Peg's Lionhead thread / babies/ moms & more

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TinysMom

TinysMom

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, Texas, USA
I thought I would do a blog on two of ourlionhead litters that have been born in the last few days. As many ofyou know, I am a lionhead breeder and I just adore this breed (althoughI also love flemmies and lops and others).

I'm going to go and take pictures in a few minutes and I will update this but I wanted to do an introduction to the two litters.

El Rey's Calypso (tort doe) was bred to Welsh's Cassanova (chinchilla)and she had four babies on November 27th. Both rabbits have beautifultype and Cassanova hides the shaded genes so I wanted to see what Iwould get. Both rabbits also have a nice mane.

I also bred El Rey's Nadia (sable point) to Island's Cousteau (tortbuck - who is the father of Calypso listed above). Both rabbits sharethe same mother but they have different fathers. I wanted to see if Icould get good type again. Nadia is pretty good but Cousteau is reallygood. Unfortunately, neither of them have kept their mane as much asI'd like. This litter of five was born today.

So now we'll watch the two litters grow and I'll share what I look foras a breeder fir show rabbits but I'll also share my thoughts on thepet quality rabbits too. I will try to even share about theirpersonalities as they develop.

Oh well....off to take photos!

Peg
 
I'm going to start with a size comparison ofboth litters. Remember, one litter was born 11/27 and the other one wasborn 12/1. Both litters were about the same size when they were born.




Now let me show the two litters together in the basket I used to carry them in:



Now for Calypso's litter:







On the last photo, can you see the shiny spot on the sides where thereis no fur? This is how I can tell that the rabbits are double mane(they got the mane gene from each parent). If I had a single manerabbit in the litter (which I don't), fur would have grown in on thesides the same as it did along the top.

Now here is Nadia's litter. They were born sometime between 1 am and 9am this morning...so they are at most 16 hours old and maybe as youngas 8 hours old. Can you tell how some of the color is starting to show?









Now, I already have some thoughts on these babies but I want to waitfor the fur to come in a bit more before I write about what I look forin my lionheads.

At this point, I'm somewhat encouraged by both litters. None of thebabies seems to have "dumbo ears" - you know - really huge ones. Theirheads look pretty good for what I want.

Oh well - that's probably enough for today...more later!

Peg
 
Peg, they are so cute!:bunnyheartThat's agreat idea, I'd love to see their progress as they get older:)

It's so amazing at the size difference, I can't believe how much they grow in just one day!!!:shock:

Michaela and the girls:brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny
 
I just had a litter of four born to a teeny tinydoe. I'm in shock because they are so small - way smaller than theseare. I'm really concerned about if they'll make it because if they werein a normal litter I have I'd think, "Oh no...peanuts". But they don'thave the typical peanut look to them (sorta hard to describe).

Right now they're warming up in another nest because mama had them onthe wire and they're cold. One of the four died before I found them. Ofthe three remaining, one is a good size but the other two...I'm sortanervous I'll lose them.

I will try to take photos tomorrow (if they make it through the night)- I want them to warm up first and then give them back to mama tonurse. She hadn't even nursed them - she was just looking around like,"oh my...I missed my nestbox..now what am I going to do?"

So the babies I took pictures of look huge now compared to this litter...and they even have the same daddy (Cousteau).

Peg
 
Aww, I hope they make it.:pray: Poor mama, I hope she realises what she's meant to do!

Michaela and the girls:brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny
 
poor babys! i know what you mean i had tinybabys born a few days ago and even know i stil expect them to die custhere so small.
1 question for you does your does ever move the kits out of the nest box?
ive never seen this being done before
 
I picked up the fourth baby to dispose of it - and its alive!

I'm in shock. So it is getting warm also. It opened its mouth and started moving its legs.

I haven't seen mamas move their babies OUT of the box BUT I have knownbabies to still be attached to mama when she's done nursing and sort of"ride" out of the box by being attached to her nipple still.

Some of my does don't like nestboxes and will prefer to make a nest in the corner of their cage.

What is funny about this doe that just had her babies now is - I didn'tthink she was pregnant. She didn't look pregnant and I couldn't feelthe babies. So yesterday she was playing on the floor and I was walkingback through the rabbitry from outside when she ran up to me andstarted pulling on my pants. I looked at her and was in shock becauseshe is almost never friendly to me. I reached down and she was stilltugging on my pants...when I picked her up - she had fur in her mouth.I put her back down for a minute 'cause I was in shock and I watchedher chase other does and pull fur from them (to take back to her nest).It was cold yesterday and I was thinking, "You little twerp..you don'twant to give up your own fur..".

Anyway, she got put back in her cage (playtime was cut short obviously)and she got a nestbox almost immediately. I keep flannel andfelt for my does too and she got a piece of that so she was prettyhappy.

Oh well - back to life here. We have several does due soon so I'm sort of being kept on my toes!

Peg
 
most my does hate nest boxs but this one willuse it no problem if i make the nest for her!! but not this time when ichecked her in the morning the box was empty,
straight away i taught she killed them even thou this is her 4th litter and has only lost 1 baby so far.
she had her nest moved intoa corner hay blanket and fur and babies aredoing great! she must have moved them with her mouth i cant see anyother way
 
awwww iv have never in my life seen babey bunnysthey are sooo adorable to think my lil hunny use to look like that awwsorry to be such a finatic i just love buns to bits congrats on thecute lil ones tho

kim x
 
I just thought I'd update on that tiny litter.

Mama rejected them and she didn't feel like she had any milk. I woundup putting them with another doe's babies (Nadia's - you saw her pinkbabies above) - just to keep them warm.

So far - all four are alive. I will try to take pics tomorrow.

There is one of them that I'm pretty sure won't make it. It looks likeNadia might have nursed the other three of them a bit...but I could bewrong. They just seem a bit healthier and maybe like they had a bit ofnursing even though they don't have ping pong bellies. I have noticedthat Nadia sometimes nurses 2-3 times per day...so maybe she fed them abit.

To give you an idea though - I wear about a size 10 ring - so I havelarge hands. These babies are maybe the size of my pinkie...maybe noteven that large.

To top things off - another doe had Cousteau's babies today (he wasquite active for me last month) - and her babies are almost the size ofCalypso's babies that are a few days old.... This doe had fivebabies....

Anyway - so far the teeny tiny ones are still alive - I'll try to get photos tomorrow if they make it through the night.

Peg

P.S. Since Nadia already had five babies and there were fourtiny ones - and a doe only has 8 nipples....I put the one I didn'tthink would make it with Calypso. I figured it had a better chancegoing against 6 older bunnies than it did against 8 that were the sameage. I did think about moving one of Nadia's over and letting thelittle one nurse w/ Nadia...but I really didn't want to break up herlitter and I just don't think this one will make it. So I wanted toleave Nadia's babies with her..


 
Today I'm going to have more pictures than usual but I want to show you the different litter sizes.

First of all, my tiny babies are ALL still alive. I have wound uptaking away the two babies that Calypso was fostering (gave them backto the original mom and told her to not knock her box over again..butthe babies at least have fur now)....and I'm giving Calypso the fourteeny tiny babies plus her babies. This way, since Nadia has torts andthe teeny babies are torts - and Calypso doesn't have torts -I won't get them mixed up.

To be honest, I'm in total shock that the teeny ones made it throughthe night. They don't have the ping pong bellies but they areapparently getting fed as they are very warm and they seem to be a bitbigger every time I look at them. Art pointed out that a ping pongbelly wouldn't have to be very big on them. I still am not sure ifthey're going to make it.

Here come the photos:





I wanted to show you the size difference between a teeny baby andNadia's babies (that you saw yesterday). Both are the same age (withina few hours).

Maybe this will help to put it into perspective:







The dark one is calypso's baby that was born 11/27...the other two were born yesterday.

Now remember - both of those tort babies have the same daddy...its justthe mom that is different. They are also a few hours apart in age.

Here are some more size comparisons for you...





I think I'm going to follow the teeny tiny litter in this thread too - if y'all are interested and if they make it.

Now - I also had one other litter born yesterday...same daddy again.Let me share pictures of one baby from each of the three litters bornyesterday so you can see the difference..



The dark one is from Kaela's litter (that was born after the teenybabies) - the middle one is from Nadia's litter and the tinyone...well...you can see it...right?

Anyway - that will be it for today except for one last photo...and it is a comparison also...




Tomorrow I'll try to take better photos but they really do need to develop a bit more.

So right now - the litters that have been pictured are:

Calypso's dark babies - born 11/27
Nadia's tort babies - born 12/1
Tiny tort babies - born 12/1
Kaela's tort babies & dark baby - born 12/1

Hope you enjoy them. I am praying that the tiny ones make it - I think it will be interesting to see what they are like.

Sometime next week I hope to share photos of the mamas and daddies...

Peg


 
As a quick update - all four teeny tiny babies are still alive. I'm honestly in shock.

This afternoon I'm going to start weighing them to see if I can track them better.

Peg
 
It is amazing that they are so different! And that they are making it. You must be very proud of the foster does too.
 
We are definitely interested in watching all ofthem grow!:D Thats shocking:shock:, the size difference, but I'm sohappy they are doing well, I hope they make it!:pray:

Michaela and the girls:brownbunny:brownbunny:brownbunny
 
No photos today - just an update....

DRUMROLL PLEASE?

...
...
...

ALL FOUR TEENY TINY BABIES ARE STILL ALIVE!!!

I'm really happy about this. I'm still in shock - but they are a littleover 48 hours old and still staying warm so I'm assuming that meansthey are getting fed.

I will share some photos tomorrow of them. The biggest one of thatlitter has definitely grown some. The other three...well...I'm notsure. I may start weighing them tomorrow - too lazy to do so tonight.

Peg


 
Two of the tiny babies were dead this morning.It looks like all three of them were still attached to mama when shegot out of the nestbox. Two of them crawled away and one was stillattached and laying under mama when we searched the cage...it was stillalive.

I think I'm done bawling for now - but I'm not sure.

I'll share more lionhead photos later today. I am going to share photosof a different litter because I want to show you one thing I look at inmy babies!

Peg
 
I'm sorry. You did so much for them. Gave ityour all and that is all you could do. But there is still hope for theothers so keep up the good work!
 
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