Post by Stacy on Feb 24, 2013 17:30:22 GMT -5
Need some rabbit advice. A few weeks back, we saw an ad for a pair of blue silver fox rabbits and their four, five month old babies, as well as a pair of NZW pair. We bought 'em all and brought them home. The NZW pair went to a new home. The babies got separated by sex, two males, two females, although they'd all been together and the two brothers were really giving the two girls a terrible time of it! We "assumed" the male of the adult pair wasn't fertile, because they'd only had the one litter in five months. We did take him out and separate the pair however. TODAY, Mike went and the blue female had JUST finished having a litter of nine babies! Five were on the ground, very cold, one dead. Four were still in the cage. We had NO nest box in there, needless to say. Mike had JUST rebred the blue female to a buck we have here three days ago.
Problems go like this:
1) She pulled no hair is not behaving as though she just had a litter of babies. I have them in an blanket on top of an electric blanket warming up. Seven of them seem good and warmish already and are pretty wiggly. One is still a bit cold. How am I going to get her to feed them, or will she even feed them at all? I have another rabbit in here with six, nearly four week old babies. I might be able to wean them early (I've seen them eating and drinking) and put them on her??
2) As I said, Mike just rebred the mama rabbit to a meat rabbit buck three days ago. We saw the male do his job, for sure. I know rabbits can carry two pregnancies at once. If she's rebred and she does actually accept this current litter, provided they survive (so many if's here), do we wean this litter early then and get her ready for the next one in four weeks?
3) Is there anything else I should be doing for this litter? The mama rabbit is in a cage IN MY HOUSE now <sigh>. We figure it'll be warmer in here. That's where the other mama and her babies are.
4) Could the five month old young female from the previous litter be bred to her brother at this young of an age? Should we be watching for her to give birth too? We separated them when we got them home. I think it's been two or three weeks since we've had them, maybe a little more? ~ I just checked, we brought them home around Jan. 30-31.
ANYTHING else I need to know, just TELL ME! Don't beat around the bush. I gotta get these guys straight, now.
Problems go like this:
1) She pulled no hair is not behaving as though she just had a litter of babies. I have them in an blanket on top of an electric blanket warming up. Seven of them seem good and warmish already and are pretty wiggly. One is still a bit cold. How am I going to get her to feed them, or will she even feed them at all? I have another rabbit in here with six, nearly four week old babies. I might be able to wean them early (I've seen them eating and drinking) and put them on her??
2) As I said, Mike just rebred the mama rabbit to a meat rabbit buck three days ago. We saw the male do his job, for sure. I know rabbits can carry two pregnancies at once. If she's rebred and she does actually accept this current litter, provided they survive (so many if's here), do we wean this litter early then and get her ready for the next one in four weeks?
3) Is there anything else I should be doing for this litter? The mama rabbit is in a cage IN MY HOUSE now <sigh>. We figure it'll be warmer in here. That's where the other mama and her babies are.
4) Could the five month old young female from the previous litter be bred to her brother at this young of an age? Should we be watching for her to give birth too? We separated them when we got them home. I think it's been two or three weeks since we've had them, maybe a little more? ~ I just checked, we brought them home around Jan. 30-31.
ANYTHING else I need to know, just TELL ME! Don't beat around the bush. I gotta get these guys straight, now.