Here we go Again!

[savingbuns]

Hi Again - never a dull moment with this Rabbits and I must say I now know way more than I ever cared to know about Rabbits at my age.

Seriously - Rusty is all settled down and Freddie had stopped doing the frantic nesting thing yesterday so we thought it would be okay to put Rusty back in with the girls. UG Thought wrong - Freddie went nuts and they did the fighting dance - just about knocked me off my crutches and I have no idea how I got them separated and one into a crate before they had no fur left.

So the rest of the day Rusty went back to her hutch, and Freddie and Willie stayed in the big outdoor pen. Near the end of the day Freddie started gathering and making a nest in their outdoor hidey box. As we were about to put them away for the night again in the back of my truck with the cap for safe keeping against coyotes I grabbed a new box stuffed what she made of a nest into the box and then into the big paper bag ( pretend Hole) for more warmth.

So just checked on her and she has taken everything but the kitchen sink into the bag - even the towel I put over Buttons Crate for warmth. So I got tons of newspaper and toilet paper and such and she has now taken all that in there as well.

My question is Willie is in there with Freddie - both females not fixed. They got along today and have spent the last three nights together in the truck fine - the both have gone in and out of the nesting bag and Freddie does not seem to mind.

Should I close Willie into a crate for now and just let Freddie have the place to her self just incase she does have kitts?

The other two will still be in the back of the truck but can not get at Freddie or her babies if she has any. We can check throughout the night on how things are going If freddie does have a litter then they will have to stay in the back of my truck for a while - until I can move the whole set up into the shed once it is finished.

 

[savingbuns]

Just a quick update. YES we have one bunny who has survived now. We left her for 24 hours - and found one this morning not completely cleaned off and at the entrance to her next - do not suspect that it crawled out - I think it never made it into the nest to begin with.

So far the first one is still going - has been warm and noticed a nice little ping pong tommy. She is another large rabbit - about 3.5 inches long but no hair like Rusties. But Freddie did a fab job of plucking fur - a tone of it - could knit a sweater for me ha ha.

Have spent today making a new crate for Freddie and her baby. The crates we have right now are too small for Mom and baby. Buttons and Willie presently are being put in individual crates at night, but during the day they both have their own big ex pen to play in. rusty is back in her private pen which is a double pen with hutch in the middle so she gets to play and run and stuff. They are all within ear shot.

Soon I will have the shed squared and raised off the ground and can build four separate hutches for them.

Well keeping our fingers crossed that the baby stays warm enough. We have a nice heat lamp in there she has a great nest inside a box with another paper bag over it - off the ground with blankets around the new crate. I will take a sock with rice heated up and pop it in side - and may do another one early in the morning - but I think she will be fine.

 

[JBun]

I'm glad you have one survivor. Sounds like mom is doing her job. All that fur should help it stay warm. With the heat lamp and if you do a rice sock, just make sure the baby has part of the nest that isn't heated so that if it gets too warm it can move to a cooler part of the nest.

So have you had to separate all of the rabbits now?

 

[savingbuns]

Everyone is now separated. Save the girls from fighting while hormone sensitive and litter protective. Of course keeping the little Male Buttons away. Willie is doing binky's in her pen almost every day now and running to the end where Buttons is near by in his own pen. Rusty would probably be okay with Willie - but they may fight too I don't know and not taking the chance right now.

Freddie has a special little cage for her and her new baby - "Sierra" who is now almost three days old and still kicking - yeah!!!! But only put crap wire on for yesterday as I needed my truck!

Bought another huge crate for the shed only for night time till we get the inside hutches all built - maybe or if they go to the sanctuary first.

So here is the little sweet package - what is the average size of a newZealand kit - cause this gal is 3.5 inches born as long.

Any hints on how to make the little baby less lonely has she grows up without any litter mates?

Ha funny check out the writing on one of the news Paper shreds..."News Highlight"


We named "her" ( since a higher percentage are females) and she was born in the back of my GMC Sierra - that is was fitting!

 

[savingbuns]

PS Freddie has really bonded with me - she gets lots of strokes and pets. I get to feel the baby and check her out and bring my hands right back to her and she gives me nudges and lets me pet her more - they are really quite a friendly breed NewZealand Reds - so I have found out. Except when two females one about to have babies and one just had them. Wow does the fur fly in that scenario

 

[savingbuns]

My quick question is - with the kit being born late in the season will it have had enough time to get a winter coat - now almost end of October with temps in the 40's here. Although her nest is warm - and we put a heat lamp in the shed - as it gets colder that will not be enough for her and we will have to provide additional heat sources perhaps under the nest box and some warmed up rice socks too.

Or should we be bringing her inside with the mother - which I also am concerned that she has plucked her winter coat out for the baby and she will be chilly herself too???

 

[savingbuns]

Here is the little darling today...already trying to hop...

 

[Daisy-Henry]

Wow! That kit is so big, but I guess being the only one she gets all the milk. My rabbit had 6 kits on the 13th and they're all really tiny compared to Sierra! (Love her name). My kits and mum are Lionhead's though so I would think they tend to be smaller and you'rs has so much fur! My babies have hardly any.

My momma rabbit (Ruby) and her babies are in a large shed in a 4ft long hutch, with a huge fluffy nest and a thick wooly black blanket over the hutch as the doe seems to be more content in darkness. My two bucks are also housed in the shed but in their own hutches. Here in the UK at night it gets to around 4degree's and we have no heat lamp and babies seem to be doing well. You seem to have everything under control and Freddie seems to be an amazing momma bun!


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[Daisy-Henry]

These are two of Ruby's kits at 3 days old.


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[JBun]

The baby looks nice and healthy Just wait til it's eyes open and it starts exploring. 2-4 weeks is really fun as they like to be snuggled and are so fun to watch when they are first learning to get around. Their little hops just seem to spring out of them before they even know what's happened.

I would think that the temp shouldn't be too bad for them and they should be ok, but you should go with what you think will be best. As long as baby stays bundled up in it's furry nest, it should stay warm, along with the heat lamp. Once it's a bit older and out of the nest, it can snuggle with mom. At about 3-4 weeks old is when they get pretty fluffy. If you do decide to bring them in, just be aware that if mom is used to the cooler outdoor temps, that she could get too warm being inside.

 

[savingbuns]

Gosh these rabbits are breaking my heart! came out this morning to find a still born from Freddie - what these rabbits take that long to have babies - over a 5 day period??? this is really weird from a Dog owner here.

Anyway at first I thought Freddie had lived up to her naming of Friday the 13th, and she for some reason dragged the little bun out of the nest and poof. But when I reached into the nest little Sierra was still there nice and snugly warm phew.

So enlighten me - what gives with this long and weird labour/delivery in bunnies. Gosh can she have more tonight?

Here she is this afternoon. Getting really long, and her hair is getting fuzzy too. Lots of strength in this ones legs and will have to change their pen set up soon - would hate for her to end up out of the nest somehow.

 

[savingbuns]

Hey daisy your buns are so tiny and cute - I hope they all do well. Will be checking on Sierra soon. Slow morning for me today. almost finished their shed for the winter - need to find some insulation and panels for the walls inside and some linoleum for the floor for easy clean up. Still using large dog crates for now as they are easy clean up and I think they are quite warm with the blanket over top of them with air still getting in.

 

[Daisy-Henry]

Thank you. Aww, they're gonna love their new home! The baby bun looks so chunky and nice and healthy! Is she gonna be a large breed? Looking at yours she's so much diff to my babies!

Rabbits actually have a uterus shaped like a Y and can produce 2 sets of litters. She must of got caught the first time and then again a couple of days later, this is actually dangerous for the momma rabbit but if she seems fine in herself then that's ok. Rabbits usually take 20mins to deliver a whole litter so she wasn't in labour the whole 5 days, the stillborn was a different litter.

Here's one of Ruby's kits today.




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[savingbuns]

Your buns are so cute hope all goes well with that full litter. My friend and I are freaking just with one bunny - heck we would be a nervous wreck if we had more.

She looked a little haggard this last photo session - yesterday late afternoon. She looked thin and was very staggery unlike the other days. But this morning around 10:00 I pulled her out and she was nice and round again - still very warm and did not move in a jittery fashion.

So what we think happened is she missed a feeding. I have read the sometimes the mother will go 24 hours before feeding new litters - so we are thinking since Freddie had kind of a back to back litter that she did not do any feeding while the dead kit was in her space. So Sierra may not have had any food for a good 24 hours. Also with only one kit Mum may only be feeding her a good dollop once a day instead with a larger litter they may feed two or three times.

Anyway we were quite worried and thought we were going to wake up to a dead little kit - again....but she is still with us and looks better than the pics below. Did not pull her out when we got home today - just reached into the fur to have a feel - warm and round to me. So she was fed sometime today again as well as last night.

She is still adorable - and has a great little sniffer on her - she is a strong feisty one too. 6 days old now - so keeping fingers crossed that Freddie will continue to look after her. Need to let Freddie have a shot at the out door pen so she can stretch her legs and have a good run around for a few hours and just leave the baby in her warm cozy location in the shed.




Soon we will have to start thinning of taking them up to the sanctuary. I will know more this Thursday's doc report on whether I can start to walk on my newly fused ankle. If so then I can start working on their winter pen at the sanctuary - and we should be able to get them up there by mid November.

It is going to be really really hard to give them up that is for sure.

 

[savingbuns]

So here is the little sweetie at 8 days now - Still does not look overly big to me - but not really catching her at the point just after feeding. Her belly feels like it has been fed she is just a long lanky thing when stretched out.

She is still quite active when you approach the nest and wants to suckle so I am assuming she is being fed. Always nice and warm. Mother does hop in and out of the nest box which is not to spec as a real nest box it gives her enough room to get in and sleep or rest beside the nest and she seems to do that now for some reason. then again she is a domesticated Rabbit and not a wild Rabbit. Has not had any real threats. Although she is protective of her nest found out today when one of the rabbits came up to her crate and freddie darted at her. So will be sure that does not happen again. She had a good stretch yesterday but stayed in today - don't want to change her routine too much right now. Just that she could be feeding the little one during the day when the other rabbits are not in the shed with her.

Well all we can really do is let her do what she needs to and hope that Little Sierra makes it through each day....

Does anyone know if I put in a tiny stuffed sheepskin toy with beans to make a warm litter mate for her would this freak out the mother at all?

 

[JBun]

She's such a cutie! She does look a little lean. Mom may not be producing a lot of milk right now.

That's cute that mom likes to hang out in the nest box. Though it's not really a usual behavior even for domestic rabbits. Usually they are only in there for feedings. I wonder if she'll keep doing that when the baby's eyes open and it starts chasing her around to nurse

I wouldn't worry too much about letting mom have a stretch. Usually they feed in the morning or evening, but even if she is feeding during the day, she won't skip feeding the baby. If I took my babies away from mom in the morning before mom had fed them, she was always more than anxious to do it when I brought them back to her. I think she was happy to have that pressure relieved

Not sure about the stuffie. You could try putting it with mom first, to see how she reacts. She may even end up taking it out of the nest if you put it in there. You can try though. I would do one without the beans as you don't want them accidentally ingested. Just plain stuffing and no strings or anything that mom can chew off. Also keep an eye on it to make sure mom isn't chewing it up.

 

[savingbuns]

I have read a few things over the past month about Rabbits - okay a lot about rabbits ha ha.

I have been trying to find out more information about single kit litters. Found a few things here and there....such as when you check the bunny to pull the bunny with some the nest fur and show her too the Mom - do the inspection and when you put her back pass her by Mom again to have a good sniff.

So I did that today.

We were really pleased to see that she had a nice plump look about her today.

Yesterday when we pulled her out to show a friend I was surprised to see Freddie jump in the box and lay down beside the nest. She stayed there somewhat protecting the nest so I decided not to pull the baby out.

Today she did the same thing again but was okay with me. She jumped out and looked back at the nest - almost to give me permission.

We did the in and out and when she went back into her nest she was not too happy - Sierra that is.

Now we have read that Rabbits won't feed their young until night time or when they feel really safe and not stressed. So it was a nice pleasant surprise to see Freddie jump in and I could tell that she was actually feeding Sierra - could hear her suckling! When Freddie had jumped out Sierra was hanging on and landed on her back - rolled over and bee-lined for her little hole under a mountain of Mommy's hair....

I know I need to change out the chicken wire - it is all I had at the time - but need to bring her out of that crate and into a bigger one soon.










Yep Sierra is have a good feed right when I was shooting...

WAAAHHH I want more - amazing how the mother does hop out and whack the baby falls off.

There she is right side up and on her way back to her little fur nest.

 

[savingbuns]

Look at my little baby Sierra now - just two days and what a difference. She looks like a real bunny now.







Should I be concerned about the dander the bun has - not overly dander but does anyone think I need to give the Mom some oil supplement?

 

[JBun]

Awww, what a sweet baby She's so fluffy now. It's so fun when those little eyes open. Watch out! She's going to be into all sorts of trouble You'll be amazed at how fast they grow and change. In one week she'll be a little fluffball popcorning around and playing. I think the dander is just normal dry baby skin. My babies were white, so if they had it I never saw.

Freddie is such a cute momma. She sounds like she is doing a good job of taking care of that little baby.

 

[savingbuns]

Sierra looks so different from shot to shot - just moving around.

So starting to think we should bring her and Mom into the basement - it is an unfinished basement with not much heat or insulation so should be cool enough.

Just don't want the chance of Sierra jumping out of her box in the middle of the night and not being able to get back in and get way way too cold. I will make her new crate such that she can always get back to her box and burrow into some warm stuff pretty quickly. Have a little play friend for her - a little stuff puppy that I put some rice in and it heats up nicely for her to snuggle against when she is a bit bigger. I thought of having a small mirror or two out there so she thinks there are more bunnies and it may amuse her. Will have to get lots of little things for her to chew and gnaw on, jump in and out of and such to keep her busy and not so bored without litter mates.

What have other people done to keep an only kit busy?