Popples a Plenty

Hey all!

I'm extra pleased today - Two litters of kits appeared, one of which is my highly anticipated, first ever French Angora litter. My angora doe outdid herself and had eight happy, healthy little kits.



My "Mutt" doe jet had six honking massive kits. The largest is 2.5oz at birth. :shock:

The Angora kits are a godsend for me. I imported my trio from Arizona in November, and two of three had some health issues due to the extreme stress of moving some 1600 miles and changing somewhere in the range of 40 degrees in average temperatures. Esther, however, was not phased by the trip, and suffered no health issues. She took after one fall off with a rather dizzy buck (he was developing a head tilt - this was a breeding of desperation, as January is not ideal), and then kindled EIGHT kits, at temperatures well below freezing, in the nest and well covered with fur... I swear, she is a goddess among does.

I've decided to shelve both litters - Jet's last litter froze after being scattered (Party wipe). While I think she could successfully raise her own litter, and has in the past, I think having both litters shelved will give me options as to which doe to give kits to. The little Angoras are intensely precious to me - if something happens to Esther's milk supply, I think I want to have the option to sneakily make Jet feed them. So I'll get her used to the whole "shelving kits" routine as well.

*phew* Oh my gosh guys, wish me luck here. Now I have to get them to the "Well furred hopping ball" stage.

Also - cannot wait to see what the colors turn out to be. The angora kits look a different that my mutts, so I can't say with certainty what colors I have, but one of the pink ones has a "rusty" tinge to the fur, so I think I have a red, some sort of white, maybe, and then a bunch of ?maybe blue? It's like I'm starting all over here...

:congratulations:

Such a happy outcome to that iffy breeding, Ferra! The kits look great and what a rainbow of colours.

Your plan for shelving and for your mutt doe to help out if anything goes wrong with Esther's milk supply sound good to me.

Yippee for happy kindlings! :bouncy:

Yay!! I hope they grow strong and healthy for you!

Thank you both!

It'll be a fair bit of work with the twice daily feedings, but I'm so stoked - the local French Angora population basically tripled today!

@ Ozark - Yeah, I'm hoping that they take after their dam and are little bullet-proof buns. :lol:

Congrats! Those re some nice looking kits.

Congratulations! They look really plump and healthy.

WVForestGirl":ghjkqwje said:

Congratulations! They look really plump and healthy.

Click to expand...

Thanks! They seem to be doing really well. Their dam seems to only want to feed them in the morning, but they've made normal 2 day weight gains for my "average" mutt litter (about 10g gain) so I think she's doing well feeding even on the current once a day schedule.

While I was weighing the angoras, I took "baby photos" - you can go here for popple pictures https://imgur.com/a/YRO8o . (They are large and numerous)

My mutt-doe, Jet, is on the same schedule as Esther so I'm not too worried, they're both apparently only making enough milk to feel "full" once a day for now.

Jets babies are huuuge. One of them is currently the biggest rabbit I've ever had at these ages. It was born at 70g/2.5oz, and by 48 hours was 95g/3.4oz. Here's a photo of the biggest of the small buns.

Oooh, please keep updating this as the kits grow! Those popples look so wonderfully warm and cozy in all that fur! :in_love:

opcorn:

I'll probably have more photos on the weekend when the popples hit day 7.

Just a quick update: I have 6 fat, happy mutt kits, and 7 fat happy angora kits. You may notice the math doesn't add up: I have one underfed, unhappy angora kit. He didn't look like an over-inflated water balloon like his litter-mates did. I noticed yesterday that I wasn't seeing the weight gain I wanted, so I re-weighed today and saw a 4 gram loss... and got concerned. I took that little guy out on his own for a lap feeding - I think he got some food, but not much more than a gram or so.

I think the little thing is just weakening a little, and might not be able to suckle himself to the water-balloon state. I'm thinking a little extra food might help - so I've laid in supplies for supplemental hand feeding, just in case.

And the colors are a bit more clear to me for the angoras, now. It seems I may have a cream, a red, a blue-self, a ?opal or lynx?, three self chocolates and a chocolate agouti.

I. Have. CHOCOLATE BUNNIES! (for some reason, I am super stoked about that) <br /><br /> -- Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:20 pm -- <br /><br /> It's day 10 and the angoras are now all fat and sassy. The underweight one got one assisted feeding, and then started getting fat-bellied off of mom by itself.



And in a somewhat surprising turn of events - I seem to have gotten two BEW in my mutt litter! One of them is a monster, clocking in at 210g on day 10. Big little rabbit. That one and the tort I posted last time are growing like weeds!

Awwww! What beauties! So happy they are doing well for you!!!

Beautiful pile of babies <3 And what a fab mix of colours! Looking forward to seeing 8 little cloud-bun-photos when they're older.

Rosalaun":2dst3enr said:

Looking forward to seeing 8 little cloud-bun-photos when they're older.

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I'm looking forward to the baby-tribble stage as well!

Getting cuter! Nearly at tribble stage!
Here, have an endless loop of tiny head-pets. The Lynx, Chocolate agouti and Red kits were friendly today.

Awwww!!! What lil sweeties!

omg sweetness overload SOO cute I can't wait to have popples to love on.

Today the angora popples are 6 weeks old, and have hit the adorable "Baby Tribble" stage. Most of them don't have names yet, and they come in various difficulty levels for posing (Lynx was impossible! It was so bad, I made a video of him...)

Clarion - the red doeling (a real sweatheart. She, "lynx" and "choco-snoots" were in the head-scratches gif)


Chocolate tort buckling


Lynx Buckling


Blue Buckling


Chocolate Buckling


Bigger Chocolate Doeling


Smaller Chocolate Doeling


Chocolate Agouti Buckling (aka "choco-snoots")



PS. I expect my second/last spring litter of angora kits to hopefully arrive tommorow. My "meat" herd does take turns having litters every 3 months, and my angoras were paired with a "partner" doe just as an emergency foster-mother if something went awry. So, tommorow, I am hoping for two more litters.

Oh nooooooo! They are too cute! I want the chocolate bunnies. I have been looking at french angora a lot lately, if I ever have an indoor space to keep them I am getting some.

ozemba":7a907ntk said:

if I ever have an indoor space to keep them I am getting some.

Click to expand...

Keep in mind, that doesn't make or break the deal... My Angora we're outdoor Arizona rabbits before I got them, and outdoor Albertan rabbits after! With some attention to conditions they have proven really adaptable.

EDIT:

Well, that did not take long! Dust Devil's babies are here. Five pink popples pilled in a puff of fluff.



One of the presumably firstborn appears to have taken the opportunity to have a snack while his siblings were arriving. It is comically round already...

:congratulations:

:mbounce: :mbounce:

Ferra, it is so nice to hear about all your success with the French Angora popples! They sure are cute!

Thanks Maggie.

I'm having a really good streak of luck with them - which is lovely.

Both my does have been really good mothers so far, too. A little grumping and boxing when I try to shelf the babies, but nothing serious (They're not going for blood like Mithril used to, thankfully) And Dust Devil has been right on the mark with feeding. But, with only five kits, I have some mild concerns that the little bowling-ball shaped babies might just burst one of these days!

:wbounce:
:congratulations:

The Angora babies always look like they have the warmest nests!!! :in_love:

Congrats on the new litter, Ferra!