Fun and games with rabbits this morning.
BB2K and I bred some rabbits about a month ago. We write these things down on the calender, naturally; the gestation period for rabbits is about 31 days. For years, I have said that I can predict dramatic shifts in temperature a month in advance - I breed a few does, count it out on the calender, and say, "cold snap/heat wave right about
then."
BB2K wrote it down; I guess she must have miscounted. According to the note on the calender, the does were due tomorrow, but there was fur all over the rabbitry when I went out there this morning. One doe might go early, but 3? Not likely.
Temps in the 40's aren't typical for nearly May, but that's what it was last night. Two first-time does, with babies all over the wire. One had a ton of fur in the nest box, but not a scrap of hay (and no babies); the other had drifts of fur and hay that had sifted through the wire on the floor under her cage; it looks like she tried to build her nest in another corner. The only doe that appears to have kindled in her nest box was a Netherland Dwarf that only had two babies, and from the position of the bodies, it looks like they were stillborn.
I grabbed the cold, still babies off the wire and peered at them briefly before untucking my shirt and cradling them against my stomach (brrrr!) Over the years, I've warmed up countless cold newborns, and experience told me these kids had a chance. We call them "Lazarus babies," and warming them too fast can cause you to lose them just when you think they are going to live.
I scurried to the house and kicked on the front door (hands full of near-dead babies, so I couldn't open it). BB2K answered it, and I handed off one litter to her. Critter filled a couple of empty soft drink bottles with warm water, and I tucked my now squirmy litter in a box with those bottles and a towel. BB2K cradled her litter all the way to school (she volunteered to stay home from school to help monitor them
), then I put them in the box with the others. When I got back home, I did a proper job of packing the nest boxes and salvaged what fur I could; the babies are now hopefully stabilizing in their nests in my hall closet. This morning's tally: 3 losses, 8 hanging in there, and two somewhat frazzled rabbit breeders.
"Breed like rabbits" - slam easy, right?
