guardianoasis
Well-known member
I kinda wanted to start a thread just general updates. I have the Facebook page but there's just some stuff I can't update on there because.... well people....
So April kinda sucked. We didn't have the internet and I didn't really get a chance to come on here or anywhere. All of my March breedings failed. Most of them just failed to get pregnant and the rest the litters died within the first 24 hours. We started feeding everyone apple cider vinegar in their water just because I felt better about it... I don't know that it actually did anything to help but it was something, something to buy me some time in not giving up on the rabbits. We hadn't had a litter since October and I'd lost them all because of a move. I threw it to the wind and said what the heck and bred everyone. Or tried to breed everyone. I have my notes somewhere but about half the does got pregnant, but we lost four or five litters mostly due to first time does being bred and a couple veteran does on their first litters since who knows when. I decided that due to the circumstances I wouldn't hold this, or the previous time against them. It's been a really bad winter.
Luckily though 4 litters did have surviving kits and I'm the proud mom of 20 growing babies for the first time in like... Well my last litter was Halloween. So there ya go. (Pictures in the reply)
So we rebred everyone who came up not pregnant or lost their litters. This week was kindle week and we had 8 of 9 successful litters. So far we've only lost 8 kits out of the 71... I think. If my math adds up correctly. One kit was a stuck kit that was extremely huge. I feel like it took up one horn to itself and got stuck killing off the two remaining in the other horn. That doe is usually a REALLY good mom and this was her first litter in a year. So... Her daughter had her first litter ever and gave birth to 8 in her nestbox with fur and everything like the good girl she is. She's lost three but I can't complain when they get it semi right on the first go. The rest have been runts that have passed.
This week we are breeding the does with litters now and does that didn't come up pregnant last time, had litters that died off or haven't been bred yet. We've kinda adapted a heavier breeding schedule this year with kits being weaned at 6 weeks and does being rebred at 4 weeks after birth. It gives them a couple weeks free of kits before they have another litter so it's not TOO heavy. But the issue is our does are getting older with most of them at or over 3 years old. I'm worried about loosing all these good does without replacing them. So with all the new litters we'll be working on quickly replacing them so we can back off on the older does and retire them to wherever they would fit best.
I'm really excited to see where this year takes us with the rabbits. So far I've learned a couple things from these breedings.
1) I have way more chocolate in my herds than I realized.
2) My one buck carries both chocolate and blue, and is an otter so he's going to be very valuable to me for a bit.
3) His full brother carries blue and non-e... I have torts in my litters!
4) I really need to stop doubting myself and just do the things....
That's it for now. I'll get the pictures lol <br /><br /> __________ Wed May 23, 2018 9:46 am __________ <br /><br />
Pretty sure this is a buck. Checked it but ya know how that goes.
Our only meat mutt doe and her very first litter ever at over a year old (probably like 18 months). She is the direct descendant of the first Am Chin doe that I purchased when I started this adventure with rabbits in late 2015. She's 1/4 American Chinchilla and 3/4 New Zealand and an awesome mom despite loosing half of her kits.
So April kinda sucked. We didn't have the internet and I didn't really get a chance to come on here or anywhere. All of my March breedings failed. Most of them just failed to get pregnant and the rest the litters died within the first 24 hours. We started feeding everyone apple cider vinegar in their water just because I felt better about it... I don't know that it actually did anything to help but it was something, something to buy me some time in not giving up on the rabbits. We hadn't had a litter since October and I'd lost them all because of a move. I threw it to the wind and said what the heck and bred everyone. Or tried to breed everyone. I have my notes somewhere but about half the does got pregnant, but we lost four or five litters mostly due to first time does being bred and a couple veteran does on their first litters since who knows when. I decided that due to the circumstances I wouldn't hold this, or the previous time against them. It's been a really bad winter.
Luckily though 4 litters did have surviving kits and I'm the proud mom of 20 growing babies for the first time in like... Well my last litter was Halloween. So there ya go. (Pictures in the reply)
So we rebred everyone who came up not pregnant or lost their litters. This week was kindle week and we had 8 of 9 successful litters. So far we've only lost 8 kits out of the 71... I think. If my math adds up correctly. One kit was a stuck kit that was extremely huge. I feel like it took up one horn to itself and got stuck killing off the two remaining in the other horn. That doe is usually a REALLY good mom and this was her first litter in a year. So... Her daughter had her first litter ever and gave birth to 8 in her nestbox with fur and everything like the good girl she is. She's lost three but I can't complain when they get it semi right on the first go. The rest have been runts that have passed.
This week we are breeding the does with litters now and does that didn't come up pregnant last time, had litters that died off or haven't been bred yet. We've kinda adapted a heavier breeding schedule this year with kits being weaned at 6 weeks and does being rebred at 4 weeks after birth. It gives them a couple weeks free of kits before they have another litter so it's not TOO heavy. But the issue is our does are getting older with most of them at or over 3 years old. I'm worried about loosing all these good does without replacing them. So with all the new litters we'll be working on quickly replacing them so we can back off on the older does and retire them to wherever they would fit best.
I'm really excited to see where this year takes us with the rabbits. So far I've learned a couple things from these breedings.
1) I have way more chocolate in my herds than I realized.
2) My one buck carries both chocolate and blue, and is an otter so he's going to be very valuable to me for a bit.
3) His full brother carries blue and non-e... I have torts in my litters!
4) I really need to stop doubting myself and just do the things....
That's it for now. I'll get the pictures lol <br /><br /> __________ Wed May 23, 2018 9:46 am __________ <br /><br />
Pretty sure this is a buck. Checked it but ya know how that goes.
Our only meat mutt doe and her very first litter ever at over a year old (probably like 18 months). She is the direct descendant of the first Am Chin doe that I purchased when I started this adventure with rabbits in late 2015. She's 1/4 American Chinchilla and 3/4 New Zealand and an awesome mom despite loosing half of her kits.
