I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how I prepare my nestboxes for my does and why I choose to do and use what I do.
I add the box on the 27th day, since it is possible for does to kindle on day 28.
Empty nestbox. First I drench the box in vinegar, let it sit, and dry it out.
Next, the box gets a layer of newspaper.
Thirdly, I add a couple handfuls of CareFresh litter. I skip this step with my spring and summer litters.
The fourth step is stuffing the nest box with hay, hay, hay!
Finally, I add a bunch of hay so the mama can add some to the nest herself. Hazel prefers to take all the hay I put in the box out of it, and add her own. She's very controlling, lol!
All the toys below I purchased at the dollar store (Dollar Tree), and my rabbits LOVE them! As you can tell, they're mainly baby toys, but they're very popular with my herd.
I only own one of these toys but I'm going to try and pick more up the next time I go to Dollar Tree. Holly's Saige has this toy and she LOVES it. She plays with it for hours and throws it around her cage.
I also only have one of these balls. Gracie and her litter has it and they love it. They roll it around, nibble on it, throw it around the cage.
All my rabbits have these hanging on their cage. Some of my rabbits ignore them, others, like Holly's Cinnamon, plays with it for hours, running around with one of them in her mouth, tossing it, throwing it, etc.
We have quite a few exciting litters coming up! Bramblehedge's Hazel is due in ONE WEEK (Feb. 2) and I'm pretty sure she's pregnant! She is bred to Blue Storm's Lance.
Holly's Saige and Holly's Rosemary will *hopefully* (if my dad lets me), be bred this week! I'm aiming to get them bred on Thursday or Friday. It's supposed to be in the 50's all week so hopefully this will help the does want to conceive! I am SO EXCITED for these babies!
I am going to watching kits from all three of these litters. Most likely we will keep a few. I have several summer/fall shows I'm planning on attending and I'm excited to possibly have new juniors to show. I probably won't have any kits for sale until they are 10-16 weeks old. The earliest these kits would be for sale would probably be sometime in May. We will have LOTS of really nice juniors this summer and fall and I couldn't be happier!
I'm also so proud to say that both Holly's Saige and Holly's Rosemary have a leg! Saige has her leg for BOB and Rosie got her leg for first place in her class.
Hopefully this won't be retirement for these ladies. They are gorgeous now and I'm hoping they can somewhat retain their condition enough to be shown after their litters have been weaned.
I found some AWESOME articles on colony-raising your rabbits. It's always been such an intriguing idea. Of course this method of rabbit raising isn't for everyone and it's definitely not a method I would think of doing for myself and for my herd, but it's definitely something to think about if you raise rabbits for meat.
Even my caged rabbits LOVE the outdoors. I try to give them outside time for at least an hour a couple times a week.
I've always been intrigued about the prospect that the moon cycles can control things like conception and delivery in humans, as well as litter size, more bucks or does, and ease of conception in rabbits.
These two articles are VERY interesting, they aren't too long and are well worth the read.
With the majority of our litters, which have been born in warmer weather, around 2 weeks old we would take them out of the nest box and let them explore their world, which was completely nonexistent to them until that very minute.
But with this litter, Gracie's three kits, I've been keeping them inside the box. It's still too cold at night for them to be unattended outside the box. And once I let them explore their cage, the nest will know longer be an option. Most of the time they'll go into the box (when it's flipped on its side), when they get cold, but then you'll have that one baby that gets too interested in something and doesn't listen to his body telling him to take a nap in a warm place. That's never happened to me but I'm not taking any chances! Anyway, keeping them inside the box has worked for now. There's one that has tried to get out - but for the most part they are all content to stay in their warm, fluffy nest where their food comes to them and mom is just a squeak away.
Generally I flip the box on its side at 2 weeks because the babies have the potential of getting out, but being unable to get back in because of the high box front. But with this litter, I've been keeping them on lock down. They don't know the rest of the cage exists yet. And luckily they haven't been curious enough to try and discover something outside the tiny box they call home - for now.
I posted a video of these guys on my Facebook page. Take a look and tell me what you think! In the video, our sparsely marked broken orange baby yawns and it's just the cutest thing ever!
What I've noticed is that this litter is pretty different from my other, more independent litters. I think that them having more freedom at an earlier age makes them more independent. But they also get more energy out, so when you hold them they love just settling down and letting you pet them, whereas these guys are the completely opposite...lol!
So far, the only exposure outside of the nest box has been on mine and my sister's laps, where we play with them and cuddle them and socialize them. As soon as their eyes opened, a few days ago, they have NOT wanted to settle down and want to nibble and lick EVERYTHING and explore all the edges of our laps. Soon enough their behavior will change, when we let them roam outside of the nest box at 3 weeks and they have a chance to get out some of their energy.
Well, that's all for now. We've been having so much fun with these babies. I was so hoping for an orange baby in this litter. I didn't want to sell Gracie until I got at least one, non-fuzzy orange baby (she had a broken orange in her first litter, but it turned out to be a fuzzy and so it's coloring appeared much different then a non-fuzzy orange). I couldn't sell her until she had at least. One. Normal-furred. Orange. And you know what? She had 3! So far, I don't know if we have fuzzies, but I doubt it. And a solid orange too! These guys are just the cutest.
I thought I wouldn't have feed issues. In the two years I've been feeding Albers, I wasn't anything but happy with it....until now.
This bag of feed has been horrible! The bag before it wasn't much better. It is filled with powdery fines, corn contaminants (when the feed label doesn't even have corn listed as an ingredient), and these light tan pellets you can see below.
A couple of my rabbits haven't been finishing their daily feed like usual. Yesterday Rosie didn't touch her feed, but would drink her water and nibble hay and treats. She ate some today, don't worry. I have been so unhappy with Albers. It's not just me. There are many others that have been picking out the pale pellets like I have, and their bags are filled with the fines as well. It could just be a bad milling season, but I'm not going to risk spending money on another one of these bags.
It's been really discouraging. There are so many other feeds out there, but not every one has everything I want in the feed or the feed has something I don't want in it. My family has a lot of allergies, myself included, so we eat very healthily. I want my rabbits to eat healthy too!
I have been researching other feeds, trying to find one that is readily available and has good reviews. So far it looks like Purina Show is the one we will be switching to. I've heard that it does contain enough fiber, which has caused some people's Hollands to have runny poop. Since I feed a lot of hay no matter what, I'm *hoping* it won't be a problem.
This post will be continued in a couple weeks once we make the big switch. The first step, once more of this bag is gone, is to mix feeds, which I like to do over the course of a week or two.
I saw a couple other rabbit blogs where the writer posted 5 breeds they would never raise, so I thought I would give it a try. Plus I decided to add 5 breeds I want to raise eventually (on a tiny small scale or just one as a pet).
I don't have anything against these breeds. I love them, they just definitely aren't for me.
Mini Rex. My friend has one and they are just sooo, so soft and gorgeous.
Dutch. I love their markings and I've heard they have very sweet and docile dispositions.
English Angora. IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE!!!!
I can only think of four I really want to raise. I want to handle and play with every breed - my main reason in wanting to be a rabbit judge.
Since I want to be a judge, I will have the opportunity to handle many other breeds of rabbits. And I love ALL rabbits, not just Hollands. Hollands are my heart breed (ok, I've never had another breed but they are just too adorable to ever be replaced).
What 5 breeds would you love raise and what 5 would you never raise?
Banana and Buddy are Cinnamon's kits from her litter that went to their new homes at Christmas last month. Banana is Snickers and Buddy is Skittles! I just adore these pictures! I love getting updates like this. We love each and every rabbit born here, and we never stop loving them even when they are with you. We mourn with you when they pass (maybe even more than you do), rejoice with you when they are being adorable and fun. I understand that many people have busy lives and I will never hear about some of the rabbits I have sold ever again, but I truly appreciate it when you do share updates and pictures with me. Honestly. They make my day!
Here are a couple pictures of Banana (right) and Buddy (left). To see more, visit the UPDATES page!