I have been really amazed at how well rabbits have been doing for us these days. If you all remember I got a good deal on some at an auction. We intended to eat them but we figured that we would try to sell a few as pets or starter meat breeders if anyone was interested. Turns out a lot of people have bunnies as pets. The certainly turn a better profit than chickens and are so much cheaper to feed plus they are way more fun to snuggle and less stinky.
We ended up losing all of Xena's litter though, nearly broke my heart. Wait, I don't know if I mentioned losing Xena on here? The black bunny? Well, she was doing wonderfully with all her kits and we moved her to an outside pen so she would have lots more room and grass to nibble. This actually turned out to be a mistake I will explain why later. She was doing great but then an hour later she died violently with liquid feces. I believe that one of my children fed her a dandelion that had been sprayed with weed killer. They know the rabbits like and can have those and didn't know Hubs had sprayed that area around his shop. It was an accident but it was still sad. The combination of the kits weaning at such an early age (4 weeks) and the unlimited grass supply was too much for their little digestive systems and their intestines died and they couldn't poo and died slowly. It was heart wrenching and a valuable learning lesson. Supposedly if their mom had a main diet of grass the whole time while pregnant and nursing it wouldn't have happened but her whole pregnancy she was inside and occasionally given weeds and grass.
Our current litter is doing very well though *knock on wood*. Patty hasn't lost a single one which is very exciting for me. They all have their eyes open and hop around making adorable squeaking noises. They are a rex/californian mix so they have the softest little coats ever. We have decided to keep them inside until they are fully weaned and maybe slowly introduce them to grass after they turn 8 weeks old. We are not taking any chances this time. Hubs has even built a bigger cage so they have more room to maneuver and grow and let momma escape from her kiddos every once in awhile.
Hubs and I are still working on fixing up the Bunny Barn. I can't wait to share all the pictures. I think it looks so much better already. We still need to figure out the poop systems, that's our main hurdle right now. After that we have room to add in 5 more cages and I'll get to keep one of our californian does we got from the auction plus a broken red buck so I can add color. I am so excited!
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