Finally! Babies

[SableSteel]

Finally, after a year and a half of not getting any live babies, and trying nearly everything in the book to increase fertility, I got some babies. Switching feed again seems to be what did it; I switched from purina show, to 50% purina show and 50% purina complete, then finally to purina complete. And now I have babies!


Britannia petites born last night; 1 black otter, and 1 red eyed white peanut


3 himalayan babies born this morning (last one is in the back)

Let's hope they raise them well... the brit mother is proven, and this himalayan mother comes from super mom lines (her mother raised a litter of NZ, and her grandmother raised a litter of belgian hares, along with their own)

 

[SixGun]

Congrats on the litters! I was hoping your Britannia would take off.
I feed purina show, and it's been good to me, but my feed supplier is unreliable on keeping it on the shelves. So... I'm glad to hear complete is working for you. I may have to switch.

 

[Ferra]

Congrats!

 

[hotzcatz]

Yay! Baby bunnies again!

We had the same problem of lack of baby bunnies and had to switch to organic feed before we got litters again. In 2011, an herbicide was approved for use to 'ripen' the alfalfa fields all at the same time. (I guess die off looks like ripening?) In an email to our previous feed supplier (Nutrena), their reply was along the lines of they rely on the alfalfa producer to follow the USDA guidelines and they didn't know if the fields had been ripened with chemicals or not. So, we switched to organic feed and now there's baby bunnies again. Although you've switched from one Purina product to another, so you'd think they'd all be using the same grains and alfalfa for all, but who knows the details of pellet production.

 

[SableSteel]

I think the problem was that the feed was too rich. The babies were overdeveloping and dying from a hard birth (the does would get pregnant, but not have a living litter); now with a lower protein feed (15%) they were all born a more normal, smaller size

__________ July 24th, 2017, 6:50 pm __________

They're getting fur! (these are just 2 out for pictures, I still have all the babies) It's amazing how each litter is just as exciting as the first



__________ July 25th, 2017, 3:54 pm __________



__________ July 29th, 2017, 9:41 pm __________

One of the baby himmies is pretty skinny, but they're all doing well!
According to my pseudo-scientific sources, the britannia is a buck, and the himalayans are two does and a buck . Using newborn sexing, it looks like the britannia is a doe, though, so we'll see which it ends up being.

__________ July 29th, 2017, 9:42 pm __________

The britannia has its eyes opened too <3

 

[faiththequeen]

So cute! We have a himmie and I can't wait to see how yours look as they grow