Ooops, she did it again...

[Preitler]

Well, it really looks like my Black Fury is going to give me popples, again :? , third time this year, and the second time unplanned (this year, of her previous 4 litters at least 2 were unplanned too). Just grabbed a rasp and enlarged the entrance of the nestbox - she lookes so huge...

My buck squezed through a fence, and jumped down a 2.5m wall (more than 8 feet), and they had not more than a few minutes together, didn't meet before. But that's her, just looking at a buck makes her pregnant.

So, with the late litter of my Red Shrew (yeah, the same buck needed a month to get that done) I will have up to 25 rabbits to feed through winter, I planned for max. 5

Ok, I could live with rabbits outsmarting me, but I have to go to the US for a week at christmas, and finding someone to care for 5 rabbits in mid winter is a lot easier than for 25 rabbits.

I'm somewhat frustrated. My freezer is full anyway. And I need to stockpile hay.

 

[macksmom98]

If she has them now or soon, maybe you can sell some before Christmas! And put those girls on the naughty list, lol

 

[Preitler]

No chance to sell rabbits here. I mean, there are 3 breeders just on my road with about 15 houses, everyone has too much, and nobody buys rabbits before winter. No pet market here either, and mine arn't really good pets. I like the headstrong, self-confident characters. I can't tell how good they are as meat mutts since I mostly feed forage and hay, they need about 16 weeks at least to win a freezer camp ticket.

And my Red is a such a great mom, nurtures 10 without any problem - selling 1 or 2 would not make a big dent in the heap. The Black, her mom, although noticeable smaller plays in the same league.

I guess many who have problems with getting their does bred or rearing litters might envy me, but you never get what you ask for :?

Since I don't give them other names than these they earned "Fury" and "Shrew" are sure on the naughty list anyway

 

[macksmom98]

Ah I see. It does make travel difficult when you have to find someone to care for animals, that's one of the bighearted downsides in my opinion......best of luck!

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Can you just butcher them at 6-8 weeks and sell them as snake food? That's what I do.

 

[Nika]

If not snake, you can sell for dog/cat food. With us, raw feeding pets is blooming in the last few years, and organic meat on just hay and grass is very appreciated. You can also just eat them yourself, they would be small but delicious.

 

[Preitler]

Well, I could sell them as pet food, but first: for me it's not worth the effort to just find customers, make appointments, etc., don't have time and energy for that, and second I'm not comfortable to kill my rabbits for pet food, there is so much work, caring etc. in them, no. Would be different if it were for my own dog, if I had one, it's an emotional thing

Also, I don't know how I will handle butchering them at their "devastating pinnacle of cuteness" (as someone here called this age ), much easier when they stop beeing cute.
Naah, when I think about it that wont be a problem, thanks for the "delicious"- remark

So, taking how her spine feels as criteria this doe is not fat.
She looks like that for almost a week now, getting bigger, unfortunatly I don't know when she is due, but it can't be long now....

 

[EnglishSpot]

Let us know when the Fury explodes!! LOL

 

[HansenHomestead]

So, taking how her spine feels as criteria this doe is not fat.

Can you please explain this. I have a doe that for 2 weeks looks like your doe. (Big belly that goes to one side when she lays down.) I am not 100% sure she is pregnant. I can feel, and see movement, but I'm not sure if it's intestinal movement, or if it's kits. If she IS pregnant, she is due on the 27th.

 

[EnglishSpot]

Becca, I've noticed that the doe's center of gravity changes when she's pregnant vs. just fat. I can't palp to save a life but I can tell when the doe's center of gravity has shifted and the bulge by the knee is more taut than flabby. Sadly, you're just going to have to wait until the 28th to find out!!

 

[Preitler]

Hm, when you can feel the bumps of the spine the doe isn't really fat.

Watching a running fat rabbit from behind reminds you of a maggot, a pregnant doe more looks like she swallowed an orange whole that's now dangling between front and rear legs.

But you'll never be 100% sure until you see popples :lol:

__________ Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:51 am __________

Darn! :wr_wall:

I messed this one up. :x

Like every day when I'm at home they got their garden time yesterday evening, went back to their hutch by themself - procedure as usual. Nothing that was in any way out of the ordinary, no haystshing, no pulled fur, no loss of appetite - I noticed none of the usual telltale signs...

Today I found a small blood stain in the hutch - franticly searching the hutch and all boxes in there, then checking all rabbits - nothing, except Furys belly is gone.

I checked all the holes they dug in the garden, and bingo, there was the nest in a rather short tunnel, less than an arms lenght, with fur, and appr. 9 kits. All alive.
After building a nest in the nestbox I transferred the kits, and put Fury and the kits in a seperate hutch (actually, I divided the one she was in anyway).

Now I have a very, very confused Black Fury with a handfull of fur in her mouth and no idea where to put it. I put her into the nestbox and showed her the kits, I hope she stops wondering what just happend and accepts the new nest.

Since I have rats (shot one yesterday evening), marten and fox here I could not leave the nest in the tunnel.

Although another big litter is really the last thing I needed before winter I really hope it works out for the kits :|, and I'm so curios what colours they have...

 

[Petlover500]

I am glad you found them!
Make sure to show us pics when you have time

 

[Preitler]

Oh jeez, this litter really has a tough start because of my mistakes

Today morning I found Furys hutch flooded with 3 week old bunnies - they squeezed past the big stone I had put as barrier into the connection tunnel between the hutches, they chilled out in the nestbox and trampled everything, and I'm not sure if they didn't raid the milk buffet... :x

I just took a quick glance into the box in the evening - nest is properly built again, and there were several wigglers responding, so Fury accepted the new nest and does a really great job. Should check if there are any dead kits tomorrow, but now it seems the best thing I can do is stay away

There's so much to do, and so little energy to get it done, and it really dosn't help that I live utterly alone - well, this sure isn't the best time of the year for me...

 

[Petlover500]

Goodness! O: Well I am glad they are alright
Can you tell what colors they are?
Don't worry, you'r not completely alone... you have us :lol: :beer2:

 

[Preitler]

Well, the feeling of beeing somewhat steamrolled by a flood of kits is still there, since now I need an hour at least every day to gather forage, everything around here is mowed down or freshly fertilized :shock:

But- oh joy, oh pride - I have 8 (did only an estimate when transfering the nest) healthy, six days old popples , was somewhat worried that the older kits would enjoy a second self service milk buffet, but my does strictly only feed inside the nestbox, and that is barricaded and defended

It's a pretty colourful litter, from completly white, broken or checkered black and brown, to completly black (not completly, somewhat tipped or steel or smething)

 

[Petlover500]

Oh my gosh!!! BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

[Preitler]

So...

Today I went to clean out the nestbox, at every false pregnance she stuffs it with hay and fur. Normally I let her act out, and when she is done, calms down, stopps humping her Second In Command and is nice to her again I clean the box. When I took the second handfull of fur out it was warm :shock:

WHAT? HOW? WHEN? WHY? (ok, cancel the last one)

There's a nestbox full of popples, already furred, didn't count them, but at least it seems to be a rather small litter. :?
Hm, everyone around here seems to get small litters this year...

I have no idea when that happend, this year I took so much care that the buck is never out when the does have garden time - I do let different groups of does in different parts of the garden, parted by fence, but the buck must not ever leave his hutch when not every doe is locked up and accounted for. Can't remember any situation where I screwed up. :t_oops:

But somehow - Brown Chicken, Brown Cow...

Well. I planned to breed her daughter, but with the freezer still well filled I'm done with breeding for this year -this is the 3rd litter. Too bad, the Red would have needed being bred to keep in shape, lost the last litter.
So much for making plans. :wr_trample:

I must confess, I start to think that this doe is way smarter than me :wr_brick:

Since she's living with a second doe I put in a seconnd nestbox, just in case...

 

[MaggieJ]

Surprise, surprise, eh?

Nice plump popples! Tricky doe! :lol:

 

[SarniaTricia]

Mother Nature ..... she's a tricky one....lol

Congrats on the fat babies.

 

[Preitler]

This is the first doe I ever bought, and I think she's the best. Bought her as a giant checkered, but turned out to be no giant at all, maxing out at 6-7lbs. Her instincts and mothering skills are so strong, I'm somewhat sorry that got dilluted in her daughters. She's as much a wild bunny as a domestic can be.

I mean, this is what the entrance to the nestbox looks like, no other doe touches this plug. She's so determined, in everything she does - and she was a house bunny once. (reduced all plinth and base board to splinters, PVC and wood alike, started a tunnel streight into the wall, after 2" bricks stopped her...)


She's about 6 years now, and not thinking about retirement.

Nice litter of 6, one broken tort (the sire obviously carries tort), two white (maybe torted), two broken black, and one black (for now, they are all something tipped).