Due Bunnies

[bunnybunbunb]

So I'm new here but I am in no way new to the rabbit world. I have had rabbits sinceI was around 2 but I don't remember that so yeah I count it from 1999. I have had almost every breed to be thought of besides the rare ones. I have decided to stick to Mini Rex and Lionheads mainly but I have a few Holland Lops.

I haven't had any litters raised since September. I have had a few pregnancies but all the does but one misscarried and absorbed their babies between the week before and the day they was due(Yes, I had a doe absorb her babies the day she was due. I was SOO disapointed. I had a friend have this happen too). I had one doe who was due with her first litter. She had 2 days early and it was good she did. She made no nest and the babies was all over the cage. She had problems. 1 was in the box, 2 on the wire, and 1 in her bowl of water. I got her out and I knew she had one left. I put her back and stood back and watched. She started contracting. After about 5 minutes she stopped and I brought her inside. After 5 hours she FINELY got the baby part of the way out to where I could pull it out. She stayed in for a few days then went back out. She hasn't been the same since. It has been over 2 months and she still isn't gaining condition back.

I got put in the hospital just before christmas for one of the worst cases of mono(not because of kissing or anything) my doctor had ever seen. It got so bad my tonsils almost closed off my throat, my lymphnodes was full of infection, etc. I was in till December 27st. I still have pains from it. Anyways I have been breeding since I got home. No does was taking. I had my doe Dae(F2 Lionhead Lop) inside and she had been for 3 months or so. I kept her checked and finely found a doe that her vent was very swelled and red and I took her out. I put her with my Tort Otter DM F3 Lionhead buck. I didn't see anything happen so I put her with my Broken Sable Chinchilla Holland Lop buck(didn't wanna tire Otie my Lionhead buck because I needed to use him) and she lived for 10 days with the BSC buck. I never seen them breed and didn't expect babies but I got her out to put her in her own cage. When I did I palpated her and felt babies. I was very excited. Brought her strait inside. After about 30? breedings since the 27th I finely have a few does pregnant. Here is the list of confirmed does:

Dae(BlueTort F2 Lionhead Lop),palpated day 10 along, due Febuary 3rd

Kikyo(Opal PB Mini Rex), palpated 6 days along, due Febuary 4th

Sugar(Sable Point RB Lionhead), palpated day 9, due Febuary 7th

Frost(Broken Sable Chinchilla F1 Mini Rex), palpated day 4, due Febuary 10th

I also got two due Blue Tort Lionhead does that was bred the day before I got them. Will palpate them soon.

Now before I get jumped by people saying "it is IMPOSSIBLE to palpate that early" nothing is impossible, it is improbableI could only palpate at 10 days, then 9, then 8, and now I can feel the uterus between 4-7 days. You can't feel the babies till 7-10 days however.

 

[pamnock]

bunnybunbunb wrote:

Now before I get jumped by people saying "it is IMPOSSIBLE to palpate that early" nothing is impossible, it is improbableI could only palpate at 10 days, then 9, then 8, and now I can feel the uterus between 4-7 days. You can't feel the babies till 7-10 days however.

You should be able to palpate the uterus at any time - it's always there

Pam

 

[bunnybunbunb]

It isn't prominate when they arn't pregnant I have only 2 does that I can feel their uterus when they arn't pregnant. One is Candy my retire mini rex doe and the other is a doe that hasn't had babies yet. Made me think she was pregnant when she wasn't. Haha.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Dae, Kikyo, and Frost are all due with 6, as for Sugar I haven't checked her to count. Was just happy she took that as soon as I felt babies I put her back in and started dancing! lol. She is my friend's rabbit and I want babies from her before my friend comes to get her. She has never raised babies so I am glad she is due when my other 3 are too.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Nevermind. I'm confused. Did you breed a Lionhead to a Holland Lop, or did you breed Lionhead to Lionhead? Sorry If I'm confusing you, lol.

Emily

 

[bunnybunbunb]

I tired to breed her to my lionhead but she wouldn't raise so i put her with my holland lop. She is 11 months old so I had to get her bred

Half my current does was bred by me and born late spring/early summer last year and all are nearing their end to being able to have their first litter. Currently working hard to get all does to birth a litter before summer. I myself don't breed of the summer. The heat is to hard on them. If I do have to breed of the summer the doe will come inside(most of my due does due anyways) to raise the babies. Then the mom will go back out at weaning and the babies will stay in till it cools down.

I don't have a tempature controlled rabbitry but I want one really bad! I don't keep more rabbits then I can handle as I do it all myself(my sister helps with water when I ask her) so I would like a insolated rabbitry with air conditioner and about 30 cages. Of course this is just me dreaming. I plan to not let myself keep more then 20bunnies not counting any forsales/babies I may have. I feel this is a good amount for myself.

 

[TinysMom]

bunnybunbunb wrote:

I tired to breed her to my lionhead but she wouldn't raise so i put her with my holland lop. She is 11 months old so I had to get her bred

Oh - I love lionlops. I've heard of folks saying they'd like to try and get them past ARBA as an official breed - but I suspect that is many many years away (if ever). Still yet - I suspect if we're ever going to get them as a breed - someone has to work towards them.

I'm about to do a breeding for lionlops later this week...mama (the lop) has already had one litter of lionlops and they were so cute. The black lionlop female is still adorable and has her mane - but Billy Sunny - her fawn brother isn't so cute -but he has the loveable personality.

Peg

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Mom and I had Dae picked out since she was about 3 days old. Her crown has great width front to back and side to side and only a F2. Not sure what these would be. Dae is a SM so some babies will be NM and SM unless she is luckly bred to Otie. I honestly don't care who she is due by, just want them to be healthy and live

Frost is due with F1 lionheads by Otie. I figure I will just get blacks, agoutis, and otters. Frost carries chocolate, and himi/rew(not sure which. She had 1 litter by a REW buck and there was a white but her mom carried himi so not sure what she carries).

Palpated Sugar today. She is still pregnant luckly and it is with 3 babies. They feel pretty small, much smaller then Frost and she isn't as far along as Sugar and has more then her too. Kinda worrying me. Maybe she took at a later date somehow but I didn't write down breeding her after the one time so I don't think I did.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

OK I see. I'm with Peg, Lionlops are SO cute and I have nothing against breeding a lionhead to a Lop...I actually Love new breeds as long as there are proper considerations, etc. I'd love to make a new breed...but heck I have no clue what I would make, so yea.

Emily


Edited to add: Bunny, you should fly to Washington really quck and palpate my does! lol. I am not the best at telling how many kits there are, but I know if they're pregnant.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

BlueSkyAcresRabbitry wrote:

OK I see. I'm with Peg, Lionlops are SO cute and I have nothing against breeding a lionhead to a Lop...I actually Love new breeds as long as there are proper considerations, etc. I'd love to make a new breed...but heck I have no clue what I would make, so yea.

Emily


Edited to add: Bunny, you should fly to Washington really quck and palpate my does! lol. I am not the best at telling how many kits there are, but I know if they're pregnant.

I honestly don't care if people cares about mixbreeding. I find nothing wrong with it as long as it isn't just breeding any rabbits. You know the genetics, the health, ect of the rabbits your breeding. You know it probably isn't easy selling mixbreds and you are willing to keep the babies born till they find homes whether that be a few weeks, months, or even years. I mixbreed sometimes and if someone has a problem with it I don't care.

I'm a great palpater. Few rabbits can pull one over on me but I have owned a few that I couldn't tell till 14 days. It is the rabbits with sensitive stomaches that is hard to tell then again i have never palpated a doe over 5 lbs but I would love to. Prove people wrong about it being hard

Not to long ago I was bashed and smashed by a breeder that because she sucked at palpating and telling gender basicly said I was lieing.Said it was impossible to know if a doe is pregnant before 3 weeks and that you couldn't count the babies. Acouple breeders who I know and believe me(because I proved it to them)told me she was just jealous I could know about babies sooner and I could check gender as soon as they are born. Haha. She couldn't tell gender till 3-4 weeks and said it was impossible to be 100% before then. Again I know what I am doing and how to do it. This year I was bamboozled 1 time by a baby. I checked it's gender day 1, was a doe. I didn't recheck gender again till 4-5 weeks and she turned out to be a buck.

I cleaned the cage for Dae lastnight. Tied the nestbox in(because I have to use a light plastic ones for inside the house)and put bedding and some hay in. Tomorrow I have to go get more hay from the barn. If she is anything like my other rabbits she won't nest till minutes before she births or maybe a few hours usely at the most. Her mother and grandmother was the same way so I figure she will do as them.

 

[TinysMom]

I think that we're one of the few rabbit forums that is "breeder friendly" even though we don't encourage irresponsible breeding. One of the things the administrators and senior moderators have mentioned and are going to be discussing is possibly coming up with a statement of what we do and don't support in breeding.

Its very hard sometimes on this board because we sort of walk a fine line. There are so many rabbits that need rescuing and good homes that it doesn't make sense to do breeding sometimes ~ and yet ~ if it wasn't for breeders ~ we wouldn't have some of our more exotic breeds (I'm thinking here of velveteen lops and some of the rex and lionheads and some of the newer breeds). When I was growing up - we only had Florida White in our area....

I say all this to say don't be suprised if in the future there is some sort of a statement that pops up here in the forum saying what we do and don't support and encourage....and it isn't like we can "tell" people what to do and not do. But it may direct some of the topics we do and don't discuss at some point in the future.....

Peg

 

[bunnybunbunb]

So if it isn't supported will we be banned from posting about mix litters and such? If so not sure I will stay around because to me a rabbit is a rabbit. I don't see how someone can say a mix rabbit isn'tas goodas a purebred. Most breeders purebreed here but someone can purebreed and not breed for type. Will that not be supported either? In my opinion if this forum isn't going to support mixbreeding they shouldn't support not breeding for type/shows. However that is just my opinion but if I'm not going to be allowed to post about my cutie babies even thought they might be mix I'm not staying around. :duelMy rabbits are just as good as any one elses even if some might be mixes :bunnydance:

My current mixes are for adding type and color to my current breeds. I'm adding genes for color, type, personality, and health to my lines by mixing in another rabbit of a diffrent breed. Frost is one of the sweetest rabbits I have. I am using her to add the personality, color, and type to my mini rex and I am going to see comes from adding her into my Lionheads/Lionhead Lops. Her first litter consisted of 1 chocolate(rex fur), 2 broken chocolate(1 rex fur 1 normal), 1 REW/Himi(rex fur), 1 broken chinchilla(normal fur), and 1 chocolate sable chinchilla(normal fur). They however passed away at 16 days(first time mom, messed up sadly).

 

[TinysMom]

Well, I guess if someone was going to get banned for sharing about a mixed breed bunny - then I wouldn't be able to share about my lionlops when they're born.....right?

Let me put it this way - in the past - and I'm going back two years or so - we've had a number of people do breedings that were not good for the rabbits. I could probably pull up thread after thread after thread of instances where we tried to convince people that they were putting a doe's health at risk or things like that. Times when we tried to warn people about putting a smaller doe w/ a larger buck...you get the idea.

Because of this - we don't support ALL breeding with a blanket of support. There are times when we simply have to say "We can't encourage that" or stuff like that.

Let me give you an example. I have a neutered flemish giant buck that loves Miss Bea, my lionhead doe. What if he wasn't neutered and I told you that I planned to breed my flemish giant buck to my lionhead doe.....shouldn't someone scream at me and say, "Don't do that...you're putting her health at risk?".....I think they should.

You'll find that our forum is very friendly and open to most things....and we have some people that I know of who breed mixed breed bunnies....including myself since lionlops are not yet an official breed.

Peg

Edited to add: I want to give you an example of what I personally consider bad breeding...and I've seen it done by more than one person in the lionhead community. Let's say I have two does - doe A is a showstopper - doe B is a dud. I breed both does...discard the babies from doe B and foster doe A's babies onto doe B and then rebreed doe A within the next 3 days - therefore having up to 12 litters per year from doe A.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Totally understand Tinysmom As for doing that with lionhead A and B I can just say OMG. I would beat any breeder I met in RL that did that:shock: That is cruel. Poor babies.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

I brought Kikyo in. Had to bring a carrier in the thaw before I clean it. Then tomorrow I am consitering taking Candy out but it has been so cold I'm afraid her not being use to it might make her sick so I don't know what to do Don't want my baby to get sick with all the talk about breeding having to put down so many rabbits because they are getting sick and not getting any better. Scares me. I have never had to puta rabbit down let alone for illness.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Sugar misscarried/absorbed her babies. I knew when they felt so small something wasn't right but I hoped it would be ok. Guess she just isn't ment to have babies for me. Anyways everyone else is ok.

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Dae is very close. She has been laying in her box about the whole time since yesterday. Before she sit in the box alot but now she is laying the whole time. So not like her to lay so much. Yay!

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Dae has 5 babies. 2 are to tiny for my likeing but I hope they will pull through. I will do extra feedings if need be. I checked at 7:40 and there they was. She has eat almost all the hay and the babies was getting cold because of it so I went and got loads more and fixed the box and nest and put them in. They are now warm and squeeky when the nest is touched. There is 4 pink(at least 2 are broken sable chinchillas) and 1 tortish looker.

 

[timetowaste]

congratulations to Dae!! Good luck with your new babies!

Tracy

 

[bunnybunbunb]

Thanks She is very tired but when i started cutting up the carrots and raddish she she pipped up I'm very excited whetherI show it or not. These are my first babies in awhile so I'm worried. I have 2 other litters due so I hope luck is changing.