In the past week and a half our two does both kindled.

Kit from Kumquat’s last litter

Lucy kindled early last week. She’s my dependable doe that has proven herself to be a good mom. Unfortunately one of her kits was stillborn. It happens, and this isn’t the first time it’s happened to her. One of the other kits is a runt – much smaller than its siblings. It’s lively and energetic and otherwise seems to be doing OK. Since she only has 6 kits total right now, and 8 teats, it’s not a huge concern that it won’t be able to feed, but we’re definitely keeping an eye on it.

Kumquat, on the other hand is a fickle rabbit. She kindled earlier this week. The first sign that we might have a problem is that she didn’t pull fur to make a nest for them. She did kindle in the nest box so we put orchard grass around them and hoped for the best. After all, the last time she kindled she didn’t pull fur until the kits were 2 days old.

But 2 days went by and she still hadn’t pulled any fur and the kits weren’t growing. At all. It became clear yesterday that she had completely abandoned them. They were nearly a full week younger than Lucy’s kits, and because Lucy already had 6 kits that were twice the size of Kumquat’s kits we couldn’t give them to her without risking Lucy abandoning not only Kumquat’s kits but also her own. So we had to let them go.

Rabbits are incredibly difficult to foster, and at this age it’s even more difficult. And to be honest, we thought she was feeding them because there were definite signs that she was going into the nest box with them. Because rabbits nurse their kits only twice a day and are very private about it, it wasn’t totally obvious that she wasn’t feeding them until it was too late to save them.

This wasn’t Kumquat’s first litter, which she raised perfectly. The only reason I can think she didn’t want to mother these kits is because Lucy moved into the hutch next to her a couple of months ago and she still seems a bit pissed about it. Once Lucy’s kits are out of the nest box, we’ll move them and Lucy back to Lucy’s old hutch, which was previously home to her last kits.

And sometimes a rabbit just doesn’t want to be a mom.

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This week we had a heat wave so it’s fitting to discuss rabbits and summertime before things really get into full swing. The summer is when you really have to keep an eye on your rabbits. They do great in cold temperatures. After all, they are covered completely with a nice thick coat – even the bottoms of their feet. This causes a problem, however, when temperatures get over 85 deg F.

If you have air conditioning and space inside, that’s the best place to keep rabbits. We don’t have either. Our house can get hotter than the outside temps so the best place for us to keep our rabbits is under the big oak tree in our backyard. Being on the north side of the tree allows them to have shade all day long. But this is definitely not enough on those really hot days.

One thing I’ve realized is that I pay a lot more attention to the weather forecast in the summer now. If the weather is expected to get over 80 deg F we start taking the necessary steps to insure the rabbits are comfortable. I keep an outdoor thermometer inside the hutch to help determine the temperatures we’re dealing with and whether it’s cool enough.

Our first line of defense is our misting system and fan. This can lower the ambient temperature by 15 degrees. You can sometimes find these systems at hardware stores, but I’ve had the best luck getting them online. When installing the misters you want to make sure the nozzles are pointed down, but away from your rabbits. The fan shouldn’t be on the rabbits directly but set up in a way that it doesn’t get wet and that it circulates the cooler air around the rabbits. You want them to cool the air without getting the rabbits wet. That thick fur can get waterlogged and when it’s warm it can make them a target for flystrike (warning: graphic). If we know the weather is going to be hot, we turn the system on first thing in the morning. It makes it easier to keep the temperatures down if you start early rather than coming in when it’s already hot and trying to cool the area down.

Our second line of defense are frozen 2L or 1/2 gallon water bottles. We had to make room in our freezer for them, which wasn’t easy. The rabbits like to lean on these and to lick them when it gets really hot. It’s important to use larger bottles because the smaller ones don’t stay frozen long enough. Also, it’s key to plan ahead as these can take a couple of days to freeze solid.

Rabbits can go into heat stroke quickly so it’s important to monitor them on those really hot days. If your rabbit is laying with it’s head thrown back, panting and flaring it’s nostrils it’s in the first stage of heat stroke and must be cooled down as soon as possible.  If there is moisture around it’s nose and mouth with the above signs, it’s gone into the second stage of heat stroke. If the moisture has run down the front of the rabbit, this is the third stage and you only have a 50% chance of saving the animal. If it’s gone into convulsions it’s in the final stage of heat stroke and should be humanely euthanized.

The best way to cool a rabbit (or any animal) that has heat stroke is to get that animal wet. Keep a bucket of water by your hutch. You want the water to be ambient temperature as cold water can throw the animal into shock. Dunk the rabbit making sure to get it’s ears wet, but not it’s muzzle. This gets the water down to their skin to help cool it faster. Be careful of using a hose because if it’s been in the sun all day it can come out extremely hot. In an extreme emergency, such as heat stroke, flystrike is the least of your worries so go ahead and get your rabbit wet. It’s when the animal is wet for long periods of time that you have to worry the most.

Of course an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure – so make sure you have the proper system to keep your rabbits cool.

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Breeding rabbits can lead to…well….lots of rabbits. So we needed more hutches. We needed two grow out pens, one for the does and one of the bucks. Well, since we had 5 breeders already in our 5 hutches it meant we didn’t have enough space. Fortunately a friend of ours gave us their old hutch. OK, so the bucks could stay in that. It’s fine to leave the does in with their mom, but we needed to ween them at least 2 weeks before she kindled again.

Now for those that haven’t met Lucy, she’s a BIG rabbit. She’s almost as big as our biggest buck. She had been having a hard time on the wire because of her size and also the added weight of carrying kits so we needed to find a better place for her.

Fortunately for her, Tom found a really REALLY nice hutch for free on Craigslist. It has a perforated floor, but it’s not wire, allowing more support for her. It even came with a nest box for her. So far she seems a lot happier and had no qualms about kindling in the nest box. She’s even friendlier than she was before.

As Esperanza discussed yesterday on her blog, Pluck and Feather, a rabbit’s environment can make the difference.

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We bred Lucy, our Californian doe back in mid November. She was due this past Friday. We were going to give her one more chance to have a large litter. Her first litter was 3. One died immediately and another one died in our heinous heatwave. Her last litter wasn’t a litter. She just had one kit. One big healthy kit, but just one kit none-the-less. So we said that if she couldn’t give us a big litter the next round we’d have to retire her.

We’ve tried several different techniques but the one that I’ve read the most about we hadn’t tried. So this was her chance. The technique is to let them breed 3 times, remove the doe and then take her back 8 hours later. The theory is that rabbits don’t cycle until stimulated. After being stimulated they will ovulate 8 hours later, but if they urinate between the breeding and ovulation all is lost. So that is the reason for breeding again 8 hours after the first breeding.

Turns out she wasn’t pregnant. Neither of us have mastered palpating to see if she’s pregnant. But she seemed bigger. She wasn’t though. I’m not going to hold it against her for not being pregnant. Rabbits’ fertility wanes as the days do. She was also really stressed when we last bred her. We bred her with Lou who she wasn’t familiar with and was quite scared of because he’s so much bigger than Ricky, who she lives next to and is used to.

So this time we’ve bred her to Ricky again. She likes him a LOT. She doesn’t run around his hutch like a crazy rabbit trying to get away from him. Plus he’s really sweet and grooms her. So let’s hope this time takes. But since it’s almost the Winter Solstice and days are so short I’m not going to expect much.

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Well well well. I have to admit, we’re still learning an awful lot about raising livestock. So I guess it was bound to happen that we wouldn’t sex a rabbit correctly and end up with 3 bucks and just 2 does. Remember Scooter?

Scooter’s growing up and is now a very friendly, curious rabbit with a penchant for nibbling on my shirt (and fingers). By the way, I apologize for not having a more updated photo of Scooter. When we first got Scooter Tom thought he was a buck. After doing some research though and really checking him Scooter appeared to have the same equipment as our doe Roly Poly. There was no penis to be seen. No testicles. Nothing. And Scooter was definitely old enough to be able to sex. A month ago a good friend of mine came by for a visit. She used to raise rabbits for 4H so I asked her to see if she could sex Scooter for us. She agreed that Scooter was a doe. So we were now in search for a buck for Scooter. That’s when we got Lou.

Well, two days after we get Lou I decide to sex Scooter again, just in case. Doh! Scooter now has a penis and testicles. Yep, Scooter is, in fact, a buck. So now we have Ricky, Scooter, and Lou. Way too many bucks. The difficult thing is choosing who to keep. Ricky is our only Californian. Scooter is definitely more true to breed than Lou, plus he’s a lot friendlier. But Lou is HUGE!

Our hutch only has 5 cages, which are now all filled. We’re getting an American Blue Doe this weekend so someone has to go. And it’s not Scooter…

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