i have to admit, I've never thought of feeding turnip to my bunnies. I feed the greens, never thought to feed the root. Wonder if that would go over well with the buns....
Thought this was an interesting design for a cage. If the roof overhang was larger there would be even less concern about rabbits getting wet, and I'd love to see a roll down tarp to protect rabbits living outdoors in the winter. but overall, not a bad design. :)
Earmites in Rabbits... crusty sore ears in rabbits. NOT fun for rabbit, not fun for the human handling unhappy rabbit. What does one do to treat? There are a variety of things you can do. 1. Oil in the ear. I have successfully used oil in the ear for rabbits to get rid of mites. I've used it every other day for two weeks and bang.. no mites. 2. Ivermectin.. NOT for pregnant or nursing animals so exercise caution here. Also be careful on dosage amounts and DO NOT give to rabbits who will be used for food for at least six months. Paste ingestible or cattle type injectable. 3. Diatomaceous earth.. FOOD GRADE. Sprinkle on animal regularly. 4. Here is one person's method of curing it. NOTE: tea tree oil is TOXIC to rabbits so you need to make sure they don't ingest it. 5. You could get a specific mite treatment for your local veterinarian. things like revolution, advantage etc.
6. Try using VetRX brand Rabbit Remedy. Some folks swear by it. Other than how to feed rabbits, one of the most divisive conversations is that of how to keep rabbits... alone, in pairs, in colonies or a mixture of all the above. People have their preferred methods and their own experiences to raising rabbits and all these things affect how one raises their rabbits. One camp is predominately house rabbit related. Rabbits need a rabbit partner or they will be lonely. These are the folks who say when getting a rabbit you have to get two. The other camp says "keep rabbits by themselves or they will fight". These are predominately breeders. There are others who raise rabbits in colonies as well but we won't be talking about those folks today. Colony raisins has it's own particular issues and I don't want to get into those issues in this post. :) Frequently folks are told that two rabbits are better than one, unfortunately when people are told that, they aren't told that baby rabbits being together is different than adult rabbits being together. YES.. Two rabbits that get along together are FUN to watch together. They are. I've seen it, I like what I see. BUT I've also seen the flip side when rabbits DO NOT get along well together. When people buy two bunnies together I always warn them that the bunnies MAY need to be separated when they mature and what signs to watch for. The key to keeping more than one rabbit together is SPACE. Keeping two rabbits in a cage that is large for them as babies is a whole lot different than keeping two adult rabbits in the same space. I've rescued way too many rabbit couple and found one that is thin, or has multiple scratch marks on it's back and nip marks on the lower half to wonder about the safety of keeping two rabbits confined in your standard "large plastic" bottom cage. Keep them in that cage if you must, but then put a divider in the cage to protect the submissive rabbit from the dominant one. The real key to keeping two rabbits happy together is give them LOTS of space and with the space give lots of hidey holes and jumping up onto areas. Give bunnies places to go and areas of their own to hang out in. That's the real key to keeping more than one rabbit living happily in a household. Within breeder circles there is even controversy about how to keep rabbits in indvidual cages. From the size of the cage to the location. Where they should be joining cages or completely separate. There are reasons for everything and I"m not here to argue them.
Are those of us who house animals individually cruel and heartless not allowing rabbits to freely interact as they would in the wild? The biggest reason to keep rabbits in individual cages comes down to this: Safety. People want to keep their rabbits safe and since "couples" are known to break down which does raise the strong potential that one of the rabbits could be seriously injured, most folks who cage their rabbit individually do so to prevent those types of injuries. Like seriously.. if you know that something or someone you valued was going to live in a potentially dangerous situation, that was ENTIRELY preventable...wouldn't you want to see them living as safely as possible? (for sure you would!). So it is for most breeders and pet owners who have seen rabbits injured because they just want to be on their own (the rabbit that is). Rabbits do live in colonies in the wild (Europe that is) and in places in North America where folks have let enough of them go so the rabbits populate an area. But one thing you will notice about rabbit colonies... they happen naturally in the WILD. In the wild where they can move to safer pastures if a rabbit dislikes them enough to drive them out. WE cannot safely replicate that in indoor housing. We can't du to the nature of buildings have walls. So those who house rabbits individually "put up walls" between rabbits to keep them safe. But also to 1. monitor health 2. maintain good litter records 3. maintain pedigree records 4. figure out which rabbits have the strongest immune systems I hope I've given some food for thought. If you have questions, fire away. :) This week I got my hay for the winter. It's a real variety of grasses this year. I got it from a lady up Clinton way. I only picked up 12 bales this year. I figured that would be enough since I've cut the herd size down and I have some hay left from last year. I do sell it by the slice so if people want hay I'm happy to sell them some. I sell it for $5 a slice so I think that's considerably better than they sell it for in the store. :) Helps me save up to pay for my hay next year too! :) Makes sense eh? The rabbits seem to like it and the guinea pigs really like it so that's good all round I think. Anyways, I've been keeping busy. I've got some spinach and lettuce growing for fall greens for the critters, and I've been pulling weeds everywhere. Got me a couple of huge piles out in the backyard, I plan to take them to the dump this coming week, then we'll be spreading out dirt over the backyard to make it more smooth and hopefully having a friend come up and get some for their backyard as well. I've gotten the shed mostly organized for the winter as well. Looks pretty good so far eh? I am planning to make some of my own carriers next year so the wire I have will be put to good use. :) I may have Joyce at Bunnyview make the bottoms for me, but we'll see, I'm not sure yet how I will make it all work out. And I'm keeping some wire in case I need to make a new 36in cage. I'm still hoping to sell the rat cage that I have here. Time enough for that though.
In order to raise rabbits I need to know how to breed them And though what I know isn't complete, I've learned a thing or two about doing so. :) I thought I'd share what a normal breeding OUTSIDE the bucks cage would look like. First complete a health check. Clean eyes, ears, nose, vent/penis. No matting of front paws or groin region. Nothing that was missed in daily checks. You want rabbits that are both in excellent health (minus any moulting issues). Wafer bucked a bit when I checked her vent which is a signal that she was ready to bred. I figured she would as she's been temperamental that last few days which is how her mom would get as well. Wafer is a flemish giant cross. Red Max is kept in a standard cage, adding a big doe like Wafer means that the cage is a wee bit cramped so Red Max and his date come outside the cage to make each others acquaintance. Here they say hi to each other in bunny language. Note the ears are pricked forward for Max and the head is lower for Wafer. Her ears aren't flat back like she's scared or unhappy, just a young doe saying hi to a mature buck. This prompted Wafer to do what many does do. Race around madly. You'd think she was scared of him by how madly she was racing around, but everytime he'd look at her sideways she'd stop and look him over. Isn't she a gorgeous girl? NOTE: the tail flaps (just like her momma's does when she's in the mood) Bright expression, ears forward.. not the frightened look of a young doe looking for the quickest way out of dodge. Anyways, everytime he'd look at her sideways and approach her she'd stop and flatten herself to the ground. He'd come over and say hi, sniff her over and occasionally paw at her which.... prompted her to run around like a mad duck again. NOTE: the lowered head, the NOT flattened to the body ears, the flat look with her legs back and not tucked under. Ears flat to the body, low grunts and legs tucked under is a frightened doe in no mood to breed (generally speaking). Some does have ODD body language. Eventually the two of them would finish the whole courtship aspect of their date. He approached, she lifted her rear end and he finished. doing the classic curl and fall over routine. No squeal. He's a very quiet grunter. Even though I knew everything went as planned, I gave them a moment to recover themselves and then I flipped Wafer over to make sure that she did have ejactulate where it was supposed to be. I've had more than one buck look to complete the deed only to find it on the tail, or on the backside, or somewhere other than intended, so doing a quick flip is beneficial. It also gives the buck a moment to go "HEY, that worked.. now breathe a moment cause...ooh.. we get to do it again!". :)
That's how I do an out of the cage breeding. It works for me. :) So let's say you have a rabbit, or two, that you want to get bred. You are having difficulty doing so. What tricks can you use to help them breed? This is a question often posed to me so I thought I'd take the time to answer it.
FIRST! Make sure your doe is in good health. No fat, no abscesses, or injuries to feet or anything like that. Be checking for signs of readiness. A pale or white vent usually indicates no desire to breed. Red or purple...better sign. My Tricks.
Tricks others have used:
Things to note for your records: 1. difficult breeder and how you solved 2. if continues to be a difficult breeder consider this: do you want to add that tendency to your herd? What methods have you used to get slow to breed does to breed? Lots of ways to groom a rabbit, this is one person's methods and thoughts. My grooming tends to consist of once in while wetting down my hands and brushing against the grain and wiping the hair off. During moulting I use a prickly brush which works quickly. With matting I take a sharp pair of scissors and cut as close to the skin as possible, but you need to be careful when you do so. |
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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