Well, I hadn't gotten a cage for Cedar set up until today, and when I went to care for the stock, I saw a couple mouthfuls of fur. Hoped it was a litter, as there is a new tunnel in the hay that wasn't there yesterday, but no such luck. I was watched them eat, and Luna (Spooky's daughter) is missing a chunk of fur off of her neck. She seems more dominate than Maple, and Spooky has never had issues being housed with her own daughters, even when she is pregnant/has a new litter, so I know it can't be Spooky causing this (I decided to put Spook back in the colony, since I will be pulling any new litters). A few days ago I noticed Cedar trying to mount Luna, but she would hop away, and her lady bits have been REAL red and swollen for about a week, maybe more. So I am guessing she was bred this morning or last night. *crossing fingers*
I decided to catch Maple and palapate her, since she looks a bit swollen, and I felt kits! Spook is still thin and so I didn't bother catching her, but will later on, maybe tommorrow.
SOOOO.....I will have kits at some point in the next two weeks! Since her last litter lasted a few days, I am confident they will last a few hours, long enough or me to find and remove them.
I plan on pulling her litter, and leaving Spooky's and Luna's to see if they live, maybe it ios just Spooky, and maybe she only has a problem with Maple, and I would like to see, just to see. And if I notice anything odd with them like I did before, they will be pulled rather than me waiting (see, with Maple's last litter, I noticed weird things, but attributed it to a colony litter) I won't make that mistake again, and will err on the side of caution until I replace the two (Maple and Spooky) permanatly.
On another note, I gave a VM buck to a freind of mine, along with half my herd. He aquired a NZR doe, and I was talking to him online. We are going to trade NZ does, and I am sending Spooky his way, to breed to Chip (VM buck) in exchange for a BEW doe, out of that cross. He has been having good success with my old does, except for having a touch of a problem getting them to breed at the first shot. But good overall. So I am excited.
I wanted to update this and let you guys know, pending litters, of course, that my rabbits are in a dark shed all the time, with the only time light comes in being the few minutes I feed and water each day, maybe 1/2 hour. If these litters are born adn are of decent size, I will know that light does not affect fertility, in bucks or does.
The cold, maybe. We had a very cold snap, and it has been warmer for the last couple weeks. That would make sence with at east one pregnant doe about two weeks through, and a young doe possibly bred.