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I butchered a few rabbits this afternoon and came across something I can't recall having found in a rabbit before. The kit was about 12 weeks old. The tissue in question was long, narrow, and thin, very soft and floppy, and very bright red and bloody. No unusual odor. It wasn't obviously...

We bought an adult Silver Fox a few months ago. Good-sized, in great health, and pretty good-natured too. She let our buck breed her immediately. Then she had all the babies right on the wire. Didn't pull a bit of hair, didn't use the nest box, nothing. Obviously they all died. I know this can...

Our rabbits are pretty well protected from wind, snow, and rain, but their wire cages obviously don't offer any insulation at all. It's getting into the low teens in our area the next few nights and I'm wondering if they'll be OK out there. Do we need to give them anything to keep warm with? Or...

Our NZW doe bred like a pro for what I believe was her first time earlier this year. Had a litter and took great care of them. Since then she's refused to breed and seems to be shrinking. Her body condition still seems good (at least, her spine doesn't feel sharp) but she's getting visibly...

I want to add more does but only have room for three cages at the moment. Our buck is in one, so the does will have to share. Problem is, I introduced our does tonight and they had a fight. Although neither was hurt in the few seconds before I intervened, the one who "owned" the cage was...

As I mentioned in another thread this morning, we processed our first litter last Saturday. It went well, but I have a few questions about the dispatch for next time. We used the broomstick (actually steel conduit) method. It was quite quick and easy, and I'll use it again if I must, but each...

We just butchered our first litter Saturday. Soaked the carcasses in a cooler of ice water for ~24 hours like we'd heard, then a ~12-hour soak in brine. Cooked the first one up whole, with a bit of rosemary and butter for dinner last night, and, well, wow. That. Was. Amazing. I was really...

Well, not much, anyway. The rest of the litter is between 4 and 4.5 pounds. This one (almost pure white from two broken New Zealands) is still only 2.5 pounds. They're ten weeks old tomorrow. There were 7 in the litter; 6 survived. Strangely, this rabbit was the biggest and strongest of the...

It's been HOT here this summer. Our rabbitry has frequently been over 95 degrees. We keep fans blowing on them constantly and they always have frozen water bottles, but still, that's hot. Our buck bred one of our does without a problem in late spring. Five minutes, two very dramatic fall-offs...

Our New Zealands were just fine being handled by their previous owner. She picked them right up out of their cages and put them into crates for me to drive home and they were just fine. But half an hour later, they fought tooth and nail when I tried to do the same thing, and it hasn't improved...

Our kits are 12 days old and seem ready to leave the nest. I'd like to remove the nest box (leaving nest materials in the corner) because of the high temperatures expected this week. However, the mother rabbit has already shown disregard for the babies (jumped off the top of the nest box onto...

Our kits are 10 days old. So far they've all stayed in the nesting box - until this morning, when I went out and found two outside of it. One was doing fine; the other was squashed between the box and the edge of the cage, and unfortunately dead as a doornail. I took care of that one, and when I...

Saturday morning we found our pregnant doe had had her first litter. I counted 7 kits to begin with, but later found another one that had been hiding. :) All 8 were born alive, in the nest box, and seemed to be doing well. The problem is, I'm not sure they're eating. It appears the doe's milk...

One of our does is expecting her first (and our first) litter any time now. She's pulled some hair and is spotting just a bit. She was bred on May 23rd so she's just about on time. So far, everything seems fine except that she hollowed out a nest right down to the wire bottom of the nesting...

I noticed in this thread that you can evidently tell the condition of a rabbit by feeling up and down the backbone. As a new rabbit owner, I'm not sure what this *should* feel like. Could more experienced folks explain, as well as any other ideas for telling how a rabbit is doing in terms of...

Our NZ buck was able to breed a NZ doe twice inside of about three minutes. But we've put our French Angora with him twice now, and although he tries hard, he just can't make it work. She seems willing enough - acts loving, grooms his face, etc., and lets him mount. But she's got so much long...

If you've seen my previous threads, you know we're new rabbit owners (less than a week in). We have three rabbits, all over a year old, and the breeder says they all know how to drink out of a pet bottle. The problem is, we hadn't gotten the bottles yet when we got the rabbits, so we started...

We are set up with wire hanging cages and got our first rabbits Saturday night. Two days into rabbit ownership isn't long, but in that time the only evidence I've seen of the resting boards being used is that one of the does has been using it as a restroom. As far as I can tell, she's "rested"...

I'm preparing the cages for my first rabbits and find I'm not sure hot to attach the feeders. This is the kind I have: http://www.farmandfleet.com/products/26 ... eeder.html The tray that goes inside the cage is about two inches high. I can mount the feeder so the bottom of the feeder is...

We're getting our first rabbits in a couple weeks, so I'm trying to get everything ready in advance. Cages are ready, hutch is almost finished, and I'm trying to get the feeders and water bottles (or crocks) settled. Problem is, who knew there were so many choices?! Large or small feeder...