We have kits!!!!

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ollitos

ollitos

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I went out to check on the animals this morning and do chores and found kits!!!

Big Bertha - who I was ready to cull because she is acting like her back is broken - kindled 9 kits. One fell out of the hutch and died.

I moved them all into a nesting box and recovered them with momma's fur. One kept flopping around, squeaking. I am holding him/her against my chest and he's quieted down. Guess he was cold?

Omg! I'm so beside myself!!! I don't know how this happened because this is so not on our schedule! But I am absolutely giddy because we have kits!


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Congratulations! Do you have babysaver wire on your cage? If not, put it on there now....those precious babies can take a ride latched on to momma's teat and get dragged out of the nestbox.
 
WOW! WOW! WOW! Congratulations!!! How is BB doing? Has her injury improved?
 
Bertha is still laying stretched out but I've seen her back up on her haunches with her feet tucked under her like she's supposed to be. I'm hoping this solves her problem too. She has been going crazy eating grass this morning! And she is pulling more hair. Is that normal for the doe to pull fur after kindling?

I spent the morning with the one kit laying on me in the house. I think he was a little cold because once I had him against me, under my cupped hand, he quieted down and slept.

I don't have any special wire in the nesting box. But when the kits were born, there was no nesting box in the hutch. Now they're in the regular nesting box nestled in the pine shavings and momma's fur.

More pictures on our FB page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 446&type=1
 
The "special wire" is for the cage itself, to keep tiny kits that are born on the cage floor or the occasional one that gets pulled out on momma's teat after nursing from crawling out of the cage altogether. This is a feature on some cages and can be added to ones that don't have it. A strip of hardware cloth will do the trick.

Glad Bertha is doing better and eating well. It is perfectly normal for her to pull fur after the fact... Some does pull more than others. If there is more than the kits need to be toasty warm, it needn't go to waste. Steal the surplus so you have a stash for times when a doe does not pull fur. There are substitutes that can be used (dryer lint, teased cotton batting, feathers from a pillow, snips of fleece fabric) but nothing beats real rabbit fur for keeping popples warm.
 
She has a solid floor in her hutch. This baby fell on the ground outside the hutch door and was cold.

I went back to check and all the newly pulled fur was in the box. Good momma! They sure are squirmy little things! :)
 
Hurrah for popples!

I am glad Bertha is doing better! Perhaps her ligaments got a little too loose in preparation for birthing...
 
ollitos":3n49gn98 said:
She has a solid floor in her hutch. This baby fell on the ground outside the hutch door and was cold.

I went back to check and all the newly pulled fur was in the box. Good momma! They sure are squirmy little things! :)
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Not the floor wire, the side wire...they will crawl to the side of the cage, thru the wire and fall out...like that one did.
 
Ollitos made that "rabbit tractor" style cage, with a wood hutch at one end- it is on the ground so she can graze. Baby saver wire around the perimeter is a good idea, though.

Olly, get your man busy and have him install a board across the nesting are if there isn't one there already.
 
This is the pen

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The hutch part is completely solid which we'll be changing for sanitary reasons. The kits were in a nest inside the hutch close to the wall farthest from the door - pretty much where the nesting box is in that picture. The dead kit was on the ground outside the door.
 
Think she had the first one outside the door?

Congrats, they look like a lovely bunch, and a pleasant surprise.
 
Your wire qualifies as baby saver. Either she had the kit outside, or pulled it out when it was nursing. I remember someone posting about putting a lip on the front edge of the nest to "scrape" the kits off when the doe jumps from the nest. Probably a strip about 1-1/2" to 2" across the top of the front edge would do it.
 
MamaSheepdog":1nmutmy0 said:
Your wire qualifies as baby saver. Either she had the kit outside, or pulled it out when it was nursing. I remember someone posting about putting a lip on the front edge of the nest to "scrape" the kits off when the doe jumps from the nest. Probably a strip about 1-1/2" to 2" across the top of the front edge would do it.
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Or put a little strip of wood on the inside of the door at the bottom that mom can jump over but the kits cannot climb out of. It is amazing how far those little guys can travel with they want to...
 
It is amazing how far those little guys can travel with they want to...
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don't i know it :p i had a few day old kit escape the cage and end up 10 ft across the rabbit barn hiding under hte tray of another rabbit's cage. i'm learning that BSW is vital :p too bad i haven't been able to get any cages with it yet. i usually wrap a strip of duct tape around the bottom of all 4 sides :p my creative solution. but the fur usually gets stuck to it, so not very sanitary.
 
SterlingSatin":1sqq8opj said:
i usually wrap a strip of duct tape around the bottom of all 4 sides :p my creative solution. but the fur usually gets stuck to it, so not very sanitary.
Click to expand...

Why not repurpose the Tyvek feed bags and make strips out of that? I used cardboard the other day when Flurry refused to use her nest. I don't have babysaver on any of my cages, but knock on wood, I haven't had any does pull kits out of the nest yet. I am thinking that when I replace the floors on my BASS cages I'll cut them up and use them to make BS wire like Miss M did.
 

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