Raising our New Zealand Meat Rabbits *Start to finish - Birth to processing* Possible Graphic pics*

[Angelicisi]

Ya, I keep at it lol but if you give extra love to those babies they'll stay tame. All my offspring are spoiled brats because its all they know. But their grandparents came from a large rabbitry with not much individual time, but great husbandry and healthy so its been worth working with them


I have a 3 strike rule I haven't had to enforce yet. But that's a good thing
I check if there's anything new. (moving/cages/bug/bee/whatever) if all needs are good (shelter sufficient/plenty of water/food a toy) and if she STILL is a murderous doe ill eat her with red sauce and save the time waiting to see if she'll hurt the next ones. While you could keep trying infinite times even rescue and foster...the does She has may carry similar mommy genes you don't want so the risk isn't worth the work involved in my opinion, for a seasoned doe, a new doe I try a few times .

Thanks for all the advice.  My hubby tries to pick them up and pet them, and persists stubbornly (often saying they WILL become tame if they like it or not).  I just shake my head as these buns came from a huge rabbitry where they were never petted and to suddenly "force" them to accept petting won't work.  Patience and persistence - not qualities I really have.... 

I will give this foster momma lots of recovery time to rest after caring for 11.  They are all alive and well, happy and fat 

They are both first time moms and under a year old.  I will give the bun who scratched her babies out of the nest another chance to see how she does.  

 

[Angelicisi]

Dogs... dogs really? At 6 am? 2
Large loose dogs doing laps around the rabbitry knee deep in mud, so I grab my gun and extra ammo and run for the rabbitry in the downpour of a storm. I holler at them now standing in back of it trying to get in to a bunny cage through wire wrapped enclosure (thank you baby for enclosing the rabbitry itself in wire!), I raise my gun, my own dog at my side growls and both trespassers turn and start wagging huge tails and rolling in the mud. Maaaaan, deflated - lucky, lucky dogs- if I was more confident in my distance accuracy I'd have shot those dogs from my porch without blinking. Someone almost lost their dogs today to a bullet. One completely without tags one with a collar but definitely well fed. Couldn't see that until after the drama in the storm, Now they're loose on a 45 mph road in the pouring rain. They're going to get hit or worse, kill someone on that unforgiving road. Shameful. I'm still mad.
I expect wildlife, I don't want to put someones pet down tho.

BE RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE AND KEEP YOUR ANIMALS UNDER SUPERVISION. Because so many don't and then they're a predator threat

 

[Angelicisi]

Theres mud slung ALL OVER from the dogs pounding away at a wire wrap. All over cages, babies, mommy buns & bucks thick Louisiana mud too. Ug. White bunnies and mud are just sad looking. Off to clean up.

 

[chickadee5002]

Oh my that's horrible! I am so glad they did not get into the rabbitry. There are people that do not realize that "pets" can be predators just the same as wildlife. Glad "so far"

no one got hurt.

 

[Angelicisi]

There's rarely 2nd chances with predators, we thwarting them teaches them to wait til we aren't present lucky lucky dogs today.

Lucky it was me cuz hubby can hit a bee off a cage from across the property and wouldn't have approached them first. He has evening watch, hope they left for good.

Oh my that's horrible! I am so glad they did not get into the rabbitry. There are people that do not realize that "pets" can be predators just the same as wildlife. Glad "so far"  no one got hurt.

 

[Angelicisi]

Still Sooo mad because they were Soooooo determined and I have does ready to kindle that definitely don't need chaos right now

 

[kacklinkelly]

How's everyone after the clean up. Thank goodness your rabbitry is fortified. I'm worried right now about the heat killing off our back yard critters. It's 104 today. I chose to bring our 2 does inside for now. They held up OK up to 100 (with ice bottles next to them) but I didn't want to push it higher. I felt fortunate about them being able to handle the 100 degree day. Our chickens have already made it through a summer so I'm confident they are prepared for it. They look a little wilty but they are hanging in there.

 

[Angelicisi]

We've only hit the 90s so far. Our brutal comes in August lol
All bunnies are accounted for and a bit nervous but are clean. A lot of thunder and lightning too so I don't think much dog trauma, probably storm nerves. My dog laid just under the eves in the rain waiting for the dogs to return. She's so sweet.

So glad we wrapped the structure, saved me a lot more of a mess and maybe saved buns. They're all in cages because of the storm none were in the yard yet but big dogs if determined could have done some damage if inside my room of floating cages

How's everyone after the clean up.  Thank goodness your rabbitry is fortified. I'm worried right now about the heat killing off our back yard critters.  It's 104 today.  I chose to bring our 2 does inside for now.  They held up OK up to 100 (with ice bottles next to them) but I didn't want to push it higher. I felt fortunate about them being able to handle the 100 degree day. Our chickens have already made it through a summer so I'm confident they are prepared for it. They look a little wilty but they are hanging in there. 

 

[Crickett]

Yes, it could have been really bad! I had dogs tear up my wire cages where I used to live, and they killed almost all of my rabbits, plus they got into the chicken run and killed all my chickens, ducks, turkeys and geese! And this was all in one day! We had gone into town for a few hours and came back to total carnage! Still makes me angry, and it was over six years ago!

 

[Angelicisi]

Meaties coming, should probably start getting things ready! Just realized we will be processing in August so we have decided to prep a building for processing that we can cool...one project always leads to another

Another Doe is going to kindle! These babies she has (hopefully a big, healthy litter mama wants even with the dog scare) will be my first set of kits with full 3 gen pedigrees
I have partials on some lines (like Celies from here on BYC) but missing info to make hers complete.
These will be full family trees if the kits do well! I'm excited because I had to do a lot of culling to get to this point! Maaaaan I hope I get some beautiful breeders outta this batch. That will give me good breeding options for another set of generations I can breed TO Celies lines to get full pedigrees from her awesome rabbit lines

One of our SP community members made us this wringer.

Being able to network with other people and share tools or trade info is awesome. Just saying