Does this happen to you as a breeder?

[TinysMom]

Well...I know I'm strange....

This happens to me a lot though....I'll wake up (or be doing something) and have a feeling that I should check on the rabbits....usually a specific mom or specific area of the rabbitry....and sure enough - something will have happened.

For instance - last night at 2:30 am, I kept thinking (as I tried to go to sleep), "I need to check on the babies..". I tried to just roll over - but after about 5 minutes - I got up and checked on them. Sure enough....Sundae had been nursing and one of her babies had gotten out of the nestbox when she got out (probably still attached to her) and was following her around (or trying to) even though its eyes haven't opened yet. Sundae was VERY unhappy and the baby was starting to get a bit cool....so Sundae seemed happy when I put the baby back in the nestbox.

Tonight - I'm up late because I just have this feeling about one of my does. She's not herself......she's not sick....and she's due in a day or so...but she is SOOO big and she's an older doe that's only had one litter (and not with me) - that I just have a feeling I need to be around where I can hear if anything happens - like maybe if the other rabbits make a noise or something to alert me.

I had a breeder friend whose lionhead doe had a seizure while pregnant (near the due date) and she gave her calcium immediately (spinach and I forget what all else) and brought the doe out of it within 10 minutes or so I think. So - I have my jar of baby spinach ready and I've already put Tums in the doe's water for the calcium.

Do I think she's going to have a seizure? No. But I don't know....just the nagging feeling that I need to be available.

I sure hope I'm not the only one who is like this....that other breeders are this way about their rabbits.

Art says I'm almost as connected to them as I am to our own kids!

Peg

 

[gentle giants]

I haven't had this happen with my rabbits yet, but I had it hapen with my chickens a couple of times. The time that really sticks in my head is when I had a couple of my pet roosters quarantined in the barn for fighting. As I was walking up to the barn, I had this flash, almost a vision, and I knew something was terribly wrong.
Sure enough, both of my little roosters were dead. A female possum had made a nest in the barn to raise her babies, unknown to us. Instead of going out to find food, she broke into the roo's cages instead.
Thankfully (all fingers and toes crossed) in the over two years I have been raising rabbits, (not counting ancient times when I was in 4-H) I have only lost one adult rabbit. I think that was from heatstroke, it was the only reason I could think of for an apperently perfetly healthy rabbit to drop.

 

[SunnieBunnie Rabbitry]

Yup, you're not the only one!

The location of my rabbits is on the exterior wall side of my Master bedroom... where my headboard is. The slightest "odd" sound, I'm up and out the bedroom sliding door checking on them... one cage at a time.

Once a whole litter was out of the nestbox at 9 days old. Another time there was a cat walking along the fence (it wasn't scared of my dogs who were going crazy). Another time I got "the feeling", a rabbit had somehow got ahold of an extension cord and had chewed the wires bare -- it was okay, but the cage was "charged".

Bottom line - no matter what anyone says - always trust your instincts

 

[Akkatia]

Yes, I do this with all my rabbits. When I'm going to feed the horses, I'll know if one of my rabbits have given birth, or died, or is sick, or whatever. I just know... it's really strange. It's a gift.