What if I crossed a New Zealand with a Palomino?

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

I know it's silly to be flooding my own thread lol but there has been a major development! Big news! Sweet Pea's due date was this past Sunday and nothing happened, so I didn't think she had taken. She doesn't look very huge to me. Well, I came out this morning for regular chores and found that she had pulled fur and made a big ol' nest! I want to be very excited, since this will be my first litter ever, but isn't it strange that she's this late and pulling fur? She doesn't look pregnant to me but what do I know? I think she looks like she would only have 2 or 3 right now. Does this mean she is definitely going to kindle or do rabbits sometimes do this for a different reason? I will be on bunny watch every hour today to monitor her progress.

 

[crazychickenwom]

Not to bust your bubble, and I am not much of a bunny expert, but we have a doe that we won as a prize who makes a nest every few months even though we are VERY sure she has not been exposed to a buck since we have gotten her. The common idea behind it is that she has had babies before and is just wanting to do it again?!?! Anyhoo - I am not sure that making a nest means anything, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for you! Hope she does have babies and they are all well!!

 

[Bunnylady]

Rabbit does don't do a typical "heat" cycle like a lot of other animals, but they do have hormonal peaks and valleys. One of the peaks occurs just at the time of kindling, which may explain why some does display kindling behaviors at seemingly random moments. (Now, why the fur pulling behavior occurs in show rabbits days before a big show - that probably has a different explanation

).

A rabbit doe can do a "false pregnancy" where she may even go through all the motions, even making a nest, and produce nothing.

Hopefully, your doe is actually pregnant, and will produce some live babies for you. If not, I would breed her back to your buck within a day or two. A rabbit doe ripens eggs at the time of the hormonal peak, and holds them in readiness, only releasing the eggs when she is bred. Taking the doe to the buck shortly after the eggs ripen makes it more likely that the doe will accept the buck, and conceive a nice sized litter as a result.

Good luck!

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

She kindled!! I am so excited!!! I didn't look under the fur to see how many there were, but I could see she had piled it up and it is wiggling! How long are you supposed to wait before looking?

 

[Bunnylady]

I will check as soon as I think the doe is done, as long as she doesn't seem too bothered by me messing with her nest. Wiggling is great news!

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Great! I risked a peek to check on them. When I bought this rabbit, the previous owner told me she usually had 3-4 babies. I was expecting 2 or 3. I found 7!!! 7 Healthy, fat, squirming babies! They are all dark skinned, so I think they will all be black like the momma. I'm not sure but I think I saw 2 with the faintest swirl of a lighter color on their neck, so they might have a few small white patches like the momma too. None look like dad, the Palomino. I should have taken a picture but I was so excited I forgot! I'll get one tomorrow and post! Thank you everyone for your help, especially you, Bunnylady, I don't know what I would do without your excellent advice.

ETA: I checked on them this morning and all 7 are still doing just fine. They have the best momma! I was told by the seller that she had 2 previous litters with her, so this is her 3rd. I can't really tell the babies apart at all yet, can't wait to watch 'em grow!







Also I know it's a little overdue, but here are pictures of my breeders for those who were curious about the genetics and colors.

Bud, the Palomino Buck


Sweet Pea, the mother of this current litter:


Gamble, the NZ Red (Sorry about the mess, she is the messiest of the 4 and she also refused to move away from her potty area for the photo

)



And Big Momma, the NZ White.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Sweet Peas babies at 3 days old

 

[Duckchick2011]

They are cute little things! Good luck on the new litter

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Well, Sweet Pea's litter is one week old today and she hasn't lost a single one

. They are all doing great. Gamble is due anytime today, I was watching her laying down this morning and her belly is so full of kicking kits it looks like she's got an alien in there haha! Here are some pictures.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

We have more babies! Gamble kindled early. She was due Wednesday but delivered a whopping 9 kits at about 9 pm tonight! I knew she would have a lot, she was massive. I'm pretty sure most are going to be red, like Bunnylady guessed, but there are two or three that have me puzzled. Whereas most are pink right now, these few are brick red in color...at least that's the best I can describe it right now. I think this confirms my suspicions that Gamble is not a pure NZ red....we will see! I will post pictures tomorrow, we had quite the busy night here on the funny farm.

I noticed Gamble building her nest at about 5pm today but just thought she was getting ready early. I thought she would probably kindle tomorrow night, but something told me to go out and check on her one more time before I went to bed. Sure enough, there were a LOT of kits in the nesting box, and Gamble was in there with them. I then grew worried about them being in this cold weather. Yesterday it was 75 degrees. Today it was 35. That's Arkansas weather for you. It was in the upper 20s tonight and I noticed 2 kits did not look good. I decided to bring them all in for the night. Once we got Gamble squared away, I had a good look at the kits. I found the 2 I saw before and they were in bad shape. I was pretty sure one was dead until I picked it up to get rid of it and it just barely moved a paw. I knew what we had to do so I grabbed that one and gave the other cold kit to my husband and we cradled them in our hands for 30 minutes by the fireplace. Miraculously they both started to come around

. It was amazing to hold a kit that was near death, and nurse it back to its right temperature, it just felt great. I know we're not out of the woods yet though, and I will be closely monitoring this litter because of its size and the two that weren't thriving. I think they will stay inside for their first few days. I do have a question: Have any of you had does that delivered this many kits and successfully raised all of them to weaning age? Did you have to foster one? I had at first thought that if she had more than 8 I would foster the extra with Sweet Pea's babies since she has room for one more, but now I'm not sure that's a good idea because her babies are quite a bit bigger than Gamble's. They are two weeks older. If I end up having to foster the 9th one myself I'm sure I'll have more questions

. Sweet Pea's litter is doing great, all have their eyes open now and none had difficulty with that milestone. They are starting to look cute as bugs! More on them later as well

. Big Momma is the last doe to have her babies, she is due next Wednesday. Big things are happening at my place! Thank you to all who read my posts. I have learned a lot from you. I just wish I would have started doing this ages ago, who knew it would be so fun?

ETA: Here are some updated pictures of our little cross breeding project.

A solid black bun from Sweet Pea's litter


5 of Sweet Pea's kits at 12 days


Gamble's new litter of 9


I think the one on the left will be red, and there are 3 like the darker one on the right. No telling what color they will be yet.