Bunnies!
Yesterday, I finally finished correcting a goof on a trio of cages ordered some months ago, and put them fully together, at the cost of internal bruising to my right palm. Too much prying and clamping. Ow. Have to use the hole punch at work left-handed. Needed to get that built, as the trio of does from the last litter were starting to have little domination games between themselves. (Rabbits mount each other to show dominance just as dogs sometimes do.) It was not that their cage was too small for the three, but even does get domineering when they get bored and don't have personal space. Fortunately, for does, the worst that might happen is that they bite holes in each other's ears. They were together at least four months; it was time to separate them.
I had two bucks in a cage a couple years ago, and one half castrated his brother before they were three months of age. Very unusual for problems to start at that age. Naturally, that was on a Sunday. The one literally ripped a scrotum off the other. When I got the injured one to the emergency clinic, the technician asked if he was neutered. "Sort of," I replied.
The imported rabbit in my rabbitry remains aggravatingly childless. She put on an unusual amount of weight, and I really got my hopes up, but apparently it was out of laziness or something. Have to start breeding her - again. *Sigh*
The mother of the last litter had another on Saturday. I thought it unusual that she had a litter of only four as her first litter. (It is not unusual for young does to have large litters, and the average litter size for this breed is 6-12.) I can say with certainty that her litter was born Saturday, August 27 at 11am.
A couple minutes before 11, I fed her for the day. I thought about the breeding schedule, and double checked it - yes, Saturday was the earliest she might have a litter. So I put together the nest box, opened the cage again - and there was a little black-and-pink swollen-eyed-mole of a baby bunny, totally cleaned off. Mama was eating from her dish like nothing unusual had happened. "Talk about timing!" I said as I laughed hysterically, and put the babe in the box.
The babe has no siblings. She had ONE baby.
'Course, I'd left her with her latest beau for a whole week. It stands as a possibility that she may have more babies any time up to and including next Saturday.
I kept two rabbits from the second-to-last litter (not including the babe born Saturday). One has developed sore hocks on every foot. This is really bad, considering she is less than a year old. Standard procedures have not worked, so I have gone a little weird. Sunday I purchased something I did not think I would have to buy within the next decade, if the foreseeable future: I bought baby booties.
They had fuzzy pink bunny slippers, and I was VERY tempted... but they would not have done what I wanted.
I treated the rabbit's feet, and spent an hour getting baby booties on her front feet, and five-year-old's socks on her back feet. The toes of the 5yo's socks had to be clipped open to allow for her toes. After several instances of the booties slipping out of place, I clipped the toes on those as well, that her toes poke through the ends. I probably have the only rabbit in this state with spats. Gauze was stuffed into the bottom of the socks, and the tops were taped tightly shut with paper medical tape (like a cross of gauze and masking tape) just above the ankle so she can't kick them off. The cage she was put into was one of those just built, with a pristine tray lined with paper so she wouldn't slip, and plenty of paper-based absorbent stuff to act as litter.
Hopefully that will keep the sores on her feet clean and dry, and help her move about the cage better by offering padding. If it became any worse, I would need to put her down, and that is something I really do not want to do. The dear thing is the best-tempered doe I have yet raised, and she gives kisses. She still does, even though she is not too happy with me at the moment. She does not like her spats. She is livelier than I have seen her in ages, as she tries to kick them off.
Interestingly, the treatment of sore hocks made me purchase something else I did not see myself buying any time soon: hemorrhoid ointment. That is the topical treatment for sore hocks. I had to get more Sunday. I am very glad store clerks do not ask questions, such as, "You look like you're in your twenties. The baby booties and kid socks I've seen before for gals obviously younger than you, same with the medical tape and gauze. But... well... erm. Thanks, have a nice day."
I guess they'd rather not ask, at that.
I had two bucks in a cage a couple years ago, and one half castrated his brother before they were three months of age. Very unusual for problems to start at that age. Naturally, that was on a Sunday. The one literally ripped a scrotum off the other. When I got the injured one to the emergency clinic, the technician asked if he was neutered. "Sort of," I replied.
The imported rabbit in my rabbitry remains aggravatingly childless. She put on an unusual amount of weight, and I really got my hopes up, but apparently it was out of laziness or something. Have to start breeding her - again. *Sigh*
The mother of the last litter had another on Saturday. I thought it unusual that she had a litter of only four as her first litter. (It is not unusual for young does to have large litters, and the average litter size for this breed is 6-12.) I can say with certainty that her litter was born Saturday, August 27 at 11am.
A couple minutes before 11, I fed her for the day. I thought about the breeding schedule, and double checked it - yes, Saturday was the earliest she might have a litter. So I put together the nest box, opened the cage again - and there was a little black-and-pink swollen-eyed-mole of a baby bunny, totally cleaned off. Mama was eating from her dish like nothing unusual had happened. "Talk about timing!" I said as I laughed hysterically, and put the babe in the box.
The babe has no siblings. She had ONE baby.
'Course, I'd left her with her latest beau for a whole week. It stands as a possibility that she may have more babies any time up to and including next Saturday.
I kept two rabbits from the second-to-last litter (not including the babe born Saturday). One has developed sore hocks on every foot. This is really bad, considering she is less than a year old. Standard procedures have not worked, so I have gone a little weird. Sunday I purchased something I did not think I would have to buy within the next decade, if the foreseeable future: I bought baby booties.
They had fuzzy pink bunny slippers, and I was VERY tempted... but they would not have done what I wanted.
I treated the rabbit's feet, and spent an hour getting baby booties on her front feet, and five-year-old's socks on her back feet. The toes of the 5yo's socks had to be clipped open to allow for her toes. After several instances of the booties slipping out of place, I clipped the toes on those as well, that her toes poke through the ends. I probably have the only rabbit in this state with spats. Gauze was stuffed into the bottom of the socks, and the tops were taped tightly shut with paper medical tape (like a cross of gauze and masking tape) just above the ankle so she can't kick them off. The cage she was put into was one of those just built, with a pristine tray lined with paper so she wouldn't slip, and plenty of paper-based absorbent stuff to act as litter.
Hopefully that will keep the sores on her feet clean and dry, and help her move about the cage better by offering padding. If it became any worse, I would need to put her down, and that is something I really do not want to do. The dear thing is the best-tempered doe I have yet raised, and she gives kisses. She still does, even though she is not too happy with me at the moment. She does not like her spats. She is livelier than I have seen her in ages, as she tries to kick them off.
Interestingly, the treatment of sore hocks made me purchase something else I did not see myself buying any time soon: hemorrhoid ointment. That is the topical treatment for sore hocks. I had to get more Sunday. I am very glad store clerks do not ask questions, such as, "You look like you're in your twenties. The baby booties and kid socks I've seen before for gals obviously younger than you, same with the medical tape and gauze. But... well... erm. Thanks, have a nice day."
I guess they'd rather not ask, at that.