Some exciting news!

[NZminilops]

I've been giventemporary care of a neighbours rabbit while they go away, and I'mreally pleased about it - it's a lovely bunny. It's a lop, I think adwarf lop but not too sure, and the neighbours have not really beentaking very good care of her. She is a bit fat and needs to go on adiet as they feed her silly things like cookies and bananas (everyday!). She does get lots of grass and I bring hay over for her and hertoiletry end looks good, nice solid poops.

I'm excited about it as they are going away for 7 weeks, that gives metime to try and help the bunny out, she needs to exercise and eatbetter.

The thing that I am worried about with her is that she is showing signsof being in late pregnancy. She has enlarged nipples and if she liesdown on her side I can see shapes rippling under her fur. I rested myhand on her tummy very gently and there is definetly some activitygoing on in there, it might just be digestion but it seems to be morethan that. They did have another rabbit there for a while but they gaveit away, it was a similar sort of rabbit to her. Her name is Clover bythey way - forgot to mention that part!

Is it ok to make any changes to her diet at this point considering shemay be with kits? I don't want to upset her too much. If this needs tobe moved to the rabbitry please do so, I wasn't sure where to post .

*edit: I meant to say possibly under the title, can someone change that for me? Thanks *

 

[naturestee]

Sounds like you'll be busy! I reallyhope she's not pregnant.It sounds like her ownerswouldn't take good care of them ortry to find good homes forthem.

Although I don't breed, I do think it would be okayto changeher diet. No treatsand lots of hay should help hera lot. I would think it would be okay to change her pelletsor add veggies as long as you do it slowly. It will be hardfor her to produce good milk and take care of her own body if her dietis bad.

 

[aurora369]

I would give her unlimited hay and unlimitedgood quality pellets for now. Cutting out the treats will nothurt her, but it will allow her to eat more hay and pellets which willhelp her be healthy for babies.

If there's lots of movements, she's most likely in her last week ofpregnancy. Give her about two weeks to have the babies, andif the movement continues it may just be digestion. But ifthey had two bunnies, then most likely there's babies.

Good luck,

--Dawn

 

[NZminilops]

You guys are right, they are not very good bunnyowners. They are going on a trip around Australia and originally justwanted me to pop over every now and then to feed Clover but I worked onthem till the said she could come stay here. She'd be so lonely byherself over there. I don't think they want her anyway - and I didn'ttell them I thought she might be pregnant. Knowing them they'd say tome to keep her and they'd take one of the babies. They only like thingswhen they are still small and cute. They are nice people though, butlike many others think that rabbits are dumb and disposible pets.

She is really loving and smoochy - never been licked by a girl bunbefore but she is so affectionate. She's used to being outside so I'veput her hutch in a fenced off area from Dodge, who hates all otherbuns, and she has a large area to run in and boy does she get puffedout easily. I've trimmed her nails and clipped away some fur that hadmoulted out but then gotten stuck to her bum and she seems happier now.

I'm not sure what the other rabbit was, I think it was a similar bunnyto Clover but a bit smaller. They both look like mutts to me. If shehas kits goodness knows what they will look like. Hopefully it is justdigestion! I don't want to have more rabbits thrust into a world thatalready has too many. My partner has been saying that if she does havekits, to cull a few so she's only left with one or two :?. I can seehis point but I don't think I would be capable of doing that. He saysto me "what's crueler - letting a little rabbit die before having knowna life of misery, or having it spend years alone and neglected andfinally passing away from starving or desease all alone in someonesbackyard?"

I'm slowly changing her over to my pellets, but mostly she's beeneating grass and hay and a bit of veg. I'll take a pic later when Ifind the camera.

Thanks for the support, it's great to be able to talk 'rabbit' to you guys :bunnydance:

 

[Haley]

You're really great for taking such good care of her.

You never know, with all the crap they were feeding her, it might justbe that she's overweight and very unhealthy. Hopefully with some propercare and diet she will be right as rain (and hopefully you dont havekits on your hands).

If she does give birth, maybe you could offer to keep her at your placeuntil she can wean the kits and find them new homes. I thinkthey are much better off in your care.

You're very busy right now, huh?! Three bunnies and you have to keepthem all separate, one just neutered and one possibly pregnant! Yikes!

Stay sane and keep us posted!

-Haley

 

[NZminilops]

I know! I have to wash my hands thoroughlybetween one rabbit and the next so none of them get moody with me. Iwill have Clover here for the next 7 weeks as it is so by the time theyreturn, if she has got any bubs they will almost be old enough to leaveanyway. One good thing is that I have heaps and heaps of rabbit pelletsand my two don't seem to be at all interested in eating them anymore.

Right now my bigest concern is with BunBun as he is refusng to do anybusiness in his cage at all. He used to just pee and poo everywhere inthere and now wont even do one poo, not in the litter tray, not on thefloor...I have to let him out then he races to his litter tray in thekitchen and goes in there. That means I worry about him all nightholding in his business till I let him out in the morning, thatwouldn't harm him would it? It's for about 7 hours. He does have a trayin there, and the tray in the kitchen I put back in the cage at nightbut he totally ignores it. As soon as I put it in the kitchen though hesuddenly knows it's where he should pee. Weird wabbit! He stoppedspraying and dropping teritorial droppings straight after the neuterwhich is good though.

Off to feed the rabs and myself and do some housework, it's very earlymorning here. Hope everyone is well and buns are good too .

 

[NZminilops]

I had to take BunBun to the vet just now as hehad pulled out a stitch, and I took Clover too and the vet has saidshe's in her last week of pregnancy . Looks like there will be babybuns here now, poor Clover! Apart from being overweight by about apound though the vet says she is suprisingly healthy. Her teeth aregreat, her fur is good and she is bright and alert. When she dead bunnyflops you can clearly see babies moving around, I can see head/bumshapes and I can feel legs kicking out. I am being very gentle with her.

BunBun didn't need a new stitch as the skin has already bound togetherquite well but I have to keep checking it now and he hates being upsidedown, it's so tricky to flip him over as he really panics. I am realyglad I had him neutered though as already he is so much better with theno spraying and he's even more affectionate than he used to be.

I've tried to take some pictures but the memory card in my camera hasgone bust :X, I dropped it last night and the card popped out onto thecarpet so I think it's buggered. She looks a lot like my girl Dodge buta bit shorter in length and has a white body with possibly brokensable? Not too sure - it doesn't look like broken tort as it's notorangy.

 

[naturestee]

Well I guess that settles it. Babiesit is.:? Maybe you could start asking around about homes forthem now? If you get people lined up to adopt them before theowners get home they might not try to keep any.

As for that naughty BunBun, have you tried using a treat to get him tostand up against the cage wires? That's what I did for mygirls and it worked every time. Gave me a pretty decent lookat their sutures, too.

 

[NZminilops]

Yes, more baby rabbits in Auckland - so notneeded right now. I hope and pray it's only a couple of babies, vetreckons there aren't many in there. I do know a lady that lives closeby who takes in bucks but she already has three so I'm not sure ifshe'd want any more. I wanted to see if she could be spayed and theybabies removed and the vet gave me the dirtiest look and saids thatClover would be really depressed and probably not recover well (I amnot sure about that, hmm).

BunBun stands up againts his cage whenever I walk past and I tried youridea but he's too hairy. His area looks not too bad. I know it's reallycrude but I attached a pic I did in paint to show where they cut intohim. One sack didn't even get cut open, they pulled out the testi fromwhere the cut line is. On the ride hand side, that sack was cut intoand has a stitch on it but it was also cut into where that red linegoes. The left most stitch he has taken out and the second one in hehas chewed but it's still on. I'm worried he's gonna stretch the cutback open again :?, the vet says it looks ok though.

 

[naturestee]

BunBun wasn't shaved? Or is he so manly that his fur grew back already?

I wouldn't believe what the vet said about the spay.Spay/aborts aren't too uncommon over here in rescues and from what Iknow the girls do just fine, no behavioral problems oranything. Although this late in the pregnancy, with themwriggling like that, they might already be able to survive outside ofher. I think I heard that vets don't normally spay pregnantdoes (or cats) in their last week of pregnancy because of that.

 

[Haley]

yeah, those babies develop so fast it would becruel to abort them so late in the pregnancy. Is there abulletin board at the vets where you could post something? People lovebabies and if you could get some homes lined up then you wouldnt haveto worry about these neighbors keeping all the babies.

Hope Bun Bun is doing well. He probably thinks he's being taunted,having a pregnant doe in the home when he was just snipped

 

[NZminilops]

Hehe, no he wasn't shaved, he had a tiny bit ofhair clipped away but I can't even see the area at all unless I fliphim upside down and dig around and part the fluff. This op is sodifferent to the others I've seen. The MIL's one just had a small holecut into the end of each sack and the testi pulled out, the holes wereleft open. Similar thing was done with my old lop, Sooty, except he hadone stitch on each side (he died not long afterwards). Thjs time itlooks very invasive. And yes he is VERY manly, in fact he had GIANTmanly parts and everyone was most impressed at the vet clinic . Idon' think he realises there is a new rabbit around - he hasn't actedexctited or anything.

Getting females desexed is not at all common here; it was hard enoughgetting a boy done! The vet I used to see refuses to do females, thisone does them but she was horrified that I'd want to abort the babiesas well as not reccomending it. She said the doe would still think shewas pregnant and get extra stressed out, plus she's not my rabbit so itwasn't a good idea. I tried asking the local SPCA which vet clinic theyuse and they said they have an in-house vet who does not 'do' animalsoutside of the SPCA otherwise he'd be far too busy :X, she was such asnotty receptionist!

We have an auction site very similar to ebay here that has a classifiedsection for pets and animals for sale and that is usually the bestplace to advertise.

I wonder what colours to be expecting? She hasn't started getting anymilk in yet, vet reckons another week to go. That seems like ages away.