust in general, or if it was just bad luck for my herd?

What rotten luck! I can't comment on the hardiness of harlequins, but someone was mentioning that adding flavoured electrolytes to the water encouraged their rabbits to drink more during cold weather... protection against dehydration and loss of appetite. I haven't tried it but it sounded like a good idea to me.

i find that my harlies handle the cold just fine. In fact all my bunnies do. Occasionally one of my mini rexes will look a tad chilled, but a new resting board and extra hay usually resolves that quickly enough.

Probably just coincidence.

Just curious, what was your summer like for hay? I lost most of a litter just out of the nestbox, and I'm suspecting it was the hay - very, very wet summer.

AprilW":4hrwhodf said:

All but one of my remaining Harlies are japanese colored. They are very robust and growing extremely well. So I'm wondering if the magpie variety is less robust in general, or if it was just bad luck for my herd?

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There was an earlier discussion about many of the "steel" colored kits in my rabbits usually being larger... as it turned out, some of the other posters had noticed the same trend. It could be magpies do not take stress as well, or it could be that mgapie harlys don't take stress well... or it could be nothing.


Don't know anything about Harlys, but it is possible that there are other genes on the same chromasome that holds the Jap coloration that give them a more healthy constitution.... this might be "in general" with everyones... or perhaps within your particular line.... or it could be simply coincidence.

It is still always good to bring it up, because few of us raise enough rabbits to get a legitimate sampling. If 10 or 20 people start noticing it, though, we have all learned something.

Half Caper, I bought one iffy bale of hay during the summer. It was very moist. Next time I went to the feed store the guy had 10 lb bags of "premium" timothy for $7. Much smaller than a bale, but it really was high quality. Since then, I've found a different feedstore (closer and more reasonable prices) and their hay seems nice.