The NZW buck we culled on Sunday was a sprayer. All bucks are to some extent, but this one was really determined to set three records in our rabbitry for amount, distance, and number of animals and persons (yes, that would be me included). I could hardly clean him up enough, being that he was supposed to be a pristine white, to take pictures for a listing that did not show him as bright yellow. Then there is this little fact of life that rabbits should never be bathed, because they freak and some have died during the process.
Because the rabbitry was crowded and we have Canyon in quarantine, we ended up with bucks in cages next to does. The does were also sprayed, of course. Their fur is...well, they needed cleaning and all their cages needed a deep cleaning. So, that is what we spent the day doing Sunday, besides processing.
My husband and I decided that we need to have another plan for the bucks, so they do not see each other or the does, until we are ready to breed them. I am not sure that will calm them down, but at this point I am willing to try most anything. I am tired of the rabbits' fur being covered in dried buck pee.
The plan is to place the buck in the two stacked cages that are free standing and separate from the others. We used the lower one to quarantine Black Ivy and then Canyon, but Canyon is pregnant, hopefully. She also appears healthy, so I decided to move her into the kindling suite now. She will still be separated from the other rabbits and I do not think she has anything to contaminate the kindling suite. However, when we looked at the floor of the kindling suite, we realized that we had left the old wiring on the floor.
The old wiring was not as thick as the newer one. It was galvanized before the weld, so rabbits can grab the wire with their teeth to pull it up and apart. My husband who planned to cull three rabbits and then do some mowing, instead had to replace the flooring with better wire galvanized after the weld, while I continued to wash and scrub clean the other cages.
The old wiring was not as thick as the newer one. It was galvanized before the weld, so rabbits can grab the wire with their teeth to pull it up and apart. My husband who planned to cull three rabbits and then do some mowing, instead had to replace the flooring with better wire galvanized after the weld, while I continued to wash and scrub clean the other cages.
The top cage of the stacked two, which we will use for the bucks, currently is not finished with a slanted divider under it so that the droppings to fall behind into a gutter for collection and will not be done for at least two weeks because of our schedules. Then the bucks in there will still see the rabbits in cages across the aisle, but maybe it will be enough space that they calm down a bit with the spraying. If not, I am considering a roll shade, which I probably need one on the south side of the rabbitry to shade the sun anyway.
So Sunday, we moved three rabbits to different cages. Canyon went to the kindling suite, Comet went to the lower of the two stacked cages free standing from the others where Canyon had been after it was thoroughly washed down, and Denim was moved to Comet's former cage, the lower one closest to the gate. All three seem to be unhappy about it Sunday night and perhaps Lancelot as well, because he and Denim have always neighbored each other.
Monday morning though, Denim actually came up to the cage door as if to greet me...while it was still closed, but this was a major change in her usual habit of hiding in the back of the cage as soon a I approach it. Comet still is not happy because he has always been the one I greet first and now he is furthest from the gate; he seems to now run back and forth until I go to pet him. Canyon seems more relaxed, but she still is a vocal kind of girl. Lancelot seems a little depressed being he is without a neighbor and has been lying in the back of the age instead of on the side as he used to, but that may will change later this week as I plan to place Misty Blue in the cage next to him so they can get acquainted before I breed them together next weekend. I am hoping that introduction will get Misty Blue to be more receptive to the breeding.
I also weighed BMB-5 on Sunday. I was hoping to see BMB5 at 5 pounds (+/- 1.0 ounce) and he was so close, just 1.5 ounces short of that 5 pound mark. Still, I am rather pleased because he has been steady in his growth process and he has a solid, firm body with a well rounded backside; just the thing that meat breeders like to see! He definitely has that "WOW" factor and he has lovely Silver Fox type fur with some silvering coming in.
Monday morning though, Denim actually came up to the cage door as if to greet me...while it was still closed, but this was a major change in her usual habit of hiding in the back of the cage as soon a I approach it. Comet still is not happy because he has always been the one I greet first and now he is furthest from the gate; he seems to now run back and forth until I go to pet him. Canyon seems more relaxed, but she still is a vocal kind of girl. Lancelot seems a little depressed being he is without a neighbor and has been lying in the back of the age instead of on the side as he used to, but that may will change later this week as I plan to place Misty Blue in the cage next to him so they can get acquainted before I breed them together next weekend. I am hoping that introduction will get Misty Blue to be more receptive to the breeding.
I also weighed BMB-5 on Sunday. I was hoping to see BMB5 at 5 pounds (+/- 1.0 ounce) and he was so close, just 1.5 ounces short of that 5 pound mark. Still, I am rather pleased because he has been steady in his growth process and he has a solid, firm body with a well rounded backside; just the thing that meat breeders like to see! He definitely has that "WOW" factor and he has lovely Silver Fox type fur with some silvering coming in.
