These mistakes vary from small to large and sometimes happen because events outside the rabbitry intervene. Join me as we talk about Errors in Judgement.
No one is perfect in how they raise their rabbits, mistakes will happen. The only question is, can you learn from them?
These mistakes vary from small to large and sometimes happen because events outside the rabbitry intervene. Join me as we talk about Errors in Judgement.
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If you raise animals, death will become part of the equation.
I don’t know of any rabbit breeder who hasn’t experience death in their rabbitry. Now I know, I just finished talking to you about culling. I’m not talking about the deliberate death that you either choose or is needful, I’m speaking to the unexpected death that happens. Discussing Death .it is not an easy thing to do, but very necessary. Illness, injury, stress, weather concerns and more. Death comes for a variety of reasons. Read more here. An important aspect of raising rabbits (or any animal for that matter) is removing animals from your herd. Sometimes this removal is planned
At other times, it's just not planned
Regardless of the ReasonYou need to know your options for culling well. This article will help. In a nutshell you can sell or kill. SellOnly animals that are temperamentally and physically sound. Do not sell animals that are sick. You have no business ethically of passing along your problem to someone else. I know that sometimes animals get sick moving into a new home, I get that. Stress does weird things to rabbits. I'm not talking about rabbits who end up completely surprising you with health issues. What i mean is deliberately selling a rabbit who isn't eating, blows snot, has a weepy eye or whatever. Just don't do it. Sell well. Honestly answer questions about your rabbits. Give out accurate pedigrees, Do what you say you will. CullAnything you aren't selling. Make sure you have a back up method if your primary method fails for whatever reason.
You can
Go On... go read the full article! Feeling a bit bummed this morning. But thought this might be helpful to others. BrightSong x BonFire Kit Bred: Feb 12 Kindled March 15 Litter of six (two DOA, one peanut) all normals appear to be torts or oranges all solids. Small kits as per normal with Song. Tort? small kit fairly dark in colouration. Turned out to be a smutty fawn. Singleton left out of a litter of six, a tiny little boy. Momma didn't want him, first foster momma didn't want him, but Daisy took him. He was very cold when I found him after birth... I knew right them he's probably have trouble when he started to eat regular food. He was smaller than his litter mates, perhaps half their size, but plunky! He became a roly poly three week old and my hopes were that just maybe he'd be fine. He hit almost four weeks and he started to fail. My heart fell. I removed him from the litter and put him on a straw bedding (it's a warm bedding when it has leftover fur in it). Solid bottomed cage. He snuggled in quietly and I wondered if he'd fail more quickly. He was so frail and looking poorly. I've not had much success saving kits with entropathic illness so I wasn't holding out much hope but thought I'd try a treatment protocol that others have had some success with. Chives with plain grass. I put him on grass and chives only... I figured either he'd die or he'd thrive. and ... HE THROVE!! He was feeling better, eating well, returning to his very sweet nature. He was eating pellets (just a touch) and my grain mix (quite well). He was doing well enough to come out for pictures and to spend time exploring the world at large, sitting on a fleecy so he wasn't on the wet ground. just a happy little bun. I was starting to think he'd find a special needs home. I was getting ready to put him into a regular cage.
This morning though, I came into the rabbitry, thought he was sleeping until he didn't come to great me. He passed away during the night, looks like he passed away in his sleep. I am not sure what he died from... his gut issues were over and he was eating well and acting healthy. I don't know if he had something else wrong with him as well that simply wasn't readily apparent. He was proportioned correctly so I don't think he was an odd ball peanut that finally just failed, but his runtiness may have been a sign of something else wrong with him. i am just so bummed. So BrightSong's first litter with me was a bit slow to start but overall she did an excellent job with them. Her kits ended up being little butterballs so fed them so well. I had HIGH HOPES for her next litter.
Her second...not so good but potentially my fault as she didn't pull sufficient fur so thought I'd add some...most rabbits are fine with that, but Song apparently was NOT. Dug out the box and I only saved two which I promptly fostered. This litter she AGAIN pulled very little fur and the two does I bred to go with her kindled late. I saved chilled kits and brought them in the house to keep warm (the kits) but Song never got around to producing milk... So as soon as I could I fostered them to SunnyRock as I know she feeds her kits well and she only had one.. but chilled once kits are easily chilled again AND they'd gone without food for a couple days so it was cross your fingers and hope! Last night I went out and found one dead, one almost dead and one doing fine (and well fed). The one almost dead looked like it had gotten chilled again. SINCE two kits (Sunny's single, and Song's one left) can't keep themselves warm I fostered them over the Daisy. All were looking good this morning AND fed. WOOT WOOT. In the future Song will only be bred with at least two other does, and come spring she'll be looking for a new home. She's a very mild-mannered doe so I expect I can get her into a pet home no problems. Time will tell. Sometimes one doesn't have access to an all wire carrier OR you need something that will house a rabbit differently over a few days. Enter in the Rubbermaid Carrier. Rubbermaid carrier are fairly easy to do. You need some decent tools. A sharp knife Wire cutters zipties Rubbermaid container wire Drill with two different sizes bits Jigsaw Measure out where you want your wire to go. Cut your wire to the appropriate size. Hold it up where you are going to place it and trace around the outside with a dark marker. Measure in about 1.5 cm in from the wire edge, this is where you will cut the opening. Use The bigger bit to make a hole big enough for the jigsaw blade to fit through. Use a narrow blade. Go slowly and don't be surprised if you can only do one cut or possibly two, depends on the thickness of your rubbermaid container. Mine were fairly thin, so we made one cut with the jigsaw and cut the rest with a very sharp knife. Once you have the plastic cut, use a drill bit just big enough for your ziptie to go through and drill all around your marked line for the wire. We marked where we drilled with the ziptie, and drill two holes, one on each side of the dark line (where the wire will be placed). Put the wire on the INSIDE of the carrier to prevent rabbit from nibbling on the plastic. Then trim the ziptie ends short. When you are done you will have a carrier that will work as an emergency bunny nesting site in the winter, as a carrier to take to shows or to just transport a rabbit. In this particular case the carrier cost us $6.oo. We already had all the supplies. Fit the rabbit to the box. This rubbermaid carrier will fit a rabbit up to 3 lbs, after that you will be looking into larger rubbermaid containers. You can make them so they open from the side AND the top. If you are confident in your abilities you could wire on two sides. They are stackable if you need to bring in more than one rabbit in the winter.
I made this one to transport a small rabbit that had to sit for a week at a transporters home without having to worry if the carrier didn't come home. BUT with the view in mind of living in southwestern Ontario and occasionally having to bring kindling does in the house during hard cold spells. This could also be used as a guinea pig or other small animal carrier. Change the size of the wire as needed. Important message, please SPREAD THE WORD TO ALL BREEDERS: Limit rabbits movements; sales, purchases, agricultural exhibitions, shows, rallies. If suspected, contact 1-844-ANIMALS; unusual symptoms, mortality, etc. This is the statement from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency: Declaration: Survey of a local outbreak of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in Quebec August 25, 2016 - Ottawa (Ontario) - Government of Canada The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) investigation of a local outbreak of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) in small recreational farms East-du-Québec. A survey is conducted on three farms near Rimouski, Quebec. The three farms are under quarantine to control the movements of animals, products and equipment and to prevent the spread of the disease. The outbreak is restricted to small recreational farms. Rabbits breeding commercial farms are not subject to this investigation. The rabbit haemorrhagic disease is highly contagious and often fatal for the affected rabbits. This virus is transmitted to other rabbits through secretions, including saliva, eyes and nose runny, urine, feces and bedding, contaminated food and water. It can also be spread accidentally by humans, wildlife and insects or infected meat or fur. The disease does not affect humans and has never been known impacts in other animals. We remind operators of commercial and recreational farms to use biosecurity practices to minimize the risk of spread of the disease. Producers must do the following: Report any suspicious symptoms to a veterinarian or provincial veterinary authority. 1-844-animals Do not introduce new rabbits in their establishment if the animals come from a place where there was illness or death during the previous 60 days. The CFIA is working with the province of Quebec as part of this survey and will provide updates as they become available. UPDATE!!!! Update on the Quebec Rabbit Hemmorhagic Disease. Only two PET rabbits at ONE person's home tested positive for the disease in Rimouski Quebec. The other two farms are under quarantine only because of the close proximity to the one hobby farm. This information came from the Veterinarian in Rimouski. No info yet on where the rabbits got this disease from. There are NO other cases. What is RVHD?Rabbit Viral Hemorrhagic Disease (VHD) is a highly contagious disease caused by a calicivirus that affects only rabbits of the Oryctolagus cuniculus species. This includes wild and domesticated European rabbits, from which our own domesticated rabbits are descended. It has not been known to affect any North American native rabbits or hares, such as cottontails, snowshoe hares and jackrabbits. VHD is also known by several other acronyms: RHD (Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease), RCV (Rabbit Calicivirus), and RCD (Rabbit Calicivirus Disease). VHD was first seen in China in 1984, and has since spread to Mexico, Continental Europe, Israel, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Symptoms may include:
Suggestion:Do not buy any rabbits from Quebec at this time. We have no vaccine available in Canada. Exercise caution when buying rabbits from breeders who have shown rabbits in or near Quebec. Contain this rabbit deadly virus.
I thought this was good thinking on the part of Easy Ears, mind it only works for a certain type of hutch, but it was creative thinking worthy of sharing with other eh? :) Having baby rabbits around is always fun. ) They sweet and cuddly and they move into your hand to circle in to sleep.. it's amazing. BUT before you have babies, you need to have a momma building a nest. Below is a video of someone else's doe making a lovely nest for her impending babies. I find rabbits are funny. People will often think if you've met one rabbit you've met them all but it isn't so.
Some rabbits will pull fur days ahead of time. Making their nest, getting it all just so, and then ignore it. Other rabbits will wait until the very last second, build the nest, have their babies and done. Still different rabbits will have their babies and then build a nest around them. Others will build their nest and fuss over it for three or four days before having their young. Pulling a wee bit of fur and then rearranging it, making a nest hollow. And sadly there are some who simply never build a nest. These bunnies if you get to the babies on time you can save them, but if you don't.. it's mighty hard to. The MOST frustrating ones are those that make a nest and then when babies come go "OH, I'll just have them on the wire over here and cover them with a touch of straw". Those ones you can't really predict unless they've done it before. There are variations on the theme in-between all these standards...and it can change from litter to litter. It's rabbits...you can either cry over them or shake your head at their antics, and then rejoice with those who do their job well. Those are the does you keep. Those are the does from whom you keep replacement stock. Have fun with the babies. :) Found this video on Youtube about caring for rabbits in the winter. Thought it had some good points (protecting from the wind, changing how you water them, providing hidey holes for warmth). I didn't agree with everything in the video though. What didn't I agree with?
1. feeding lots of sugary foods. Rabbits in the winter don't need extra feed, they just need GOOD feed and it's not a time to put them on a diet. My rabbits get hay and pellets one day, a grain mix and pellets the next. Days alternate. The rabbits do well. In winters where the weather is up and down I add pineapple juice into their water. It seems to raise the freezing temp (so water doesn't freeze as quickly) and it encourages the rabbits to drink more. 2. Not breeding in the winter because the babies will freeze. Is there a risk that babies will freeze? Yes, but it happens less frequently than you might suppose. If momma does her job properly the kits will be born into a well made nest. AND one can bring babies in the house if its particularly cold out (they generally only have to come in until they are well furred). Litters of more than four rarely have to come inside. So what do rabbits NEED in the winter? 1. recognition that they come with built in fur coats so don't make them too warm. No heat lamps necessary. They do need protection from the wind. 2. Good food. Not extra feed, but good feed. Not a time for diets unless you have a fat rabbit. 3. Water in bowls not bottles UNLESS you have heated water bottles. Give them new water at least twice a day. 4. Breeding is fine as long as momma does her job. Bring small kits inside for a week until their fur comes in. 5. Giving a box to sit in if rabbits are acting cold. Some rabbits don't get cold, others like to get up off the wire. So weigh out your rabbits needs. |
AuthorI have been breeding rabbits for a quite a few years. I thoroughly enjoy them as animals and think they make great pets. I also like to take some of them to rabbit shows to see how they measure up to the standards. For the BEST rabbit forum I've ever found. Go to Rabbittalk.com. Good for the pet rabbit owner as well as the breeder for meat or show.
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