Two Californian does and a buck : New additions to our backyard

[Joshua-n-fam]

Hello all! Any day now we should get our first egg from one of our six girls and this weekend we added three rabbits to our little backyard experiment. Someone on Craigslist is getting rid of all their rabbits and at ten bucks a pop we couldn't say no. They are all Californians and we got two 30x36 inch cages, feed bins and watering bottles. All in all the cost was seventy dollars. The bottles were junk so there's another fourteen replacing them (then feed and timothy hay but you all know how the costs add up).But we know that as long as we can keep them happy and healthy they will pay for themselves in hardly any time at all.

This setup isn't permanent and is obviously far from decent, but it's the best we can do right now. Any tips or suggestions on how to make this a better setup for us and for them while I try to get my hands on some cheap material is greatly appreciated. We're going into this one blind but have high hopes, and are very happy with them so far.

Still, those demon eyes...

 

[SA Farm]

They look like they're doing well. I would get another cage for the second female before you start breeding them. A mama can get very territorial.

 

[ChickensRDinos]

I have heard lots of good things about raising rabbits and am considering starting on this adventure myself. I think I am going to go with Californians as well. I would love continue to to hear how it goes for you as you start out. They look lovely!

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

So apparently we hit the jackpot with the purchase of these rabbits. It's now evident that the older doe mated about a week before we bought her, because she started birthing yesterday. We had NO idea she was pregnant. Well, my fiancee was staring to wonder because a FEW signs were there, but she wasn't doing the really obvious stuff (building a nest, pulling her fur out etc). But on Monday she gave birth to at least one and unfortunately she ate it right up. I went out to the yard and swung over to say hi and saw a random face laying on the bottom of the cage. Tiny little chunk of nose and mouth, basically half a face, just laying on the bottom of the cage... pretty much the last thing I would have guessed to see at that moment.

But we have kept the male away from the girls except for trying to mate them twice, and neither time did anything happen, and anyway that was all in the last week. I thought maybe a mouse got in and they attacked it, but once we looked at it, it was clearly rabbit. So my fiancee put everything she's been learning about rabbits into emergency effect and started putting tons of timothy hay into the cage and had me build a quick nesting box with scrap wood. The doe inspected the nesting box and started pulling hay into it and pulling out fur.

(note: ok, so first I made a shoebox nesting box but it was clearly not going to last very long where we live. We get heavy fog daily, so it would have fallen apart by morning, so just before heading in for the night she had me make a wooden replacement and all in all we probably bugged the heck out of her by changing this, moving that, etc heh)

This morning? No babies. Lunchtime? No babies. A little after lunch time? Five babies. By the time I got home from work? Seven babies!

So now we're hoping as many as possible survive and are looking forward to our first flock of meat stock. It's always awesome to have cute little babies to watch grow up, and the end result if they all survive is going to be quite a lot of meat heading to the freezer in a couple of months which will already make what we've spent pretty much pay for itself.

Will have pics soon!

 

[ChickensRDinos]

How exciting! I'm happy for you. Can't wait to see pics.

 

[UnlabeledMama]

That's great! I hope they all make it!

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

Did we say seven? During first belly check at post-24hour mark the real count is eight. Jeezum-crow!

So far so good. Shes a great mama but we do have three runts to keep an eye on. Pictures coming soon.

 

[kada6305]

Oh wow! We are starting our hand at rabbit breeding. We pick up our pair tomorrow. Can't wait to see pictures )

 

[Joshua-n-fam]

 

[Joshua-n-fam]