Naturestee's Foster Family

[naturestee]

I brought home my first foster family today. I'm fostering them through the local shelter and they'll go back when the babies are 8 weeks. They were just born this Thursday, July 3rd.

First pics of the babies:

I'll leave mom alone for now. Her listed name is "Jimmy," so maybe I'll call her Jayme.

Their history: An older lady brought in 5 mixed breed rabbits that had all been living together. She had been breeding them and selling the babies as pets, but she felt she was getting too old to take care of them and these five were "too old to sell." There were two girls, one of which they were able to spay before she gave birth. And the other is my foster mama.

Mama is a small black dwarf mix, and the other girl looks similar but dark grey/blue. The boys are agouti lop/dwarf/whatever mixes.

The babies are active and mostly seem well fed although the marten-colored one doesn't have as full of a belly. The mama bun pulled tons of fur and is protective but not aggressive, she seems like a really good mom so far.

 

[naturestee]

I took some quick pics of the mama this morning. She's still very scared of me, but I don't know if she's used to being handled at all. I think I'm going to call her Jazzy, and then when I name the babies they can all have jazz/blues names.

Are you going to eat me?

Notice the gigantic pile of fur!

I covered the back half of the cage in a dark blanket and gave mama a box to hide in. I hope she settles down soon. I feel bad about scaring her just by walking into the room to check on her.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Oh I love the jazz/blues name thing! She's really cute and of course I am in love with those babies!

B. B. has to be one of the names!

 

[naturestee]

Yup, B.B. was the first one I thought of. And Billie (Holiday). Gotta name one Coltrane too, I always wanted to after the Simpsons episode where Lisa adopts a cat named Coltrane.

My brother plays jazz guitar, he'll be excited LOL!

 

[Djakarta]

Jazzy is a beautiful name for a beautiful girl.

That is one amazing nest she made- whata good mama bunny!

 

[mouse_chalk]

AWWW! CUTE babies!!! The mum is so cute too! Everything else I was going to say went out of my head after I looked at the pics again

Need more pics!! :nod

 

[FallingStar]

Oh my! Those babies are adorable! :inlove:And so is the mum.

Needs more pics! :camera

 

[missyscove]

I definitely demand daily pictures.

:biggrin2:

I really like your cardboard wall.

 

[Haley]

Shes so pretty! What a good mama- pulling all that fur for her babies.

When I had a foster mama who had justhad babies.she was terrified of me as well. She never warmed to me, but she was only at my place for about aweek. Once her babies were separated from her at the shelter she calmed down a lot.

 

[naturestee]

Haley, for some reason I didn't remember you fostering a mama bun. Pictures?

Jazzy is definitely liking her cage. I went down there to find newspaper shredded, the wicker ball destroyed, half the hay gone, and she had pushed the cardboard box around and was lying with it between her and the babies, LOL! I tried bribing her with a Craisin but she just gave me the "Are you stupid?" look. I put it in her food bowl and she finally ate it after I left the room to refill her water bottle. She also added to her nest with hay and shredded newspaper. Must. Be. Bigger!

She was a little upset when I took the box of babies out, but I put them right outside the open cage door for her to see. After watching for a little bit she went to eat her pellets, which I had just refilled. The babies aren't skinny, but most don't have very round bellies. They probably get fed at night though and they all seem active and happy. I did give an extra feeding to the marten baby though. He's the smallest and the most slender. Jazzy HATES being held on her back, but she was ok with being held upright while I held the baby under her. He was making the cutest little lip smacking noises!

Pictures! It's hard to get clear pics. The dutch and the marten in particular were moving a lot.

Although this little black baby just wanted to snuggle and fall asleep.:bunnyheart

The other two black babies:

The big blue behemoth! Largest baby, largest belly.

Dutch! He has black freckles on his shoulders like Loki does.

It's hard to tell in this picture, but this is the marten. He got extra mommy time right after this photo. He's small but feisty.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Oh that big baby should be B.B.!!!

I used to know an old drummer who played with B.B. years ago. He said he was so cool!

 

[naturestee]

LOL, I was thinking of naming the little marten B.B. We'll see. I'm going to wait till they open their eyes to name them though. Stuff happens, and they'll at least be a little farther along by then.

Do you think anyone would get it if I named a baby Bird? It's not the best bun name but it would be cute.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yeah, the little marten could be cute as B.B. also!

If they don't get it - it would be something to talk about then LOL!

 

[Maureen Las]

OMG Angela what a handful!!!!
They are really cute and I LOVE the names.

Maureen

 

[Djakarta]

I think the big blue baby should be Satchmo.

He looks twice as big as the Marten and the Dutch babies!

 

[naturestee]

*gasp* Satchmo is awesome! I had thought of Louie, but I didn't want too many "ie" sounding names since I already planned on B.B. and Billie.

Darn it, I wasn't going to name them yet! Oh well, the blue is definitely Satchmo!

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

OMG, the babes are just adorable! So is Mom, aw! You are awesome, Naturestee, for doing this!:hug:

 

[naturestee]

Another day, another addition to the nest. I fed Jazzy earlier this morning, and I just checked her again and she had put the half-full food bowl in with the babies! Silly Jazzy, babies don't eat pellets yet!

 

[Michaela]

You are doing such a great job taking on the little family, Angela. :hug: How will you part with them!?

But they are so cute, they will grow so fast.

 

[naturestee]

Tonight's update:

The colors, they are a chaaaaangin!:singing:

Sorry, no pics, but the babies are starting to get a little fur. At least one of the "black" babies looks like he's an agouti now. Makes sense, the potential daddies were agouti. And the blue looks darker. Hmm. No more color predictions from me for a while!

I made progress with Jazzy today. She actually took a piece of carrot from my hand!:bunnydance:

Also, I bought her some better pellets today (Heinhold Show formula). I mixed some with the old stuff from the shelter this morning, and this evening found all the Heinhold gone and the last bit of old stuff dumped on the floor. Can't blame her, most of what's donated for plain alfalfa pellets are really cruddy pet store brands. Including Small World, I know I've seen bags of that. Ewwwwwhttp://www.