Lowstorm
Well-known member
So this is my formal introduction post I guess. Hi there!
I have (had) three big bunnies.
Buck- Sir Captain Overlord Nibbler (If you watch Futurama, you'd know. My kids named him) Nibs for short. Champagne D'Argent
Does- Alfalfa (Champagne D'Argent) and Clover (REW Flemish Giant)
They've been together since June of 2016. Not quite a year. They were in a 4x8 ft hutch/cage system. They did great, honestly. It was a pain to clean though as Nibs liked to use the outside boxes as a litter box.
They didn't breed until November, when they escaped. We call it the bunny break out. I have rather mediocre construction skills and they got out of one of the wire areas. That was fixed, but they were brought inside for a few days where it was warmer. New area=breeding time, apparently. Had babies during the coldest week of December, 12 kits EACH frozen. It was -20*f so I don't blame them. (Apparently that's -29ish in Celsius for all of us non American folks)
It warmed up in January. The weather's crazy here, I tell you. February 17th I had 2 more litters. Yes, the does are kindling at the same time! 9 born to Clover, 6 Alfalfa (1 stillborn). Clover was an idiot and stopped feeding her babies at a week, so I piled all the babies in with Alfalfa. Clover stopped being an idiot, and they both fed the entire litter. I lost 2 babies to starvation though. At 3.5 weeks I lost another little one to unknown causes, that being one of Alfalfa's. Total count is 11. They're completely weaned as of last week. I didn't know why.
Well, Monday they got new digs. I converted my shed over for them (and all the babies.) Its 10x10. Nice space, everyone seemed to like it. Except Tuesday morning I went out there and found kits. Clovers!. WTF, really?!?! Okay, back to back litters. I was put on alert, but left Nibs in there, as he never seemed to bother them much. I had to put them into the new improved nest box that I made Tuesday, but Clover didn't seem to mind. During all this Alfalfa was acting strange. Yup, litter number two. In a horrible spot. I did the same thing with her litter as I did with Clovers. But here's the caveat. 1) The babies from the previous litter were smothering the new babies. (grr, thats why I got new nest boxes, harder for the older babies to get in!) and Nibs was trying to.. yep, get her WHILE she was giving birth!
Sadly, she abandoned the litter entirely when I moved them into the new nest box. She's not the friendliest of bunnies in the first place, and with everything going on... She's a super momma though, and now both of them are taking care of Clover's litter.
Total babies today is 9. One's a runt, but it looks to be doing fine. I'm sure with two moms feeding them it'll catch up in no time.
10 dead ones. I threw them in the freezer and put an ad on craigslist for feeders.
Nibs is in his very own super sized 4x8 ft hutch now. I think I'm going to put a divider in and have 2 hutches, get another buck lol. I may try to reintroduce him in a month though. We'll see how it goes. I wasn't aware he rebred the girls so soon after kindling. But the babies also kinda look premie by a few days. Well, Clover's do. Alfalfas looked the right size.
So future plans! I plan on keeping 2 does of the half n half, since these guys are ment to be meat mutts. May eventually add something known for lighter bones to counteract the Flemish in them. But my Flemish is a 'small' Flemish, she's bigger but lighter than my Champagnes. Her babies are bigger than the purebred Champagnes though. Cute little guys.
I have (had) three big bunnies.
Buck- Sir Captain Overlord Nibbler (If you watch Futurama, you'd know. My kids named him) Nibs for short. Champagne D'Argent
Does- Alfalfa (Champagne D'Argent) and Clover (REW Flemish Giant)
They've been together since June of 2016. Not quite a year. They were in a 4x8 ft hutch/cage system. They did great, honestly. It was a pain to clean though as Nibs liked to use the outside boxes as a litter box.
They didn't breed until November, when they escaped. We call it the bunny break out. I have rather mediocre construction skills and they got out of one of the wire areas. That was fixed, but they were brought inside for a few days where it was warmer. New area=breeding time, apparently. Had babies during the coldest week of December, 12 kits EACH frozen. It was -20*f so I don't blame them. (Apparently that's -29ish in Celsius for all of us non American folks)
It warmed up in January. The weather's crazy here, I tell you. February 17th I had 2 more litters. Yes, the does are kindling at the same time! 9 born to Clover, 6 Alfalfa (1 stillborn). Clover was an idiot and stopped feeding her babies at a week, so I piled all the babies in with Alfalfa. Clover stopped being an idiot, and they both fed the entire litter. I lost 2 babies to starvation though. At 3.5 weeks I lost another little one to unknown causes, that being one of Alfalfa's. Total count is 11. They're completely weaned as of last week. I didn't know why.
Well, Monday they got new digs. I converted my shed over for them (and all the babies.) Its 10x10. Nice space, everyone seemed to like it. Except Tuesday morning I went out there and found kits. Clovers!. WTF, really?!?! Okay, back to back litters. I was put on alert, but left Nibs in there, as he never seemed to bother them much. I had to put them into the new improved nest box that I made Tuesday, but Clover didn't seem to mind. During all this Alfalfa was acting strange. Yup, litter number two. In a horrible spot. I did the same thing with her litter as I did with Clovers. But here's the caveat. 1) The babies from the previous litter were smothering the new babies. (grr, thats why I got new nest boxes, harder for the older babies to get in!) and Nibs was trying to.. yep, get her WHILE she was giving birth!
Sadly, she abandoned the litter entirely when I moved them into the new nest box. She's not the friendliest of bunnies in the first place, and with everything going on... She's a super momma though, and now both of them are taking care of Clover's litter.
Total babies today is 9. One's a runt, but it looks to be doing fine. I'm sure with two moms feeding them it'll catch up in no time.
10 dead ones. I threw them in the freezer and put an ad on craigslist for feeders.
Nibs is in his very own super sized 4x8 ft hutch now. I think I'm going to put a divider in and have 2 hutches, get another buck lol. I may try to reintroduce him in a month though. We'll see how it goes. I wasn't aware he rebred the girls so soon after kindling. But the babies also kinda look premie by a few days. Well, Clover's do. Alfalfas looked the right size.
So future plans! I plan on keeping 2 does of the half n half, since these guys are ment to be meat mutts. May eventually add something known for lighter bones to counteract the Flemish in them. But my Flemish is a 'small' Flemish, she's bigger but lighter than my Champagnes. Her babies are bigger than the purebred Champagnes though. Cute little guys.
