I gave my breeder the best gift ever

[sickbunny]

the baby lived to be 3 weeks old. it was doing wonderfully. then the heat wave struck. we had 3 weeks of unbearable heat, with temps in the 90s to 100. the rabbits all had fans in front of their cages. i even tried frozen plastic 2 liter bottles of water in the cages and wetting them down. the day the baby died it was 100 degrees with a real feel temp of 108. i was sick from the heat myself.


i talked to a breeder at the fair last week who said jerseys are so hard to raise. she said when we had a really cold rainy season this spring, she lost a whole litter.

the heat wave has been horrible across the country this past month.

i read in the rainbow bridge forum how many people have recently lost rabbits.

today my 1 yr old jersey who had been fighting sickness for so long passed away.

i guess as breeders who have a lot of rabbits would say that death is a part of life, and the more rabbits you have, the more death you will experience, but i wonder, does it ever not hurt so bad? is it just i get too attached? how i wonder do the breeders bear it?

 

[CCWelch]

I am so sorry to hear that you lost your much awaited kit and another rabbit. The heat has been hard on everyone in the "heat zone" I lost 3 to heat then 1 more to G.I. Stasis caused by the heat and the bunny not in-taking enough fluids.

You do know that the doe is supposed to go to the bucks cage not the other way around right? If she gets upset or angry with him being in her territory then she can (and they usually do) destroy his reproductive organs. If she is in his territory then he has the control.
I would wait a couple weeks and rebreed her. It is obvious she still wants to breed and raise babies.

 

[sickbunny]

thank you cc!

yes i do know that the doe should go to the male's cage. she loves benny, and he adores her. when we take smiley out to another room to run and exercise, benny looks distressed. when she comes back he literally jumps in the air, then they both race down to the end of the cage where they stick their noses out at each other and he turns round and round in circles. benny will often carry a piece a of romaine lettuce down to the end and try and push it thru the bars to smiley.

i talked to the judge at the rabbit show last week about all my rabbits. he said smiley is not too old and i should try again. then he said something that totally blew my mind- keep in mind this is a rabbit JUDGE at a show- he said does can breed all the way up to 7 or 8. i said everyone keeps telling me 4 is about retirement age. he said "they just dont understand genetics, there is no reason you cant breed her again, and rabbits can successfully breed to 7 or 8 years old!!!

i repeated that to a woman who is a breeder at the show, and she said she stops hers between 2-3, she just doesnt feel its fair to breed them longer than that. i told her that women can have babies at 43, but its a lot harder to have a baby when you're 43 than when you're 23, and we both laughed. but that is how i saw it.

a judge! 7 to 8 years old! i would never do that to smiley. i am gonna try again in a couple months when its cooler. smiley was a good mom and she tried taking care of her baby, unlike some does who wont care for them. and she doesnt mind breeding, she loves benny.


cc, i am so sorry for your loss. 4 rabbits! that is just heartbreaking! everyone kept asking me today what was wrong because my eyes are swollen into little slits with big bubbles of fluid under the skin on my eyelids from crying so hard and so long over bella. i can truly understand how painful such a loss could be, and i'm sorry that you had to go thru that. i hope their memories will give you comfort in knowing that you did the best you could and they knew they were loved. god bless you! xox

 

[Brittany85]

I just read your story and that is so sweet! Just a tip, rabbits that are Broken are just called "Broken.. then the colour they are. So a white and blue rabbit would be Broken Blue