2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 8

The baby rabbits turned 8 weeks old last Saturday.  (I'm really late with posting this.)  One of them has found a new home already and another one goes tomorrow.

Now we just need to find homes for the last 3...

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 7

I was in the yard today and noticed that none of the rabbits were visible in the hutch.  I went to check and sure enough all of them were in the box on the side.  They were nursing!!!  I thought for sure they'd be done with that by now.  They're emptying the feeder every other day. 

 It's funny to see those big rabbits on the backs with their feet in the air. 

These are both babies.  They've gotten big.

 

My wife checked the other day and she thinks that the black rabbit is the only male. 

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 6

The 6-week-old pictures are here.

 Their ears have made the transition and are in the lop stage now.

We've been getting them into the yard some more.  They must've gotten bigger, because they haven't slipped through the cage recently. 

It's hard to believe that they'll be ready for new homes in just two more weeks.

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 5

The baby rabbits have gotten so big!  They'll be ready for homes in just 3 weeks. 

 

 They don't hold still for group photos.

 Their ears are in a weird in between stage.  They started out sticking up but are slowing falling down.

I thought it would be fun to get them into the yard today.  I put up the folding pen and put each of the baby rabbits in there.  Then I moved the momma.  They seemed fairly happy hopping around.  I went to check on the chickens.  I was filling their water when I looked over to see the dog chasing a baby rabbit around the yard.  I yelled to my daughter who quickly grabbed the rabbit and put it back in the pen.  (The dog wasn't trying to hurt it.  She has a herding instinct and likes to chase and play.) 

We kept a close eye on the rabbits, but after the second one got out we decided that having them in the yard was not a good idea.  They went back into the hutch.

I was outside after dark tonight and heard a lot of scratching noise from the rabbits.  When I got close I could see that none of the rabbits were in the cage part of the hutch.  They were all in the box.  I lifted the lid and could make out the momma rabbit pressed against the wall and four pairs of feet sticking out from under her.  The babies were on their backs with their feet in the air nursing.  It was quite comical.  I thought they stopped nursing once they started eating solid food, but I guess not. 

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 4

It feels like I just put out the "week 3" post.  I was late with it, so that's probably why.  The rabbits were born on a Saturday so I'm only a day late with this update.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

I don't know why they sit in their hay to eat.

Their ears aren't quite to that lop state yet.

 

They're going through a lot of food and water.  We have to fill the feeder and waterer twice a day and dump the droppings from the tray at least once a day.  I imagine it's only going to get worse going forward.

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 3

I was home over the weekend so I'm late getting this out.  The baby rabbits hit the 3 week mark on Saturday.  Boy are they getting big.  They're eating food and hay now.  They still spend most of their time in the box on the side of the hutch, but they do occasionally come out and invade their momma's space.

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 2.5

Just wanted to note a little progress made today...

The black bunny had one eye still sealed shut.  Two days ago, we noticed it was a little crusty, so I held a damp cloth to it until the crustiness softened and then brushed it away.  The eye didn't open immediately.  Checked back today, and it was still closed.

I started googling and read about something called "nest box eye."  It's an infection that can happen by leaving the nesting material in the box too long and bacteria begins to grow under the moist, warm eyelid.  By 14 days, baby bunnies should have their eyes open.  Today is day 18 which is considered way too long and may indicate a problem.

So, following some advice I read, I took a warm teabag out to the bunny and held it on the closed eye for a few moments.  Then I gently wiped around the eye with a damp paper towel, tugging ever so carefully on the eyelid and, voila!  Eye opened.  Once it was opened, there was no redness the eye looked clear and the baby seemed as happy and chipper as before!

Now to go clean out that nesting material...

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 2

The baby rabbits are growing like crazy. 

They started opening their eyes a day or two before they turned two weeks old.

They aren't crazy about being held, but they tolerate it.  We try to handle them every day to get them used to people.

We lost a rabbit today.

My wife and daughter went out to check on the baby rabbits this afternoon.  I was checking for chicken eggs when they called me over.  My wife said that there was only 1 black rabbit (there had been two).  I looked all through the nest and it wasn't there.  We literally lost it.  We checked the ground around the hutch and it was nowhere to be found.  My daughter was visibly upset, but she stayed calm.  The only thing we could figure was that the momma rabbit ate the baby.  I've read that rabbits sometimes do that when they get scared. 

I went to get my camera and made a grim discovery.  I walked up the steps to the back porch and the baby rabbit was laying right there.  We aren't sure when it happened, but we're pretty sure that the dog put it there.  What we'll never know, and can only speculate about, is how the dog got the rabbit. 

I picked up the rabbit and called the dog over.  She looked at it.  Then I put it down.  She sniffed it and poked it with her foot.  Then she looked at me.  She didn't run off with it, or try to play "keep away" like she does with her toys.  I think she brought it to us for help.  That still doesn't explain how she got it.  We could come up with only two explanations.  It crawled out of the nest, through the bars, fell to the ground and died.  Or it died in the nest and the momma rabbit disposed of it by putting it through the cage bars.  Either way it must have ended up on the ground outside of the hutch, where the dog found it. 

I'm not sure how all 3 of us came out the back door and didn't see it.  The dog must've put it there after we were in the yard.  None of us saw her do it though.  I wish she could talk and tell us what happened.

2015 Baby Bunnies - Week 1

The rabbits turned 1 week old today.  They still spend all of their time huddled in the nest.

Aww.

There are 4 brown & grey ones and two black ones.  They won't have their eyes open for another week or two.

The momma rabbit has been much more calm this time around.  She generally lets us handle the babies without trying to bite our hands like last time.

Happy Birthday baby bunnies!

We had another litter of rabbits today.  We put the rabbits together 30 days ago with hopes that they'd be born today, Saturday, February 28.  Like clockwork they arrived when they were due. 

There are 6 babies in total.  Two of them are black and 4 are brown.  We had 3 black and 2 brown last time. 

The doe went through a lot of hay this week.  I don't think she eat much of it at all.  Instead she took every bit she could get to build a nest.  This morning she pulled out a ton of hair.  I don't know how she has any left.  Then she went in her box for a while.  When we went out to check there were babies! 

I find this whole rabbit breeding thing very interesting.  Everyone has heard the saying, "They breed like rabbits."  We have found that rabbits are very eager to try to breed, but they're not so successful at producing offspring.  I've lost track of how many times we have put them together.  It's been at least 5-6 times, maybe more.  This is only our second litter.

Bunny breeding booster

Who knew bunnies didn't always reproduce like... well... bunnies?

With a track record of only 1 kindle of babies to 5 attempts at breeding, it was time to turn to the all-knowing internet for research.  There were all kinds of suggestions from diets to artificial lighting and heat.  Most seemed more costly and involved than we wanted to take on.  With only one breeding pair, it didn't seem worth it to put that much effort into getting them to breed.  Even without intervention, we figured it'd happen again eventually.  So we took the easier suggestions and ran with them.

First, about a week before the planned pairing, we started adding raw apple cider vinegar to the water given to both male and female.  We used Bragg Organic Apple Cider Vinegar (Raw and "with the mother") which you can probably find at your local grocery store.


For reference, we have these waterers (32oz, click picture for Amazon link), and added the ACV at the rate of about a tablespoon every other day as we filled the water, which wasn't always completely empty at the time of refill:
 

The day before we put the rabbits together, I brewed up a cup of Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Leaf tea.  We filled the female's waterer with fresh, new water (no vinegar) and added about 1/2 cup of the brewed tea to the 28 or so ounces of water.

The next day, we let the rabbits have a little "date" out in the yard on fresh grass.  Generally, we put the male in a collapsible pen, let him get oriented for a few minutes, and then introduce the female to the pen.  Things seemed to go well, and both bunnies were more mellow about the whole affair than in past meetings.

After that, we waited.... for about 3 weeks.
And two days ago, we noticed that our female is definitely nesting!  She's pulling out hair and piling it with pine shavings and hay in her box!

The kits are officially due this Saturday, so we'll be sure to post updates and let you know if our rabbit fertility treatments were truly successful!

Will there be baby rabbits?

We put the rabbits together last month.  Then a week ago we put pine shavings in the doe's hutch so she could make a nest like last time.  She has completely ignored them.  She hasn't pulled out her hair.  That's a pretty good indication that she's not pregnant.  We still have a few more days until her due date.  Once that passes we'll put them together so they can try again.

Will we get more baby rabbits?

My daughter successfully raised and sold a litter or rabbits last spring.  We didn't want to have the female pregnant through the summer, so we didn't try again right away.  Since it's the end of August and summer is almost over, we thought that now was a good time to try again.

We put the male in the pen for a little while so he could establish that it was his area.  Then we put his wife in there with him.  It didn't take them long to do what rabbits do.

This is the most graphic picture you're going to get.

I'd guess that they were in there together for 15-20 minutes.  Now we just have to wait a few weeks to find out if it worked.

Baby Rabbits -- Week 9

The baby rabbits are 9 weeks old and as of now we only have one left.  The other 4 have gone to their new homes.  The one that's left is going to its new home this weekend.

When we started this adventure I was worried that my daughter might have a hard time parting with them.  That hasn't been the case at all.  She's been fine with letting them go.  She's even reminded us that we have to let her do more of the talking when people are here picking them up.

I don't have any new pictures to share, so I thought I'd re-post some of the old ones.

Day 1

1 week old

2 weeks old

3 weeks old

4 weeks old

5 weeks old

6 weeks old

7 weeks old

8 weeks old

I had attempted to take a picture of a brown bunny on top of the hutch each week.  We had two brown ones and I doubt very much that I picked the same one each time.  It's also apparent from the pictures that I had varying amounts of sunlight.  And, the little guys don't hold still.  The older they got the more they hopped around.  Anyway, the pictures give you a sense of how quickly they grew. 

Baby Rabbits -- Week 8

Happy 8 week birthday baby rabbits!  Now it's time for you to move out. 

All of the rabbits have been claimed.  They'll start going to their new homes over the next week or two.

 The momma rabbit still makes them look small.  She was actually that size when we got her.

I don't have much else to say about the baby rabbits.  They sure are cute, and they're a lot of fun to watch.  I'm going to miss them when they are gone.  That's OK though.  The two we have will make more. 

8 weeks old.

We had the rabbits in the yard the other day and captured some video.  The dog sure enjoyed watching them.