Kits, Day 3

I should have waited until after the kits received their evening feeding to take pictures, but that isn't for two more hours.  And I am really tired after a day of working in the garden cleaning up all the dead tomato plants.  (I would have cleaned them up last week before the storm had the weather service been a little more accurate.  The weather service forecasted a high of 46 degrees and 1/2 inch of rain.  What we got was a high of 33 degrees and five inches of snow.)

Jennifer asked us to post a picture  showing the kits next to a familiar object for perspective. 

The library card they are next to is the full size card (credit card size), not the keychain card.

Kits, Day 2

I thought maybe I'd post pics of the kits every day, at least for the first two weeks, so that you can see the changes and growth.  Unfortunately, it may be a little difficult for the changes to be visible through the camera and the 'net. 

The big change we noticed today is that three of the "chocolates" are not chocolate.  They are probably lilacs of some sort. 

The lilacs are the two lying horizontally on the top and the one on the bottom right.

Box of Chocolates

Well, it's a nest box of chocolates.  Not that you can see any in there, because they are all down deep in the hay and wool snuggled up with one another. 

Two hours old

Sage had eight beautiful, healthy kits at around 9:00 this morning.  All appear to be of a chocolatey color.  However, there are two with white bellies and chocolate bodies.  Maybe they are chocolate tortoiseshell, but we think those are supposed to have orange-y looking wool.  We're not quite sure--we've never had any tortoiseshells here before.  The rest of the chocolates should be either self-chocolate like their dad or chocolate steel like their mom. 

Nest Building

When we first started breeding our rabbits, Lydia and I would put the nesting boxes in seven to ten days before the does were due to kindle.  (We then learned that if a nesting box is put into the cage too early, the doe will use it as a litter box.)  I read in a book that if a rabbit builds her nest on the 18th day, that she is not pregnant--that it is a false pregnancy.  So I was sad when Snowball started building her nest on the 18th day.  We debated whether to just breed her again, but in the end we decided against it.

We were very glad that we had not tried to re-breed her when we found eleven kits in her nesting box.

We have found that Snowball will start building her nest as soon as the nesting box is put into her cage.  She is our over-achiever.

On the other hand, Tootsie and her daughter Sage were/are our multi-taskers.  (My mom wrote that they were/are slackers.  That was not nice.  At all.)  They basically build their nests while kindling their litters.  Seems a little amazing. (My mom said reckless.  That wasn't very nice, either.)

Torture

That's what it has been, waiting for new litters of kits to appear. 

We begin to wonder if there will even be any this time.  Maybe it got too warm for the bucks at one point (while angoras need something to cool them down when the temperatures rise above 85 degrees, bucks can become temporarily sterile when temperatures rise above 80 degrees), or maybe one of the bucks was too young (Winchester was just over four months at the time), or maybe they just didn't do it right. 

The girls don't palpate to check the doe for developing kits as that increases the risk for stillbirths.  So they have to rely on their observations of changes in the does' behavior. 

Phantom made a beautiful nest.  Sage did nothing out of the ordinary.  Fudge removed all the wool that Lydia had placed in her nest box. 

So far, only one of the three has kindled a litter.  (More on that in another post.)  I thought I would relax and be grateful that there was at least one litter.  Nope.  Still stressed.  And they aren't even my bunnies.

The Breeding Pairs

Once we sold enough of our rabbits we were able to breed our does. 

Sage was paired with Muddy Buddy.  Both are grand champions (or will be as soon as we receive the paperwork back).  Sage has six legs; Muddy has four.  Sage is a chocolate steel and Muddy is a self-chocolate.  They should produce lots of chocolate babies.

Phantom was paired with Coal.  They have one leg each; furthermore, Coal's leg was a best of breed among sixteen rabbits in open competition.  So that is significant.  Both rabbits are self-blacks; however, we anticipate a wide range of colors.

And for the final couple, Fudge was paired with Winchester.  Each of them have one leg as well.  Fudge is a self-chocolate and Winchester is a self-blue.  And again, there should be quite the range of colors.

All three does and two of the bucks are first-timers.  We don't anticipate that all the does will kindle litters this time, but we are keeping a very close eye on them.  We've been checking hourly all day today.  Phantom built a nice nest.  Sage appears clueless.  And it looks like Fudge has a smaller nest in back.  Maybe she just wants a little more privacy. 

Winter Preparations

Winter's cold temperatures don't bother French angoras; in fact, they enjoy the cooler weather.  However, if temperatures drop below freezing, your rabbits' water bottles or crocks may freeze, leaving them without water.  (Heated water bottles are available but I have never tried them, so I cannot comment on them.)  Depending on how low the temperatures dip, we may fill bottles morning, noon, and night with warm water to ensure their supply is always available.

In addition, it is important to have a good supply of feed at all times, but especially in winter.  We live on the eastern side of Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevadas, and frequently semi trucks can't make it over the pass.  We were sweating bullets a few times last year when trucks didn't make their scheduled deliveries.  This year, Lydia and I each bought enough feed to last through February.  Having a good supply of hay is also an important consideration. 

Here's hoping we have lots of snow this winter!