New babies

[ollitos]

Someone posted that they had 4 kits for sale and I swooped in to check them out. The father is a HUGE Californian built like a brick. Great shoulders. The mother is black and large. He didn't know the breed and I'm not competent enough to figure it out. The kits are pretty solid for being almost 4 weeks old.

I bought all four, brought them home and tested them with Big Bertha to see if she'd accept them.

She did.

There was a lot of ear licking happening - Bertha licking them, the other kits licking them. One of Bertha's kits and one of the new kits seem to have become BFFs and hop everywhere together and cuddle up with each other.

I'm probably going to keep a couple of them. I think I have three male and one female but I'll check them again as they get older.

I am totally amazed that this worked. I fully expected Bertha to reject them and not foster them. My friend who has raised rabbits for decades called Bertha a magic momma. <3

I'll post more pictures of them later today.

 

[fuzzy9]

Big Bertha sounds like a wonderful, easy going doe. I wonder though, why would someone sell kits at the young age of almost 4 weeks old. That just seems cruel, and too young.

Adorable pic, but I kinda think I'd have quarantined all 4 kits new kits for a while first.

 

[Cindi Davis]

Ollitos congratulations on such a great Doe. Good luck with the new ones.

 

[ollitos]

He wanted to wean them. I figured it would be best to put them with a still nursing mom to ease them off nursing rather than have someone else take them and put them out cold turkey. He said they are eating and drinking fine on their own but I'm watching to see for myself. In the wild, they'd be on their own pretty soon so as a non-domesticated animal, they could survive. I considered quarantining them but felt it was more of a risk for them to die of dehydration if they weren't able to drink from a waterer yet.

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm afraid I agree with Geri... It would have been safer to put them in quarantine.

As for the risk of dehydration, there are solutions. You could give them a crock for water until you are sure they are using the bottle and you could feed them a mush made by adding warm water to kitchen oatmeal (and pellets, if you feed them). Along with grass hay they would have done fine. I once had to pull a 17-day kit out of the colony and he did just fine on oatmeal mush and hay. I also kept the whole grain and dry oatmeal in front of him so that he could transition himself to the dry foods once he was past any danger of dehydration.

Chances are you will be lucky enough to get away without quarantine this time, but it can be disastrous.

 

[skysthelimit]

My kits were 4 weeks old when the doe died. Aside from making sure they were warm, they haven't required any special management.

 

[AnnClaire]

My does want their kits weaned in the 3rd week :lol: But selling 4-week old kits is a very bad practice IMHO as individually, they are not regulating their own temperature and if a new owner is not aware of that, their kit will take a chill and die. Not a responsible breeder IMHO.