Two weeks ago I put the blue doe and her litter, The Frozen Five, in the freezer. Then I opened the colony up so that Fred, the red doe and the black doe could have the run of the entire colony. They mostly hang out in the half they usually do which has the food and water in it but they do run around the whole colony and seem to enjoy the space.
On Tuesday I went out to feed everyone and found frozen baby bunnies scattered around in the straw. They were rock solid. Turns out the red doe had a litter of ten, one was not fully formed but the other nine were normal, not chewed up but four were out of the nest and the others were in the nest, all were frozen. The doe stuffed the nest box with straw, dug a great tunnel and pulled a lot of fur. they were rock solid so I didn't bother to warm them up.
This morning I went out to feed everyone and the black doe was giving birth in the same nest so I fed everyone and let her go about her business. About half an hour later I went out to find two kits outside the nest and very cold and six more in the nest, also cold. I brought the nest box inside and dug everyone out. Two were missing half the skin from their bodies but still alive so I put them down.
The final six are warming up under a heating pad. One is fully intact, both ears and all legs are good. The other five are all missing their ears but all legs are fine. One has skin missing on the back of it's neck and I'm considering putting it down.
Seems the black doe is an over-cleaner. That won't do here and I'm going to isolate her in one half of the colony and see if she can raise any survivors of this litter then put her in the freezer. My question is: would the black doe dig the red doe's perfectly healthy litter out of the nestbox if she realized she would have imminent use for it? There are four nest boxes in the colony.
I've had rabbits since Feb. 08 and had many dozens of litters over the years from a lot of different does and, aside from losing kits or the odd litter from time to time, I've had nothing like what's happened the last couple of months here with the chewed live kits.
On Tuesday I went out to feed everyone and found frozen baby bunnies scattered around in the straw. They were rock solid. Turns out the red doe had a litter of ten, one was not fully formed but the other nine were normal, not chewed up but four were out of the nest and the others were in the nest, all were frozen. The doe stuffed the nest box with straw, dug a great tunnel and pulled a lot of fur. they were rock solid so I didn't bother to warm them up.
This morning I went out to feed everyone and the black doe was giving birth in the same nest so I fed everyone and let her go about her business. About half an hour later I went out to find two kits outside the nest and very cold and six more in the nest, also cold. I brought the nest box inside and dug everyone out. Two were missing half the skin from their bodies but still alive so I put them down.
The final six are warming up under a heating pad. One is fully intact, both ears and all legs are good. The other five are all missing their ears but all legs are fine. One has skin missing on the back of it's neck and I'm considering putting it down.
Seems the black doe is an over-cleaner. That won't do here and I'm going to isolate her in one half of the colony and see if she can raise any survivors of this litter then put her in the freezer. My question is: would the black doe dig the red doe's perfectly healthy litter out of the nestbox if she realized she would have imminent use for it? There are four nest boxes in the colony.
I've had rabbits since Feb. 08 and had many dozens of litters over the years from a lot of different does and, aside from losing kits or the odd litter from time to time, I've had nothing like what's happened the last couple of months here with the chewed live kits.
