Ready to pull out my hair...

[terri9630]

Sorry. Double post.

 

[oldbat]

Back about two lifetimes ago, my family and I raised rabbits for a processor in ND; had 250 producing does when he went belly up and left a lot of people holding the bag.

We had all wire cages in a gutted dairy barn with big fans in the windows.

Anyway....check for a cat messing around on the cages, especially at night. A dog barking a lot can cause them mental problems, even vehicle headlights ricocheting off their cages in the dead of night. Rabbits don't reason....if something seems bad when they're kindling, they don't wait to see if it really is a predator.

If you find some "dead" babies, you can save quite a few of them. I wore a snowmobile suit, and ND being what it is in winter, often had on a (cowboy) neck scarf. Wrapped the "dead" bodies loosely in the scarf, wrapped it around my middle, and tied the ends to hold it there under my clothing while finishing chores.

Also, on several occasions, I gathered up the "dead" bodies, hurried to the house with them, put some hot water in the sink....of a temp that your hands can stand comfortably,.... arranged the babies with their necks between my fingers and bodies extending downward, and dangled them in the water. Whenever/if any came back to life, wrapped them loosely in a bath towel, laid it on a heat pad set on LOW.....amazing how much heat one of those things can generate....and left them alone for a while...an hour or so. Then, brought the doe in the house, held her on her back on my lap while they nursed, and put the babies in their nest box and put doe and babies back in her cage.

Saved a bunch of bunnies that way.

Did the bra thing on a couple of occasions too when only one or two were involved......it works.

If the mom keeps trying to kill them and won't give it up, fostering to a "nice" doe works well. I never messed with gloves, etc. My bare hands were used to handle the kits and the does seemed smart enough to figure out that I was not a problem.

Used Calf Manna for our does also; have to be careful with it. High protein....too much can scour them to death. We quit when the kits left the nest box....they really liked it. I think we gave each doe about a teaspoon full once a day.....long time ago...'1970's.

Weirdest thing we ever found with the rabbits....mostly Cal's and NZ's, and crosses thereof....was litter deaths from a certain Cal buck. He was a pretty one. won the ND state fair Best of Show award. Litters where we used him often were born dead, or died shortly thereafter. Started searching pedigrees, and found that on the problem litters, both the does and he had a common female ancestor back about 3 generations. They all came from one of the top Cal breeders at the time. Other does from that same breeder did not have the "culprit" ancestor, and had no such problems. Sent him to MN with some visiting hunters (to be special guest at a special dinner), and that problem quit.

Had some NZRed's that we showed....or tried to....and at that time, that breed was known for its blood-thirsty tendencies. Those does not only ate their babies, but would attack us when we opened the cages to feed/water them. No amount of correction could convince them of the error of their ways. So, they all went to freezer camp. Beautiful, beautiful rabbits with the dispositions of a rabid werewolf.

Cal's are normally good mothers; I'd give them one more chance before offing the heads. Getting more than eight babies is not necessarily a good thing....the doe only has eight faucets, and with that many babies, you're going to end up with a bunch of "runty" kits who are struggling to be the ones who gets to grab those faucets.

Sorry I got carried away with this...always enjoyed the rabbitry, even if we did almost go bankrupt back then. Now have a pair of first time NZW's that between them have 15 very nice babies. Will be ready to start processing the one batch in about two weeks.

Good luck. oldbat

 

[iajewel]

I raise and show Flemish Giants and have shown and raised in the past Dutch, Rex and Polish. kits on the wire is common. I don't allow that I put them in a dog kennel with no wire. That solves that problem. The other thing you may want to look into is colony raising. People think it docks weight etc.. but at first show of the year, my rabbits did great and the judge loved them, everyone loved them. They were all shocked to see a colony rabbit in "that" kind of shape. Colony doesn't mean you forget about them, it means they are raised in a more natural environment. This also means your babies live. Its not uncommon for more then one doe to give birth in the same nest, so they have more mothers, more warmth, more milk, etc and they are not on wire or stressed. I can't say enough good about having pens and not cages for my rabbits. It has cut my lose to almost nothing. There is a yahoo group about colonel rabbits thats pretty good too.
Below is one of my pens, they all pretty much look the same. They are 20x20 with limestone around the corner posts and under the hutch. There is a small water hole with a solar fountain so the water stays moving, no bugs etc laying eggs in it due to constant water movement. I did a test drive with one pen, now have 3 and won't raise them any other way. I do however fill in allot of holes they dig about a week prior to giving birth, so if you don't like that, you can put them in a hutch or just let them have thier burrows. I also have an 8x4 hutch with 2x2 hutch type shelter and the rest small wire, I have pretty good luck with them staying in thier cubby to have the kits, however I over load that box with hay.. so.. again.. that helps. The size I use are huge due to the size of my rabbits. My dutch run loose in the yard, go where they want. One day with the ducks, next day with the Flemish.. or even in the chicken pen LOL.. nothing keeps them in or out. They also do just fine and still come up to me for hand outs of cereal.

 

[fancbrd4me02]

Quote:
That's beautiful!

 

[miss_thenorth]

Finally, some pics of the nest boxes!!

 

[anthonyjames]

I am guessing these are about 24 tall x 14 wide by 10 or so deep? And did you drill holes on the bottom of the box?

I like the sliding door. Never thought of that. I think this will be easy to recreate and they will be quite happy I am sure for a small retreat or escape.

 

[miss_thenorth]

The bottoms are peg board, and I also have a piece of hardware cloth in the bottom. I put shavings in the very bottom for absorbency, put the hardware cloth on top, (I do this, becasue they like to dig and I don;t want them digging through the bottom ) then give the bunn lots of hay so she can get her nesting instinct going. she will prance around with pieces of hay in her mouth, she will eat some and then use some to make a nest in the box. Next time I go out, I will take measurements.

 

[hensonly]

Quote:
Culled who? The neighbor's dogs??!!