Thursday 31 May 2012

First Generation Replacement Doe # 1: 2nd Litter

On April 20,2012, I bred-back the first generation replacement doe with the broken-back Chinchilla buck. Six weeks or 1 1/2 month after giving birth to her first litter, she was bred-back again. She could still nurse her babies for one week before her milk dries up and by that time, her kits would be on their own. As usual, we took her out of her cage and brought her to the buck's cage for mating. They do their own dance of merry-go-round until one of them gets tired and that's when the male could perform his deed. We have to see to it that every time we mate them, the doe will be serviced twice by the buck just to increase her chance of getting pregnant. We usually do our breeding in the evening when the day is not so hot so as not to stress the rabbits and they can perform better this way. If the doe is not ready to mate, she will show an aggressive behavior towards the buck. If this happens, just take out the doe from the cage then try and put her back into the buck's cage again after an hour. If this doesn't work, then do the mating early the next morning when the doe is more receptive to the buck's advances. You'd know if the doe "got it" if during their mating, the buck makes a grunt and tumbles down on its side. It's really comical to watch them but while they're mating but it's necessary if you want to make sure that the buck really gave the doe his semen. Anyway, these are the 8 kits from the second litter of replacement Doe # 1, they were born on May 21, 2012.

The baby rabbits are out of the nest box
First Generation Replacement Doe # 1 with her 2nd set of litter
I'm wondering why the kits are outside and the doe is inside the nest box?








Wednesday 30 May 2012

First Generation Replacement Doe # 2: 2nd Litter



The doe in the picture below is Replacement Doe #2 with her second set of litter. We re-bred this doe on April 20, 2012 to the broken-back Chinchilla buck. She kindled to 7 healthy kits on May 21, 2012. In breeding a rabbit, take out the doe from her cage and bring her to the buck's cage for mating. Never do it the other way around because female rabbits are extremely territorial by nature. They could harm the buck if you bring the buck over to their cage. When we first brought the doe to the buck's cage, she was fidgety and kept on running around in circles. After a few minutes of merry go round, the doe finally settled down and the buck was able to do his deed. We had to watch that the buck serviced her twice before we removed her from the buck's cage and put her back in her own cage together with her first set of litter. She could still nurse her first litter for one week before we remove and separate her from her kits. After you bring back the doe to her cage, watch her for about 30 minutes. If the doe makes a pee 30 minutes after the breeding process, this means that the semen could be washed away and this means that you have to repeat the same process all over again. Luckily, she did not make a pee and to calm her down, we gave her some sweet potato leaves to nibble on. The pictures below are the result of this second bred-back with her 8 healthy kits, her second set of litter.

First generation replacement doe # 2 with her 2nd set of litters
Piggy back

On top of the world

You were saying.......

I wanna drink too!

Thursday 24 May 2012

First Generation Replacement Doe # 3: 1st Litter

 The picture below is called Doe #3 and her first litter. She is one of the 3 replacement does that we kept from the first litter of my original stock of Cinnamon breed. Since we bred the original Cinnamon doe to the Chinchilla buck, so this makes her a half Cinnamon and half Chinchilla mix. We bred all 3 replacement does on Februay 04, 2012 but only two of her siblings, Doe #1 and Doe #2 got pregnant whereas this Doe #3 did not take.

Have you ever tried to palpate a rabbit for pregnancy check just to see if there are babies that formed inside her? Well I haven't done this myself for fear that I may be doing more harm than good just in case I make a mistake in palpating the doe. I have read about this subject on the Internet but I do not have the nerve to try it on my rabbits. If the doe does not get pregnant the first time, then perhaps she will the next time we try to have her mated again. The recommended age before the doe can be bred is at 6 months old. She was born on August 18, 2011 so she was already 5 1/2 months old when I first attempted to mate her with the Chinchilla buck on February 04, 2012. Unfortunately, she did not get pregnant.

So on April 09, 2012, I decided to have her mated with the New Zealand buck. We counted 28 days after she was mated and then we put in the nest box and some cut-up newspapers inside the cage. Gestation period takes 30-31 days before she delivers her first litter so she has two days to fix her nest. Once she feels that she is ready to make her nest, she would gather the cut up newspapers in her mouth and bring these to her nest. She will be busy jumping in and out of her nest box but just let her arrange her nest the way she wants it done. You will notice, too, that she will pull some fur from her dewlap and fill the nest box with these. This will help ensure that her kits will be warm once she delivers. They usually kindle at night or early in the morning. Finally, on May 09, 2012, she delivered 8 healthy kits. We removed the nest box 15 days after the kits were born, this is to prevent the kits from getting any disease from the litter in the nest box. We sometimes leave the nest box much longer than the recommended 15 days especially if the weather is cold. Since it is summer when they were born, and they were already leaving their nest box more often, so we took off the nest box and we just left a piece of cardboard on the floor for them to sleep on. 
  


Doe #3 and her 1st litter