NZ Cali Cross Does

[gash]

To preface this, I have 10 chickens, 5 goats, 4 kittens and I had 7 rabbits all in a barn. The barn is sealed enough so the animals are sheltered from the wind and open enough to allow good ventilation. It's always 10-15 degrees warmer in the barn than it is outside. My rabbits are in spacious metal cages about 5 feet off the ground in the chicken coop. They are fed green hay, sunflower seeds and treats....they have fresh water daily and their water waters are all in heated water bottles to prevent freezing. The bottles get cleaned out once every other week.

The other night it got COLD outside, -18 with another -20+ windchill. There was very little wind but it was chilly. I went to the barn the next morning to go do my chores and I found my NZ Cali Does dead. No sign of illness the day before, they were their normal selves. These gals were 10 months old, never bred, always together since they were born. What appears to have happened is one of the does got her foot stuck to the metal (I had placed a good layer of straw over the metal just in case, but her foot found a bare spot), I'm guessing she freaked and died. Consequently because the other had never been apart or because of her sister's freak out, it caused the other to freak out and die also. They were found lying side by side.

All of my other rabbits, 3 mini lops, 2 dutch and 1 NZ buck all were fine, no signs of distress or anything. Happy as clams to see me in the morning as they always are.

Could my guess be correct? Her foot could have gotten stuck postmortem, however the position she was lying in indicated otherwise. Is it the Cali bit that causes them to be easily spooked or it is both NZ and Cali? Is there another meat rabbit that may survive a foot being stuck perhaps one that's "heartier"? This is my first year raising rabbits and I was really looking forward to breeding my does in the next month


Thank you for your assistance.

 

[Miss M]

Welcome to RabbitTalk, Gash! I wish you could have come under better circumstances.

Your guess could very well be correct. From what you've presented, that would be my conclusion. Rabbits don't frequently get their feet stuck like that, but when they do, it can very easily be quickly fatal just because of the stress. Rabbits also don't frequently die from being spooked when they have no other injury, but it does happen, so her sister could very well have died of fright just because she was in the same cage as a freaking out doe.

It's just one of those things for which there's no real prevention. You didn't do anything wrong. While does are usually territorial enough not to want to share a cage, I have had a few doe pairs that have been fine sharing a cage, aside from an occasional difference of opinion.

You provided plenty of straw... there are plenty of breeders in Canada who keep their rabbits in wire cages outside, so you did what you could.

Some Cali lines are high strung, and others are laid back. Same with NZs and most other breeds. It all depends on what the breeder culls for. Still, pretty much any rabbit is going to completely lose it if a foot gets stuck. I don't think you can avoid this with another breed. It is pretty unlikely, though, that you will have this happen again.

I'm so sorry. You should get some more replies, probably in the morning.

 

[Zass]

Got her foot stuck to the metal?
Could you describe that a bit better?
Fur will not normally freeze to cage wire floors. If the fur was moist it could, but normally a 8-10 lb rabbit should be able to pull away.

If she was stuck fast and freaking out, it is possible her sister could get spooked and maybe break her neck against the cage side.

 

[Miss M]

I saw that, too... I did have a rabbit get her facial fur stuck to a feeder once in the winter. She pulled away and had a bald spot for a little bit.

It would definitely be more common for a rabbit to get its foot stuck in the cage wire, rather than stuck to it. I figured maybe involving urine or something... I'm not sure how the rabbit got her foot so thoroughly stuck to the wire, but maybe Gash meant in the wire.

 

[gash]

Foot stuck = toes and nails down in between the wire bottom. I had to pull pretty hard to get the foot stuck once I discovered that. All of my cages are from KWCages and have the babysafe flooring. Each rabbit is provided one of those Mighty Mats as well.

These does were raised together since they were kits, I saw no reason to separate them as they were very easy going towards each other and often cuddled together. I figured when I bred them I would put them in cages next to one another so they'd be close but far enough should the territorial motherhood kick in.

Re: food, I go in the barn once in the morning to fill up everyone's hay feeders and once before dusk to do the same. They are never without food or water, they have salt licks (the white ones and the mineral ones), sunflower seeds are black oil sunflower seeds bought in bulk from a local feed store.

 

[Marinea]

I had a kit get a foot stuck in the wire. It was obvious from her injuries that she spent time in a panic, flailing about trying to get unstuck. Your doe may have gone through the same thing. That kind of panic likely distressed the other doe, annd she could have had a heart attack from stress.

I chalked it up to a freak accident. I would not be concerned about it being likely to happen again. Sorry you lost them.

 

[Miss M]

I agree with Marinea. An absolutely freak accident that happens once in a while to a member on the board. Nothing you can really do to prevent it (they'd find ways to get caught on something in any sort of enclosure), and it'll probably never happen again.

 

[gash]

Thanks all! This is my first year with animals and at times I feel like I've bitten off more than I can chew with the learning curve :shock: However y'all have been mighty helpful and I'm very thankful for other forums like this that provide information from experienced folk.

 

[Miss M]

You're more than welcome, Gash! The rabbit learning curve can be pretty steep, and sometimes things keep happening and even experienced rabbit people can feel really incompetent. If you do what you can and persevere, it smooths back out eventually. Hopefully, this will be your only bump in the road for a long time. :clover:

 

[Truckinguy]

Out in the colony I have the water bottles at the right height for the adult rabbits to stand comfortably and drink and I have half a concrete block placed under the water bottle to give them a comfy place to rest their front paws on and give the kits something to hop up on to when they get big enough. The water bottles drip for a few seconds when I put a new one in so the block can get wet quite often. Last winter the temps got down around -25C and one day when I went out to replace the water bottles a kit got up on the block to take a drink from the fresh bottle and it's foot froze to the block, not solid but enough that it was stuck. The fresh water that had dripped on to the block from the fresh water bottle pretty much froze instantly. It tried to jump down but ended up hanging by it's foot off the side of the block and screaming bloody murder. Fortunately I was still there and was able to free it with only the loss of a few hairs from the bottom of it's foot and it hopped off like nothing happened. I was thoroughly shaken and went back into the house feeling like crap.

This is part of the highs and lows of raising animals. :shock:

This pic was taken in the summer but gives you and idea of the setup.