ColdBrook
Well-known member
What Would Rabbit Talkers Do? I asked myself..and I couldn't answer so I'm asking you!
Here's the story.
We have a SF doe, Summer who's presumably bred to my SF buck and due next week. She's not yet raised a successful litter. She lost two litters before I got her (yeah, I got her anyway!) and didn't take the first time I bred her. This time I think she took and is due next week. (My thinking is she'd be too scared not to be bred as I told her what would happen if she failed on her last chance!) I also have a first time doe due at the same time (bred her the same day) so if Summer, the SF does have her kits on the wire again, maybe I can save them and foster them. Now, I'm worried as the other doe is a first timer so what if neither one is a good mom? But this other doe (Poppy) is like her mom and sister, they were awesome moms from the start so I expect her to be. So then I started to worry, what if she delivers too many to foster more off onto her? If she has a large litter, will she be able to take care of more?
Then I got to thinking I have Ella, currently nursing six almost 4 week old kits. They're all fat, sassy and eating pellets, hay and drinking water. If I keep the kits on her another week, and Summer delivers and I need to foster her kits, could they be fostered to Ella or will she be starting to dry up just because her kits are getting older? She wont be producing colostrum though. Could I perhaps have the kits nurse off Poppy (the other doe due at that time) once and then give them to Ella? Is the colostrum thing as important with bunnies as it is with all my goats/horses/etc? I was going to pull most of Ella's kits at 4 weeks as they are so big and driving her mad (literally, she looks so angry all the time now!) and the cage is getting a bit overcrowded but I thought maybe she could be kept in milk as a potential foster mom if Summer does as expected and delivers kits that she then abandons. But would she start over with babies when she knows hers are big hairy monster kits, not little naked nestbox popples?
Of course, it COULD all go right and Summer could be a perfect Mom to this litter, and Poppy be a perfect first time mom and Ella be delighted to get her babies out of her hair and cage! I'm just trying to think ahead to potential solutions to possible problems! It may all be a moot point. Summer is not really showing signs of being bred, but I guess she never really did...and Poppy is frantically running around with a huge haystache, stuffing it in corners, digging wildly...but she did that last time and never had any kits. I tell ya, these rabbits are enough to drive a person mad as a March Hare!
Here's the story.
We have a SF doe, Summer who's presumably bred to my SF buck and due next week. She's not yet raised a successful litter. She lost two litters before I got her (yeah, I got her anyway!) and didn't take the first time I bred her. This time I think she took and is due next week. (My thinking is she'd be too scared not to be bred as I told her what would happen if she failed on her last chance!) I also have a first time doe due at the same time (bred her the same day) so if Summer, the SF does have her kits on the wire again, maybe I can save them and foster them. Now, I'm worried as the other doe is a first timer so what if neither one is a good mom? But this other doe (Poppy) is like her mom and sister, they were awesome moms from the start so I expect her to be. So then I started to worry, what if she delivers too many to foster more off onto her? If she has a large litter, will she be able to take care of more?
Then I got to thinking I have Ella, currently nursing six almost 4 week old kits. They're all fat, sassy and eating pellets, hay and drinking water. If I keep the kits on her another week, and Summer delivers and I need to foster her kits, could they be fostered to Ella or will she be starting to dry up just because her kits are getting older? She wont be producing colostrum though. Could I perhaps have the kits nurse off Poppy (the other doe due at that time) once and then give them to Ella? Is the colostrum thing as important with bunnies as it is with all my goats/horses/etc? I was going to pull most of Ella's kits at 4 weeks as they are so big and driving her mad (literally, she looks so angry all the time now!) and the cage is getting a bit overcrowded but I thought maybe she could be kept in milk as a potential foster mom if Summer does as expected and delivers kits that she then abandons. But would she start over with babies when she knows hers are big hairy monster kits, not little naked nestbox popples?
Of course, it COULD all go right and Summer could be a perfect Mom to this litter, and Poppy be a perfect first time mom and Ella be delighted to get her babies out of her hair and cage! I'm just trying to think ahead to potential solutions to possible problems! It may all be a moot point. Summer is not really showing signs of being bred, but I guess she never really did...and Poppy is frantically running around with a huge haystache, stuffing it in corners, digging wildly...but she did that last time and never had any kits. I tell ya, these rabbits are enough to drive a person mad as a March Hare!
