Need a fostering strategy

[phillinley]

Trying to figure out the best distribution of buns here. So we have a black flemish doe kindled 13 today (all black, maybe some steel). Then the blue doe I didn't think was very big kindles 8 kits just now (all blue so my previous post about mixing bun colors is now moot).

So the blue is at a good limit already. The blue doe comes out of a pairing of blues that has not been beat at the show table yet and has always beat our blacks so I don't risk losing any of them by adding more. We have a Silver Fox doe with five kits at 17 days old with the nest box now on its side. I'm assuming it's too late to foster to her with the SF babies run around the cage? The flemish are both first time moms and the Silver Fox has been a complete idiot as a mom who kindled on the wire twice and didn't pull fur for five days after the second litter.

So let nature take its course on the black with 13? Or try to foster them out to the better blue or the older SF?


Oh, also, no runts on either litter and they all look healthy.

 

[Bad Habit]

I would leave them how they are... Larger rabbits should be able to handle larger litters. I have a 4lb lionhead doe who successfully raises litters of 8, so I don't think that 13 would be too hard on a much bigger doe.

 

[Miss M]

I agree with BH... you said you can't risk the blues, and the SF litter is too old to share a cage with newborns, I think.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Flemmie mom could handle all 13 herself. It's a challenge, but she can probably do it.

 

[phillinley]

Cool, that's what I was leaning towards, just needed some confirmation. 13 is a heck of a lot of bunnies regardless, I can't even imagine how that cage is going to look in four weeks. If she keeps them all, by that time she'll probably wish she hadn't

 

[Maxine]

Holy smokes! 13!! Yowsa!

Good luck, hope it goes well. Do you have pictures? The giants intrigue me! I dream of having a guard Flemish Giant for my home. Scare people off..."GIANT RABBIT!! AHHHH!!"

 

[Miss M]

:lol:

If safeguarding the blues wasn't so important, I'd have suggested moving one or two over to her. But the mother can probably handle the load.

 

[phillinley]

Holy smokes! 13!! Yowsa!

Good luck, hope it goes well. Do you have pictures? The giants intrigue me! I dream of having a guard Flemish Giant for my home. Scare people off..."GIANT RABBIT!! AHHHH!!"

We don't take pictures of the kits til they leave the ugly stage and get their coats in. Plus our Flemish blues and blacks aren't really that gigantic compared to the other varieties. If ours reach 15 pounds I'll be ecstatic. We commonly go up against sandys and fawns over 20 pounds. If we were super serious committed to bulking them up we would probably import some blues from europe as they seem to have the variety at a decent size.

 

[ladysown]

i've had harlequins raise 13, a flemish shouldn't have a lot of issues.
if needed supplement with grains.

 

[Ivory]

I envy you your blue FG, its a colour I've been trying to get for ages, I've had one or two born, but they've never survived past weaning. Lucky you, take extra good care of those precious little ones.

I had a Flemish x NZ kindle 16 as her first litter last summer and she raised all of with no problems. I'm sure your doe should be able to handle 13 especially if you give her some supplements.

 

[phillinley]

The blue's tummies all look good tonight but there's a few unfull tummies in the black nest. If those tummies don't get filled up tomorrow, I'll pop em in the blue box as a last resort.

 

[ladysown]

what you could do is take away the full tummies for 12 hours giving the empty tummies a chance to fill. OR even do two nestboxes that you switch every 12 hours. That way the kits get one feeding each day and should thrive.

this of course presupposes that she's feeding them twice a day like 95% of mine do.