Stormcrow's Hobby Farm

[U_Stormcrow]

Newborn rabbit kits on a wire floor? Is there a specific reason for this? When I raised rabbits, we always provided nestboxes with a solid floor, so the doe could make a nice nest and the kits could stay warm. It is also easier to clean bedding & hair out of a solid-floored nestbox instead of having it stuck in the wire mesh.

Is it a climate thing? I was raising rabbits in a place where even in the middle of summer it almost never went over 80 degrees during the hottest part of the day. (A coastal part of Alaska.)

Peanutbunny has a solid floor nesting box - I'll be shovelling it out again and washing it thoroughly tommorow. Next set of cages will be done "differently". Learn a lot by doing and living a season with what went wrong. Almost time to make new mistakes.

 

[Sally PB]

I think it's fine to make mistakes. I just try not to make the same mistake twice. I have failed at that too.

Didn't Edison says something like he knew 1000 ways to not make a lightbulb?

 

[NatJ]

I tried. I swear I tried. Every time I give these rabbits a solid floor, it becomes the litter box - which isn't easily cleaned.

The way I did it:
--cage has a wire mesh floor
--nestbox is a separate box (made of wood, or metal with a wood floor.)
--nestbox goes in the cage 28 days after the doe is bred (= 3 days before she is due.)
--nestbox goes in any corner EXCEPT where the doe usually poops

That typically worked out fine-- the doe kept using her familar bathroom corner, and had about the right amount of time to get used to the box & make a nest before giving birth in it.

Of course your does might be different. Individual variation, and different climates, can make enormous differences in what is the "best" way to care for any kind of animal!

Pestilence had her kits OUTSIDE her (floorless, lined with straw, grasses, huge pile of hay and prarie grass bedding) nestbox, so first thing I did this AM after snapping that blurry pic at 6am was move the kits into the box, and tuck them under some of the straw.

Ugh, I had that happen a few times, and I hate it! In a cold climate, the bunnies are usually dead by the time anyone finds them.

Some does seem to do that regularly, and some not. The problem ones would get a second and maybe third chance, then they went to freezer camp!

The only exception to the culling: when all the formerly-good does started having bunnies outside the nestboxes. That got tracked down as a probable vitamin A deficiency in the rabbit food (the company must have changed the formula.) That got solved with regular amounts of fresh greens, as recommended by the book I had at the time (pre-internet.)

 

[U_Stormcrow]

gvood to know, thank you!!!! THANK YOU.

 

[NatJ]

gvood to know, thank you!!!! THANK YOU.

I learned many useful things from a book called "Raising Rabbits the Modern Way" by Bob Bennet. (Based on Amazon photos of the covers, probably the 1975 version.)

I didn't agree with everything the author said (never feed anything but pelleted feed, give certain medicines at certain ages just in case the rabbits might need them, and a few other points.) But there was a lot of practical information that just plain WORKED (like wire-floored cages with separate nestboxes.)

I haven't read any of the recently-published rabbit raising books, so I don't know if there is anything equally sensible in print at the current time. On the internet, I find lots of information on keeping rabbits as pets (especially in a house), but not much about practical raising of meat rabbits.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I do have wire floored cages with seperate nest boxes - that part I read somewhere too. and like you, I don't dose/treat just because the calendar says so. I'll need to see if i can pick that book up somewhere digitally.

 

[Sally PB]

How are 5 kits doing?

 

[Sally PB]

I amy hugely happy to hear that, because I just dropped $250 in materials on a 4x12 raised bed, pictured above,

My hugelkultur beds have given me my best potato crop ever, as well. I still have 12-15 hills to dig. I had to stop digging because I had as many spuds as I can put on my drying tables.

 

[Sally PB]

Maybe the five elements of Eastern mysticism

Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and....? Or am I confusing this with something else?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Wood Fire Earth Metal Water.

The five western elements are Earth Air FIre Water and Spirit/Will/Anima, and the four Western elements are the same, excluding Spirit