Afternoon everyone, today I thought I'd share my more gruesome experience whilst breeding rabbit's... don't worry I won't share this as photos of grossness!
Well it all started when I decided to get a few unrelated does to kick off my hobby breeding. My partner bought me 2 cute bundles of fluff, he called them the queens slippers! They were both mini lion lops, one black with a grey mane (Maria) and one Chocolate with a minky coloured mane (Roise). As I bought my bunnies from an experienced breeder and was new to the breeding scene myself, I never thought to check their gender. I simply took her word for it! They were perfect, as friendly and as cute as can be. They loved cuddles, kisses and exploring the house and garden together.
One day, about a month later, I was out in the garden and caught sight of Rosie doing something rabbits do best (catch my drift?). Well I thought maybe its just a dominance thing (which is very possible) but I had better double check their gender...
Great... Rosie is actually Jim! ( now I'm more experienced I can honestly say I don't blame the breeder for this mistake as bunnies are one of the hardest animals to gender!) So Jim was re-homed with my partners oldest son and re named Kook. Whilst Rosie remained with us.
As she reached breeding age I placed her in my bucks hutch and let them do their thing. Well... 4 weeks and 3 days later, 5 tiny little kits arrived. 1 White, 1 Black, 1 Lilac, 1 Lilac Split and 1 Chocolate Split. Stunning! I was SOOOOO excited as they were my second litter (although I still get excited now)!
1 week later... babies were growing nicely, mom was feeding well (I didn't weigh them back then, but could see how fat their little bellies were). Then on night 8 when I went out to the hutch I was greeted by the most awful sight... a half eaten baby bunny!!! Well... my mind started racing with... could it be hunger? Have I done something wrong? Was she frighted? So, off I went inside and started researching reasons. I came to the conclusion that she wouldn't have wanted to kill the baby she was far too nice natured for that! Which meant she was trying to get rid of it for some reason. Maybe it had got out the nest and died from cold or she knew there was something wrong with it, so she was trying to get rid. Which by the way is a very natural and a normal thing for her to do. So I removed the half eaten baby and checked the other 4 they were all fine and looking full.
The following morning I went out to feed the bunnies, I checked the babies... 1 is missing? Where could that be? So I searched the cage no sign of it anywhere! Whats going on? I took Maria from her cage and gave her a love put her in the run and completely double checked the hutch, there was nothing, not a thing! Just 3 remaining babies, tucked up in the nest, 1 White, 1 Black and 1 Chocolate Split.
"What should I do?" I asked my partner.
"Let nature take its course" he said "There must be a reason".
The following night was fine no problems at all, babies were healthy and their eyes had started to open. All was well... or was it?
The next morning I went outside to find the black baby laying dead in the cage. She hadn't eaten it this time but now I was getting very worried for the last two. So after researching how to, I made the hard decision to remove the 2 remaining babies and bring them into the house to raise them myself.
The babies were starting to venture out of the nest and so we kept them in a large material toy box we could empty, we filled it with meadow hay and put holes in the side to attach a water bottle and placed a food bowl inside. There it was... a make shift indoor home for 2 orphan bunnies. I hand raised the babies until 3 weeks old knowing there was a chance they wouldn't make it, as inhaling milk will kill them. Unfortunately we lost the white one.
Then there was 1... she was doing great and my partner had fed her a few times and she really took a liking to him. She would sit on his shoulder watching TV and follow him around the house. You could tell that she truly loved him so, he decided he wanted to keep her as his bunny. She was stunning, Chocolate in colour with a front white leg and a white split from the bottom of her mouth right to the back of her neck, she had a lion mane and stunning bright blue eyes. He named her Miracle as she was the miracle child that survived.
Miracle lived a happy life with us and was like any other bunny, she would play and follow you around, she loved us that much she was always licking our hands, legs, arms and faces. She had the kindest nature and was loved by everyone that met her.
One day whilst talking to another breeder, I told her the story behind miracle and that I wasn't going to breed from her just in case she wasn't strong enough. She said "oh she will be fine hun if shes fit and healthy in herself now". Well she was so we decided to breed her to keep some breeding girls from her as she was such an amazing bunny.
4 weeks and 3 days later... Miracle was doing great, she had a beautiful round belly and had built an amazing nest. You could tell she was ready and would be a great mom.
But here's the worst part of the story... Miracle gave birth to 7 super healthy babies all in their nest apart from the last one. It was stuck half in, half out of our beautiful, amazing, stunning, loving girl. She had died giving birth to her final gorgeous little baby. The babies were raised by pillow feeding from another mom that had just had her litter leave. Unfortunately the adoption moms milk ran dry and hand feeding wasn't working out, we lost all 7 babies. But the most upsetting was loosing our beautiful Miracle.
The moral of this story... trust yourself and don't follow what others say. If theres any doubt in your mind that it won't work out, don't do it!
I don't have any photos of miracle on here as it is too upsetting, however theres a photo below of a magnet I made my partner from her for fathers day.
Speak soon, stay safe,
Hannah đ đ°
1 Comment