New Flemish Giant Babies

[FlemishFloridians]

One of our Flemish Giants had a litter mid-December. Babies are doing extraordinarily well, made it through the freezing temperatures outside with passive insulation, and are now a bit over 3 weeks old. 6 babies in all, with the biggest baby weighing in at nearly 2.5 pounds at three weeks! That's the biggest baby we've seen in our rabbitry yet. I'm crossing my fingers its a little girl we can hold back for our program. Stay tuned for updated photos as they grow.

Love this breed! Just wanted to share a bit about keeping rabbits outdoors when born and of course, pics of the babies.

The key to keeping the babies outdoors for us was to add in a cut out Rubbermaid container, flip it top side up over the nest, build up bedding around the nest, stuff bedding between the kennel wall and Rubbermaid container, and placing old packing blankets on the roof of the kennel on the outside. We had a chew-proof remote temperature probe inside (near) the nest and the temperatures never dropped below 85 degrees F, even when it was in the high teens/low 20s outside during the crazy cold front we had in North Florida.

For the older colony inhabitants (girls on one side, boys on the other,) we provided cardboard boxes, plastic large dog houses with bedding, and no direct heat. We had no losses for any of the fam from any age and the buns did very well.

A Facebook rabbit forum I'm a member of sadly had a lot of posts with rabbit owners not understanding why their rabbits passed away when bringing them in from the outdoors where they were already conditioned to live into a heated garage. Sadly, I've found that rabbits do best if they are kept in an environment in which they are conditioned without significant temperature swings (going from 30 degrees to 80 degrees drastically doesn't seem to be a good idea).

Current pics are from newest to oldest.

 

[JBun]

I don't have rabbits anymore, but if I'm ever in a position to have them again, I definitely want a flemish giant ❤❤❤

 

[FlemishFloridians]

I don't have rabbits anymore, but if I'm ever in a position to have them again, I definitely want a flemish giant ❤❤❤

We've had multiple rabbit breeds over the decades and absolutely love gentle Flemish Giants. They are the sweetest (and smartest) bunnies in my opinion (again, only an opinion). <3

 

[FlemishFloridians]

Updated pics of the lovely babies (at least a few of them that were feeling camera ready). The bigger bun in the third picture is Walda, our special needs hold-back, who is an older sweetheart baby that is just about 3 months old, scheduled to be spayed in March.

Giants grow so quickly!

Edit: Little babies are 4 weeks old.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Sooooooooooooo Cuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!