Screaming kits

[mytdogs]

last night when i was going to bed I heard a commotion (squealing) out back where the Buns live. I went out to find 3 of the the 11 day old kits out of their new & improved nest box & "chasing" mom around. They kept having entire legs falling thru the floor wire so they couldn't move that fast. Mom was freaking out & stomping & jumping all over the place. I put everyone back in to the nest box & put a piece of cardboard over a large portion of the floor.

This morning I find everyone outside of the nest all huddled in the corner on the cardboard. I guess if i can figure out how to get them to step up & back into the nest then all is okay right?

 

[MaggieJ]

They were chasing momma because they want more milk. Squealing could mean someone got stepped on. It all sounds normal, although a few days earlier than in most cases. Did you put a brick or something similar next to the nest box so they can get back in?

Check their tummies to make sure they are getting well fed. They should look rounded and smooth, not sunken or flat. There is the remote possibility that they are so precocious out of need... If for some reason momma does not have a good milk supply. Putting in a dish of kitchen oatmeal (like Quaker Old Fashioned/Large flake oats) will give momma a boost and may distract the kits. It's a nice safe food for them to nibble on... as is grass hay.

 

[ShadedNightRabbitry]

I got recommended by a fellow breeder to not feed oats to babies after 2.5 weeks old or so. She found when she stopped that, the cases of enteritis in the herd dropped to zero...

So she found a correlation between oats and enteritis, although of course there's many reasons for it to happen. D=

I do agree, however. I try to give all the does daily oats. Usually I'll stand at the cage, with the door open, and let them eat out of a small dish that I'm holding, so the babies can't get to it. I'll just go down the line and do the same with each doe.

As far as everything else, I completely agree with MaggieJ.

 

[mytdogs]

Thanks guys,

Mom has had 3 cups greens/veggies available daily, along with ad-lib BOSS, whole oats, alfalfa cubes, alfalfa hay & coastal hay. Do I need to provide rolled oats too? or are the whole oats okay? I don't think the kits can get to the grains yet- feeder is too high?

This afternoon I gave mom a radish and 2 of the babes were licking & tentatively chewing at the leaves. At first i thought, "aww how cute are they?" ...then I thought :hmm: is it safe for them to eat radish greens so young?? Right about then mom hopped over & snatched the leaf right out of their little mouths

I guess mom knows best!

 

[horsegirl0215]

just for the record most of the tim screaming in kits means im dying

 

[MaggieJ]

just for the record most of the tim screaming in kits means im dying

I don't agree. Kits will scream when they get stepped on, even if there is no real damage done. It hurts and they holler!

 

[DevonW]

just for the record most of the tim screaming in kits means im dying

I don't agree. Kits will scream when they get stepped on, even if there is no real damage done. It hurts and they holler!

I've had the screaming from being stepped on. I've had kits scream because they're startled. And I've had them were you pick them up, you look at them, they look at you, and then after a moment of seeing the little gears in their head roll into action, they just let loose with a scream. They're not hurting, they're not dying, they're not startled, they're just out to get you, because they know how much it freaks you out

My current litter of Satins, every single baby was a screamer, they've calmed down now.

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm not sayng your friend is wrong, Shaded Night, on the subject of oatmeal for kits, but my experience has been different. I have never had a problem feeding it to the kits. Nor do I worry about them eating greens. I start as I mean to go on and let them have early access to the foods I feed momma, before they are really interested in solids. That way there is no temptation for them to pig out on a certain yummy food later on... It's all been there and has no novelty value. I have never had a case of weaning enteritis in my rabbitry. (Watch, now, that is sure to come back to bite me! )

 

[mytdogs]

K- here's a pic of the wee beasties sneaking a bite of parsley while mom has her back turned :twisted: ....I hope they survive the experience.View attachment IMG00094.jpg

Here are the other 3- pretending to be innocent & cute- really they are using their littermates as..... Guinea pigs!
View attachment IMG00096.jpg

 

[MaggieJ]

Very cute! Grass hay is very good for young kits just beginning to nibble. The absolutely safest first greens (if you are still worried) are things like plantain (Plantago major) and raspberry, blackberry and strawberry leaves - the ones used to combat poopy butt. I like to include some of those in with the other weeds that the rabbits get daily.

 

[mytdogs]

Thanks Maggie,

Where do I get the weeds? I think I had plantain in the yard here but they are dried up now- too much so for me to ID & be sure. I think there is a strawberry patch nearby but i bet they use pesticides- I will check. I have no Idea where to find raspberry leaves or Blackberry leaves...

BTW, how about blueberry branches? Are they okay? I will be able to get many of the those later this year.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hmm... not sure where you can get the weeds. They are certainly not essential as feed... See the safe plants list for other ideas of what you can feed.

I'm not certain about blueberry plants. I know wild cottontails eat our northern wild blueberry leaves, but yours may be a different species... Common names are not reliable. Do you have a botanical name for the kind you want to feed? That way we can do a google search to see if they are safe.

I googled plantago major seeds and came up with several sources if you want to grow your own.

http://www.carolinapetsupply.com/catalo ... cts_id=141

http://www.botanical.com/products/seeds ... in%20Seeds

http://www.sandmountainherbs.com/plantain_greater.html

 

[trinityoaks]

I googled plantago major seeds and came up with several sources if you want to grow your own.

Very cool! I've been wondering whether there was a way to get seed for some of these "weeds" that don't seem to grow naturally here.

 

[MaggieJ]

Since many of the weeds are medicinals "for man or beast", it is becoming easier to find seeds for them.

 

[Anntann]

Most of the medicinal herbs are available online. As to rasberries...I'm not at all sure they'd grown in Florida. they actually need to go dormant over winter, I think.

Believe it or not, Kudzu is quite high in vitamins and is tasty. Parsley also would grow well for you and the plants/seeds should be easy to find. A deep tray of carrots would work well. You don't need to grow the root much...just the tops. beettops the same. just sow some beet seeds in a tray in the sun...keep it kinda cool, if possible tho. beets seem to do better in cool weather.

 

[MaggieJ]

You could be right about the raspberries not growing in Florida, Ann. Apparently strawberries will grow there, though. And plantain should grow anywhere except perhaps Alaska.

Kudzu is definitely a good bunny plant. I don't tend to think of it first because it doesn't grow this far north, but I know KSALguy and others from HT feed it to their buns regularly.

 

[Anntann]

odd, tho. Roses do grow in florida..flourish, in fact. But you don't see wild raspberries like you do up in the north. Ah well.

Alton Brown did a segment on Kudzu on his Ashphalt series. He made a salad and enjoyed it.

 

[mytdogs]

Thanks for the info guys. Looks like I shouldn't be trying to grow Kudzu- it is too aggressive here in FL I think. There is produce market I pass on my way home. i got tons of greens there for like $6. In fact I think some will go bad before I can use them. Maybe I should break out the dehydrators.

I got radishes & beets (both with tops), chickory, some other bitter green leaf lettuce and parsley (both regular & Italian). I almost got culantro- is that one okay? I thought it was dandelion but they were mismarked.

So I will look into getting some seeds but we have a good assortment at the produce markets too.

 

[MaggieJ]

Purchased greens can be fed to rabbits, but be sure to wash them very well... you don't know what might be on them in terms of pesticides. My rabbits are fond of radish and beet tops and parsley and they are all very nutritious. The "chickory" you refer to is the vegetable, I assume, not chicory (Cichorium intybus) -- the roadside weed with the sky blue flowers, which is what I feed my rabbits. I rarely feed my rabbits any purchased greens except in winter. We have an abundance of weeds and safe tree twigs and leaves here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory

 

[Anntann]

I was thinking your could gather some from some of the vines I can just imagine that you'd be tarred and feathered if you actually TRIED to grow it in your yard. oh my....