Meat pen class...final decision...and question...

[wendymac]

Okay, first of all, whoever did the math for the dates to breed was wrong. These babies are only going to be 8 weeks and 3 days old tomorrow, which is the weigh-in date. UGH! Next year she'll do her own math and not trust it to someone else. Live and learn...

Here are the final weight totals. We were super critical (knowing this was the last time we'd be going through them) and really weeded them out. We could have gone with 2 of the slightly heavier ones, but once you tossed out a few that weren't uniform, it came out to one pen of 3.14 rabbits and one with 2 of the 3.09 and a 3.10. I'll be snapping pictures shortly, if we can get them all lined up and posed and still long enough to snap them. LOL

I was really tempted to give them gatorade or kool-aid, but worry that it'll give them loose stools (which would defeat the purpose of getting those few extra ounces of water weight). What do you think??

 

[caustin4]

I'm not sure about the koolaid/gatorade I'd be worried something could go wrong and you wouldn't have time to make up the loss. Do you have calf mana or purina animax? I've used those before and they gain weight VERY quickly on it. Plus they will end up drinking more water on calf mana, which will add extra weight.

 

[wendymac]

They've been getting Calf Manna. The weigh-in is tomorrow, so water weight would be the way to go. It was suggested on a forum to give them Gatorade, but I don't think I'm going to risk the chance of the runs.

 

[caustin4]

At least they have been getting calf manna to help boost their weights until this point. You can try molasses, that will not only increase their weight, but cause them to drink lots more water.

 

[wendymac]

Again, I'm worried the change would cause diarrhea. I'll just let them be and be thankful they at least make weight. If the rest of the club followed the breed dates without checking them on their own, there's going to be a lot no even making weight.

 

[majorv]

I answered in the other post...I agree that at this point you need to be careful about giving them anything new like gatorade or molasses. You don't want to run the risk of any of them being DQ'd because of diahrrea.

 

[wendymac]

We didn't change anything...didn't want to chance giving any of them diarrhea. But... Kitty has some of the heaviest there. Apparently everyone bred when the 4-H President said to...except the 4-H leader that bred her grandson's satins. They weigh almost 5 pounds...but the rest were very small, and many didn't make weight. And a lot of them are pretty crappy looking (literally...with poop and urine stains), flabby in flesh, or with little flesh at all. Curious to see how tomorrow goes, when they're judged.

I was a bit shocked that the kids didn't even bother trying to clean their rabbits up. And most were so disgustingly covered in fecal matter and urine I didn't even want to pick them up. So I stuck with checking in the breed entries and let some of the others do the meat pens. LOL

 

[pamnock]

My response is probably too late now, but rolled oats are a good choice for putting on flesh without making the rabbit too soft/fat. I wouldn't use calf manna.

 

[majorv]

Hmmm, if the 4-H leader knew when to breed why didn't she correct the president? That way everyone would've bred at the sametime. :?

 

[MiniLopHop]

Sounds a little crooked to me

4-H is sapposed to be about helping eachother and doing the right thing, doesn't sound like a good example to me.

 

[wendymac]

I think it was a legitimate mistake. Anyway, it's all good. Show results posted in another thread.