Upcomming cold

Well, I did my 14 day check on Sarah's and Flopsy's kits. Flopsy had 8 and they are doing great. Sarah had 10, but pulled no fur, so I lost one to the cold before I found them. I put some dryer lint and chopped angora fur in and the others are doing fine also. They are not the size I would like them to be, but I think that is do to them not comming out yet to nibble as it has been soo cold here at night.

Ruby had her litter 3 days ago and they are doing fine too. Pepper and Mopsy are due Thursday , and it is suppposed to be very cold and windy here. All these does except Pepper are first-timers, but Pepper didn't pull fur on her first litter, so I am a bit concerned there. I usually like to breed for a Saturday kindling, but it didn't work out, and I will be gone from 7am to 6pm..... anyone have any suggestions?

can you bring her in the house?

Not reasonably. Besides, it is my idea to raise rabbits that can withstand environmental diversity, and I wouldn't know if her kits could, if they don't. I might bring the kits in for a night or two, if I find them in time, but if Pepper doesn't pull any fur this time she is gone anyway.

How cold is it at night, and what sort of shelter are they in? If it's above freezing and they're not exposed to drafts, they should be just fine.

Make a nest for her and cross your fingers ... you'll be able to see if there is her own fur added to the nest or not anyhow

What i do is put lots of hay in there almost packing the back and sides leaving a dent in the middle for mom. and hope for the best. Also i have heat lights set up over them then when the babys are a week old i take it from them. But then this is my only job so im able to do bunny check a couple of times a day. If your at work maybe you could go home and check on them during your lunch hour. If she is like my rabbits she wont deliver tell day 32 anyway :evil: always make me wait i hate it.

They just revised the forcast......down.

-3F here this morning and going to get colder.... no signs of the weather getting above freezing for 2 weeks... not going to be a good week for rabbit kindling..... wind chill here -17F at the moment. or maybe it is -13... what does it matter.....it isn't fit for man nor beast.

If I wanted this I could have lived in Montana.

AVD, maybe you could rig a heat lamp over the cages of about-to-kindle does? You'd have to be careful to check the temperatures, but it could make a difference. Once the kits are born and everything is going smoothly you could move it to another doe's cage. You might be able to position it to warm two cages side by side. Even a regular light bulb - one of those utility lights - might help.

I know your goal is to raise hardy rabbits... but these conditions are hardly typical.

i know this weather is crazy. I need more heat lights. Ive got 3 litters between 1 and 2 weeks old and 2 born new years day and 2 more due today and tomorrow. Before bed last night i stuff one of those does cages that was due with extra hay and i re stuffed all the nest boxs with extra hay what i call tucking in the baby's lol

When I went out to feed and water this morning, I found one of Flopsy's kits (16 days old or so) who had apparently come out of the nestbox last night and couldn't find it's way back.....it was frozen. There is a 100w bulb about 1 foot below the nest box. My "nestbox" heater under Sarah's nest box died.... I have a infrared heat lamp over it now. There is a 100 watt bulb under Ruby's nest box (kits 5 days or so old) I have two more does due Wednesday or Thursday... gonna have to rig up some more heat.

gah - my sympathies ...

Just refigured... does are due tomorrow, 3 of them. It may be a bit of a break, at least for the kindling part. It is only supposed to get down to 10F tonight, and be 22 tomorrow. Trying to come up with three more lamp sockets, coffee cans, and buckets to sit them on under the cages. Hopefully they won't kindle today before I get home.

I only have 15 amp service out to the rabbit shed...so I can't put in too much more.

Poor bucks are out in another shed, open on one side. That keeps the wind off, but their water is freezing in a couple of hours. Got a second set of aluminum crocks for Christmas At least I can just switch them out and put the frozen ones on top the wood heater... otherwise I would be getting up at 4.

I know some of you are up in Wisconson, Idaho, the Dakota's, and Montanna.... good luck to you... I hate to think what it is like up there.... Ontario seems to be doing much better but if all this moves east, you may get frized too. I am usually a lot more prepared for this kind of stuff, but I have a lot more rabbits than normal during the middle of this cross breeding period, and I didn't expect the constant cold.
These really cold periods usually only last a couple of days.

I have 13 rabbits in a grow out cage due to be butchered next weekend... they may have to wait. ~:

That really sucks, AVD. Please consider putting a brick or the like next to the nest boxes for a step up in case more kits hop out and can't get back.

If you can't rig enough lights, gallon jugs of very hot water will take the edge of the chill for several hours... at least shortening the number of hours of chill. If you put them at the head of the nest box and wrapped it in an old towel or something for insulation, it might help. I've done this for brooding chicks... but David was usually out in the night to swtich out the jugs. (He's such an night owl.)

oh piffle I"m sorry you lost one. Tht sucks.

what about a kerosene lamp or 5? would give you heat next to the cages with kits, at least. hmm...wool blankets over them maybe? even a heavy plastic over them at night to keep the heat in? (with blanket over the top...) although you'd have to leave a moisture and breathing hole with the plastic, I think?

eta: I just realizied how MUCH I'm learning from threads like this....how to build our rabbitry. I'm very fortunate to be able to go a year with rabbits BEFORE dealing with the outside weather nasties. My original plan for the building housed rabbits(as opposed to the "in ground colony rabbits" ) has changed radically because of reading these threads.

Anntann":2vt7uzu9 said:

oh piffle I"m sorry you lost one. Tht sucks.

what about a kerosene lamp or 5? would give you heat next to the cages with kits, at least. hmm...wool blankets over them maybe? even a heavy plastic over them at night to keep the heat in? (with blanket over the top...) although you'd have to leave a moisture and breathing hole with the plastic, I think?

eta: I just realizied how MUCH I'm learning from threads like this....how to build our rabbitry. I'm very fortunate to be able to go a year with rabbits BEFORE dealing with the outside weather nasties. My original plan for the building housed rabbits(as opposed to the "in ground colony rabbits" ) has changed radically because of reading these threads.

Click to expand...

I have a kerosene heater which would keep the place toasty, but I am a bit afraid of setting it out there with all the hay and stuff under the cages.

The shed is built wih a lot ventilation, even with the windows closed. One needs every bit of it on the early spring and late fall when the temperatures are cold, but above freezing during the day, to keep ammonia and dust. It sounds like that you would want one tight an insulated. The insulation miaght be good, but one needs a lot of ventilation. More than half of one wall of mine is windows, but they all open during the summer months, and I could use more. What seems to work really well, from what I can tell, is to have the rabbits in one end of a barn, with goats, sheep or other animals in the other side. The body heat of the goats, apparently will keep the enclosure several degrees warmer, and they would most likely be inside in bitter weather.

ahhh. yes. the ammonia buildup. I don't have that problem upstairs much because we have a small vent fan that runs all day. hmmm...must rethink again.

well better batten down the hatches were getting ready to be hit agian by a differnt cold front im really feeling for those poor buns and for any animal out there. Were not used to this kind of cold my dad lost a cow yesterday vet said it was a heart attack i belive it was this cold weather as it was a young cow. I just got a weather alert on my phone saying we got wind chills 25 bellow tonight holy cow i think im going to round up plactic and wrap the cages hopfully that will keep the body heat in better.

randtrabbitry":2ix9zd98 said:

well better batten down the hatches were getting ready to be hit agian by a differnt cold front im really feeling for those poor buns and for any animal out there. Were not used to this kind of cold my dad lost a cow yesterday vet said it was a heart attack i belive it was this cold weather as it was a young cow. I just got a weather alert on my phone saying we got wind chills 25 bellow tonight holy cow i think im going to round up plactic and wrap the cages hopfully that will keep the body heat in better.

Click to expand...

We ended up with only 5 or 6 inches of snow here, but the wind chill is down around -20. One expected this when I lived in Oscoda or Kalispell.... but it ain't right here.

How did you end up?

wooooo!! it's SNOWING! (again)

We're expecting 5 to 9 inches here in southern Wisconsin. It's really light fluffy stuff. GREAT for making snow angels! and the shoveling is going quickly, too, so not so bad as the early stuff we got

We're in the normal "2 months of no sun, never above 25F, look for high winds" part of our Winter Hope you are all doing well with that nasty cold down South ....brrrrrrrr

The weather in Southern Ontario is starting to look good, compared to elsewhere. January here can be very cold, but when it is coldest we usually get sunshine and not too much wind. There are exceptions of course... and saying this is dangerous because Murphy is probably listening and we'll get hammered. Sunny and 18* F. this morning... very little wind. A really NICE winter morning and I'd share it if I could.