One of the things I love about Christmas, since we started with rabbits eight years ago, is Christmas bunnies! This year it is more fun because I look forward to showing them and I have I have a doe due on Christmas, (but if you have read previous posts you already know that my rabbits often like to mess with my brilliant breeding plans, so we shall see). The doe that is due on Christmas is GC Luna. She was bred to my friend Hannah's Dallan, an amazing blue that probably would have been Best of Breed at several shows, if blue was presently an accepted color.
Three days after Thanksgiving, Twilight kindled four from her breeding with her grandfather GC Leon, all black and carrying blue blue from their mother. I suspect that Leon does not carry dilute, so all his offspring will be black. Twilight was a bit clueless being a first time mother, which makes me thankful that my husband was home to watch her while I was away for the event. Of course, she was a day past her due date...rabbits love to mess with me and my brilliant breeding plans!
Twilight did not make a nest and did not pull any fur...none at all. Thankfully, I had some extra saved for just this reason from a mother doe that would pull far more than was needed and my husband put it in the drop nest box as well as a dehumidifying rod well covered just to add a bit of warmth. Unfortunately, then the clueless, first-time mama decided that she would like to lay in the nesting box, so I decided to close the divider between the outer cage and the nesting box hutch until her mothering instincts began to take over. That happens usually when the milk comes in. I opened the partition twice a day and Twilight would go in and feed them, but on the third day I could see she had a different attitude about the nest and she even pulled fur, so I felt confident in leaving the divider open from that point on. Now I have four nice looking LTW-4 kits at four weeks old: two bucks and two does.
This is the largest buck at four weeks and although it is too early to seriously evaluate him, he is showing many of his sire's favorable traits so far, like good width. (I added a little Christmas sparkle for fun.)
I had bred Canyon on November 15th. It was her second breeding as the first one did not take with Leon. Actually, it was the second time she rejected Leon, with the first time being at High Rock's Rabbitry when purchasing her weeks before I purchased him. For this breeding, I did my usual routine of placing the two in cages next to each other for a few days, checked her vent which was not quite as ready as I was expecting to see, but maybe good enough. I placed her in his cage several times that day and the next, but she just would not lift. Since they were so cordial with each other, I did several things I never thought I would do to try to get her to be receptive, things I had read that other people have done. I placed him in with her in her cage. She was not at all aggressive with him, but also would not lift. After a while of switching back and forth, I thought maybe they would do better if I left them alone for a little while, since they seemed so cordial with each other, I decided to leave them together overnight and the next day and then even the next night.
The weather had been uncommonly hot late into the fall season, so when Canyon passed her due date, I was at a loss as to if it was Leon suffering a temporary infertility or permanent due to his age, or if it was Canyon had not accepted him or had but she was infertile! Fortunately, both have proven to be still fertile when I bred them with others: Leon with Twilight (as described above) and Canyon with Astro Man.
I suspected that Astro Man might carry white and I knew Canyon did, but still is was a surprise to see a Red-Eye White in the nesting box!
The weather had been uncommonly hot late into the fall season, so when Canyon passed her due date, I was at a loss as to if it was Leon suffering a temporary infertility or permanent due to his age, or if it was Canyon had not accepted him or had but she was infertile! Fortunately, both have proven to be still fertile when I bred them with others: Leon with Twilight (as described above) and Canyon with Astro Man.
I suspected that Astro Man might carry white and I knew Canyon did, but still is was a surprise to see a Red-Eye White in the nesting box!
Actually she had a blue (on the top left), a black, and a white. This was her second kindle with me and both of them she only had three, which is not ideal. Canyon built a good nest and pulled lots of fur for her babies to stay warm. Unfortunately, Canyon also decided to lie in the drop nesting box, which I did not think she would do being that she is a proven mother and has used the kindling suite before. The white died because of this and I partitioned off the remaining two, opening it to get her a chance to nurse them twice a day until her milk came in. Since then she handled them just fine.
Today, we decided to pull out Canyon's two to place in a traditional nesting box since they are six days old with fur, so that we could place Luna in the kindling suite. This is not something we usually do until the kits' eyes are open, but Luna was bred with Dallan when that was convenient to arrange with his owner, so we had an overlap. Luna is due on Christmas Day, but all the first to pregnancies before her went over by a day. She seem to be interested in the nesting box so I thought she was busy building it, but after I did my weekly weight and checking of the LTW-4 kits, I found Luna lying in the nesting box like the other two does before her had done. I have not had this problem before with my does, but thankfully I have a simple solution, I closed off the nesting area.