Heartbased Homestead
Well-known member
8 alive and healthy, none dead! Last litter was 7 live, 3 dead.
This is amazing! It took so long to get the buns comfortable to breed successfully. I was beginning to think I had some duds. Mom had shown no signs of pregnancy for about 3 months, then a false pregnancy the month before she finally got pregnant for real. I think it just takes a while for everyone to get adjusted, especially unproven/young potential parents. Even my other doe, the pure NZ, hasn't taken any pregnancies despite having many courting and cuddles with the buck. She's only been in my colony a month now though so I'm convinced it's just the anxiety of a new environment which causes pregnancies to not take or might even prevent ovulation until they're "emotionally" ready. I'm not sure how it works but I wanted to share the success here since others have posted about unsuccessful breedings, and I was in this boat for so long too. There really is light on the other side of the tunnel! Patience might be the best method for pregnancy after all else has been assessed.
Colony dynamics:
The 1st litter is doing just fine with the brand new babies. They mostly ignore them, and the mom (Cali) stopped nursing the first litter fully about a week ago. Zea, the unproven NZ doe, has been an amazing foster mom to the first litter. They cuddle with her and she cleans them, she ignores the 2nd newest litter for now (and did so with the 1st litter until they started hopping around). One funny thing about colony raising is seeing how much tolerance the adults have for the cuddly kids. My 1/2 NZ/Florida White buck - who is not the father of the first litter - absolutely accepted his role as their foster dad (we ate their real dad on accident
RIP old Buck). The kids even crawl through the wire of his crate to cuddle with him in the hottest part of the day and he doesn't mind at all, it's the sweetest thing you've ever seen.
Keep on keeping on, yall! Rabbits do in fact breed like rabbits and sometimes we just need to let mother nature do what she does best. God's timing really is a thing
This is amazing! It took so long to get the buns comfortable to breed successfully. I was beginning to think I had some duds. Mom had shown no signs of pregnancy for about 3 months, then a false pregnancy the month before she finally got pregnant for real. I think it just takes a while for everyone to get adjusted, especially unproven/young potential parents. Even my other doe, the pure NZ, hasn't taken any pregnancies despite having many courting and cuddles with the buck. She's only been in my colony a month now though so I'm convinced it's just the anxiety of a new environment which causes pregnancies to not take or might even prevent ovulation until they're "emotionally" ready. I'm not sure how it works but I wanted to share the success here since others have posted about unsuccessful breedings, and I was in this boat for so long too. There really is light on the other side of the tunnel! Patience might be the best method for pregnancy after all else has been assessed.
Colony dynamics:
The 1st litter is doing just fine with the brand new babies. They mostly ignore them, and the mom (Cali) stopped nursing the first litter fully about a week ago. Zea, the unproven NZ doe, has been an amazing foster mom to the first litter. They cuddle with her and she cleans them, she ignores the 2nd newest litter for now (and did so with the 1st litter until they started hopping around). One funny thing about colony raising is seeing how much tolerance the adults have for the cuddly kids. My 1/2 NZ/Florida White buck - who is not the father of the first litter - absolutely accepted his role as their foster dad (we ate their real dad on accident
RIP old Buck). The kids even crawl through the wire of his crate to cuddle with him in the hottest part of the day and he doesn't mind at all, it's the sweetest thing you've ever seen.Keep on keeping on, yall! Rabbits do in fact breed like rabbits and sometimes we just need to let mother nature do what she does best. God's timing really is a thing
