In the barn early yesterday morning I found this little newborn on the floor, very chilled, lethargic, and dirty. Apparently it had come through the wire on the front of the cage and fallen out. We have baby-saver wire on the sides and back but not the front. Sometimes the babies will be hanging onto the does breast when she jumps out of the nesting box and they end up on the wire.
I brought it in and ran warm water over it until I had lots of movement, being careful not to get water near its mouth or nose, then wrapped it in a washcloth and put in a basket on the warming shelf of the wood cook-stove. Within a couple hrs the chilled bunny had warmed and was comfortable so I returned it to the mom.
He was doing just fine last night. With our 20-30* below normal temps for this time of year I am checking the babies often. We have had 36 new litters so far this fall and 5 more to go in the next couple days.
Unfortunately, we have lost several litters of 1st time moms. Some don't have a clue as to what is going on, and have them on the wire even though a nest box is provided. Some don't pull hair or wool to line the nest box with. Usually this is remedied by the time their next litters are born. And then there are some, who even though it is their first time I am able to foster some extra ones to and they take very good care of all. The next several are due the 29th.
2 comments:
Sunny, I find this rabbit-raising thing very interesting. Where I live, nobody much has rabbit meat unless they've shot it hunting. I don't know any other rabbit breeders around here. I see some of the Ag kids raising a couple for the fair, but that's about it. Maybe I'm just not paying attention. We don't have it in our grocery stores. I'm glad you have this blog about it so the rest of us can learn!
Very interesting post.
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