trinityoaks
Well-known member
It's been a while since I posted about my rabbits, other than Branwyn, one of my Brazilian does. I'll try to get photos posted tomorrow.
Bran seems to have fully recovered, and is filling out again. After a lot of thought and talking it over with DH and DS17, we've concluded that she had a calcium deficiency that caused her to give all she had to her kits. When she had nothing left, the kits died (they were just starting to nibble on hay and oatmeal, but hadn't started on the water bottle yet.
The morning after I first posted about her, I fully expected to find her gone. To my surprise, she was still alive, but barely. I couldn't get her to eat or drink much of anything. On a hunch, I force-fed her a calcium-magnesium tablet (the last one from my "people" bottle). Over the course of that day, she started slowly improving. That afternoon, I stopped by Tractor Supply and found a bottle of calcium drench for goats. I started adding a bit of that to her water, and as a precaution, to the water of my two nursing does. She has steadily improved since then, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the other two does, either.
Dot (Zil doe) has four remaining kits, three black and one broken blue (looks like an English spot, just like mom). These are Cal-Zil crosses and will become pets--the broken is already spoken for, and the three blacks have been promised to a local feed store. Vixen (Cal doe) has eight kits remaining. I've had one inquiry from Kansas for a buck, and hopefully the remaining kits will go to some local 4Hers. The kits are all 4.5 weeks old now, and very cute and active.
We were able to pick up two Brazilian bucks two weeks ago, Shade (blue chin) and Snowball (frosted white, very much like our first buck, Smokey). By the time they come out of quarantine, our Zil does should be ready to breed again. We'll also breed our Cal does at the same time.
And finally, we have a lop (cross?) buck, named Kevin, that we got from some friends. He was their youngest daughter's pet, and she wasn't wanting to take care of him anymore. (Her sister is on her last chance for taking care of Kevin's brother, Thumper.) After seeing their hutches, I'm not particularly surprised the girls have been having trouble taking care of the rabbits. Very fancy wooden hutches, nice-looking when new, but not very practical or easy to take care of.
We haven't decided what to do with Kevin yet. Our friends didn't know much about his background, but said they could put me in touch with the breeder they got him from.
Bran seems to have fully recovered, and is filling out again. After a lot of thought and talking it over with DH and DS17, we've concluded that she had a calcium deficiency that caused her to give all she had to her kits. When she had nothing left, the kits died (they were just starting to nibble on hay and oatmeal, but hadn't started on the water bottle yet.
The morning after I first posted about her, I fully expected to find her gone. To my surprise, she was still alive, but barely. I couldn't get her to eat or drink much of anything. On a hunch, I force-fed her a calcium-magnesium tablet (the last one from my "people" bottle). Over the course of that day, she started slowly improving. That afternoon, I stopped by Tractor Supply and found a bottle of calcium drench for goats. I started adding a bit of that to her water, and as a precaution, to the water of my two nursing does. She has steadily improved since then, and it doesn't seem to have hurt the other two does, either.
Dot (Zil doe) has four remaining kits, three black and one broken blue (looks like an English spot, just like mom). These are Cal-Zil crosses and will become pets--the broken is already spoken for, and the three blacks have been promised to a local feed store. Vixen (Cal doe) has eight kits remaining. I've had one inquiry from Kansas for a buck, and hopefully the remaining kits will go to some local 4Hers. The kits are all 4.5 weeks old now, and very cute and active.
We were able to pick up two Brazilian bucks two weeks ago, Shade (blue chin) and Snowball (frosted white, very much like our first buck, Smokey). By the time they come out of quarantine, our Zil does should be ready to breed again. We'll also breed our Cal does at the same time.
And finally, we have a lop (cross?) buck, named Kevin, that we got from some friends. He was their youngest daughter's pet, and she wasn't wanting to take care of him anymore. (Her sister is on her last chance for taking care of Kevin's brother, Thumper.) After seeing their hutches, I'm not particularly surprised the girls have been having trouble taking care of the rabbits. Very fancy wooden hutches, nice-looking when new, but not very practical or easy to take care of.
We haven't decided what to do with Kevin yet. Our friends didn't know much about his background, but said they could put me in touch with the breeder they got him from.
