Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Big dissapointment!

I got home from work yesterday and went to feed and water the rabbits and found that Alice had her litter! She had been bread two weeks before I got her. I had put a nesting box in the cage a couple days ago and I would find her in it each morning. There was only one kit in the box and Alice had used the box as a bathroom. So I removed the box and took the kit out (mistake?) and cleaned out the old nasty bedding, replaced it with new bedding, put the kit back in and placed the box back with Alice.
I went out later to check on them and Alice had killed and eaten the kit! All that was left was it's head! I was bummed, to say the least!

Why did this happen? She has had other litters and has done well with them. All I can say is that she was stressed and not use to me or the envioment yet! So I will let her settle in and not breed her again until Buck Henry is old enough to do the job. That will be in about 2 month's.

This is not the out come I had hoped for. But live and learn!
Tom

4 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the kits and sorry I can't help you. I'm actually going to use YOU as my sounding board on rabbit raising....so keep on keeping on!

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    1. Read today's post, you may want to change your mind! I guess "LEARN AS YOU GO" is the watch word here. Man I could just CRY!

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    2. Aw, blast and dang! So, so sorry this happened, but sometimes things happen with animals that we just can't avoid or explain. I'm sure not an expert on rabbits (we kept them 30-some years ago) but I would have thought she would not have still been "anxious" or unsettled after being in her new home as long as she was. I know you'll be cautious when her next kindling approaches, but it will probably be just fine.

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    3. Mama Pea,
      As I consider you one of the experts in this Homesteader thing, I take your advice and wisdom to hart! Alice tried to do the mothering thing, But I screwed up. She lost her other kits because of it! I will know better next time!

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