My Rabbit Journey~New Pics pg 17

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

My Doe, Juliette, had her kits today. I never have been so stressed about a rabbit birth before. She took absolutely forever to go into real labor. I was watching her build her nest too and she was being an idiot about it. Ugh! I am soooo glad this is over. I will go out and remove afterbirth and count them later after she's calmed down. Yay

 

[Lark Rise]

I just came on to say.......we have baby rabbits today!!!!!!!!!!! I don't dare count them. I'm so afraid to touch them because I don't want her to reject them. They are so deep in the nest that we can barely see them. The box is full of her fur. The must be tucked in there because my son saw a hint if pink. Please tell me how you count them.

Congratulations on yours!!!!!

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

I just came on to say.......we have baby rabbits today!!!!!!!!!!! I don't dare count them. I'm so afraid to touch them because I don't want her to reject them. They are so deep in the nest that we can barely see them. The box is full of her fur. The must be tucked in there because my son saw a hint if pink. Please tell me how you count them.

Congratulations on yours!!!!!

Congrats on yours too. I did go out and count ours and she had a beautiful litter of 7!! I always give my does something special to eat when I am messing with their babies for the first few days. So I gave her a small piece of apple. I also made a hot water bottle in a large bowl and covered it with a kitchen towel to keep them warm. The kits are warm enough when they don't squirm a lot. I just reached in anc uncovered them making sure I didn't fold the pulled fur cover into the hay so I could cover them back up. I picked them up one at a time, took a very quick glance over them to make sure none were peanuts or deformed and placed them under one layer of the towel over the hot water bottle. All look great and healhty. Got a lot of broken chestnut and broken "other" so far as well as some black ones that will turn silver.

 

[Lark Rise]

Mine are NZ whites. I wish I had some pretty colors like yours. I especially like the red ones. It's too dark now to count them. I'll have to do it tomorrow......so nervous.


Yay, for our does though!!!

 

[FarmTillURdead]

We are considering rabbits also due to our $300 a month average feed bill. We are shifting our focus to grass fed animals due to GMO contamination in the corn. Do you feed your rabbits bag feed or can they sustiain on pasture alone? All literature says bag feed is a must - but I do, and get away with - lots of things books say that I can't. Your thoughts?

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

We are considering rabbits also due to our $300 a month average feed bill. We are shifting our focus to grass fed animals due to GMO contamination in the corn. Do you feed your rabbits bag feed or can they sustiain on pasture alone? All literature says bag feed is a must - but I do, and get away with - lots of things books say that I can't. Your thoughts?

I honestly don't know how pasture raising rabbit would be. I imagnine between the fencing issues and husbandry problems it might not be the best way to raise rabbits. I always want to know when my does have their litters, and I always go out within 24 hours to remove the icky soiled and bloody bedding as well as to remove any dead kits. In a colony or pasture situation it may not be possible to do these things for the following reasons: 1) It might be very hard to get to the babies if the doe digs a den, 2) I would be hesitant to stress the rabbits in the pasture by messing with their young. My rabbits are handled frequently and that makes it easy for me to deal with the babies without the Moms stressing too much over my intrusion.

I know there are people who do raise rabbits in a colony type set up, but it is not what I would call "pasture" it is more like a large room in a barn such as a large horse or cow stall and they have three or four does and a buck living in each one.

 

[hemet dennis]

We are considering rabbits also due to our $300 a month average feed bill. We are shifting our focus to grass fed animals due to GMO contamination in the corn. Do you feed your rabbits bag feed or can they sustiain on pasture alone? All literature says bag feed is a must - but I do, and get away with - lots of things books say that I can't. Your thoughts?

The biggest expense to starting rabbits is the housing. Now if you are going to build a large enough cage to cover enough area to feed them it cant be cost effective. Rabbit pellets are cheap, if you have room to keep 10 doe's and a couple of bucks and manage them properly they will more then pay for themselves. You can also raise worms under the rabbits at no cost and very little effort. Some people pay their feed bill for the rabbits just from the worms once you get them started. The only way to manage your rabbit herd properly is to have cages. You can cut down on your feed bill feeding some grass and garden scraps but you must feed the pellets also. Good luck raising rabbits can be a lot of fun.

 

[ruthless]

We are considering rabbits also due to our $300 a month average feed bill. We are shifting our focus to grass fed animals due to GMO contamination in the corn. Do you feed your rabbits bag feed or can they sustiain on pasture alone? All literature says bag feed is a must - but I do, and get away with - lots of things books say that I can't. Your thoughts?

You might want to join the sister site backyardherds dot com. There is an entire section on raising rabbits there and lots of people with lots of different experiences.

Though I do enjoy reading Jaime's thread here too.

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Just my opinion, but I would use pasture grasses for a portion of the rabbits' diet, not completely replace the pellets. Pellets have complete nutrition, grasses don't.

 

[FarmTillURdead]

Thanks for the information and ideas. I never thought about them making burrows even though that is obvious. Duh.
I appreciate all the help and I will check out the other web site! Many thanks again for sharing and taking time to answer! I have some things to think about this spring!