I have been "shelving" (bringing in at night) the 10 rabbit kits. It's a pretty serious commitment --EVERY night and morning. We may have a new solution that will help keep future kits safe, more on that below.
Shelving has been an eye opening experience into the behavior of mama rabbits. Rabbits are prey animals and so they only nurse their young kits (return to their nest) for about 5 minutes, once or twice a day! Their milk is incredibly concentrated and almost impossible to replicate, which is why I always breed at least 2 mamas at a time. If one fails to nurse her babies I can usually foster them off with another mama. Otherwise, they are most likely not going to survive. We have tried to "bottle feed" them before with zero success. Silver Fox are very kind foster mamas and we've never had any issues with rejection by a foster mama.
When I bring these 10 babies/kits back to their mamas in the morning everyone is so excited. The kits are all waiting for me and practically launch themselves into the canvas carrying bag that I use to transport each litter to and from. When we get to the barn, the mamas are hopping around anxiously and the babies start making little noises.
For previous litters I almost never saw the mamas doing their 5 minutes of nursing, but now I see it every day. They usually lick and inspect each of the kits while they are nursing. It's very efficient. Mama rabbits always seemed so ambivalent about their babies before. Now I know that they are not. Their instincts are just to keep mostly away from them so that predators don't find or follow them to their nests.
Brother M is proving to be a very responsible Dragon Daddy. His dubia roach colony is thriving and I never have to remind him about feeding Beardy. He is growing mustard greens so that Beardy gets his fresh veggies every day. He loves carrying him around and worries over every little thing. I have never had to remind him to water or clean the cage either.
Other rabbit news. Since we are doing 4H rabbit club now and planning to go to more shows I have been talking to fellow rabbit raisers about finding some second hand carriers. We kind of hit the jackpot on that. We found an older couple whose kids are done with 4H and grown up. They were selling all their rabbit paraphernalia. We took two cars over to their house and loaded up on valuable supplies for an incredibly generous price.
They also had this pretty and sturdy hutch for sale. I am not usually in favor of using any wood for rabbit housing (holds bacteria). Bob Bennet advises against it in the Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits. BUT in light of the current rat issues and the very inexpensive price tag, I decided to give this hutch a spruce up and see how it goes. When we have a couple warm days I will get the inside sterilized, whitewashed with lime, and then paint the outside to match the barn. It has been in a carport up to now, so the wood needs some protection from the elements. Also, their are a couple holes in the floor screens and some rust that I will need to treat and patch.
Brother S decided to read one of our favorite children's books to Baby A. Sandra Boynton's Blue Hat, Green Hat.
I found Baby A sitting up in his crib this morning. He is getting so big.
Big brother M has been building block towers for him to crash.
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