Malocclusion Problem

We encountered a malocclusion or misaligned teeth problem with just 1 kit from among the 1st and 2nd litters of my original stock of Chinchilla doe. The kit could hardly eat because of its protruding teeth, then it got thinner and thinner until we had to destroy it. The thing is, we did not notice this problem at first until the kit was about 3-4 months old. I told my neighbor Johnny ( he's the source of my breeding stocks) about this and he traced the parentage of my original Chinchilla doe but unfortunately, he already slaughtered the mother and father of my breeding stock and said that he did not encounter any of this malocclusion problem with his rabbits before. He advised me not to keep this doe with this malocclusion problem because it might show up again in the future. It's just that I did not want to destroy this Chinchilla doe because she is a good mother and I like her big sized body. Besides, I am only raising rabbits for meat and not for show rabbits so I decided to keep her. The third time that she gave birth, I did not see any of the malocclusion problem among her kits so I kept one of them as replacement doe. I also encountered this malocclusion problem with 2 kits from the first litter of the New Zealand rabbit. When I re-bred her again the second time, I did not see it in her second litter which happened to be just one kit. I was not able to take pictures of the rabbits that were afflicted with this malocclusion problem but I did find some free images on the net to show you what it looks like.

 

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?

Advantages in Small Backyard Rabbitry

There are many advantages in having a small backyard rabbitry. One of them is that you could voice out your problems to them and they will not judge you. So if you happen to get into a fight with your hubby, or you lost in an argument, or you had a difference of opinion, just simply walk away and go into the rabbitry. There you can talk to the rabbits until you are blue in the face! Explain your side of the story and omit your hubby's side of the story of course and that should help to make you feel like the winner. 

Seriously, this small backyard rabbitry is just one of my hobbies. We used to be able to raise pigs in the backyard back then when there were only a couple of houses here in the village. Now that the city has grown so fast, the local government has made an ordinance banning the raising of pigs in the city. This is because of the smell and the noise that is associated with a piggery. So if you want to raise some animals in your backyard in the city, go into rabbitry. They don't take up too much space unlike other small ruminants. They can stay confined in a small space but it should be adequate for them of course. They can eat all your vegetable trimmings too, so they are economical to feed as well. If you have a lawn and you are lazy to mow the grass, just release them there and they will do the work for you. If you have shrubberies around the property and you don't know where to throw these, just give it to them and they will solve the problem for you for free, they will eat them all within a matter of minutes. They are that efficient you see. If you have a small garden in the backyard like me, then you need not buy or use those chemical fertilizers because you already got "Green Gold" from the rabbits waste pellets. You can also use the rabbit's waste directly in the garden without burning the plants because these are considered as cold fertilizer and the best thing is, it is organic fertilizer. They are also a good source of protein with their lean white meat which is healthier than other kinds of meat. As long as you keep and maintain the sanitation in the rabbitry, the neighbors have no reason to complain. Since rabbits are not noisy, they can be kept in the backyard and the neighbors will not even know that you are raising them because they are really quiet by nature. They will not demand attention but they will still receive attention gratefully. Here are some pictures of the beauties in my small backyard rabbitry.