New Bunnies – the Survivors.

And now we talk about our Angora Rabbits!  Like the Garden installments, I’m posting about my Angoras because they are producers of base craft materials – in this case, FUR!!! Lovely, soft, silky, expensive FUR! (And no you don’t kill Angoras for their fur – it sheds off naturally or can be trimmed/shaved off).

Harvey and I got Angoras to spin their fur into yarn.  This was a crazy scheme borne during the Ice Storm from Hell while I was studing my Reader’s Digest Book “Back to Basics” and wishing I had one of the iron cookstoves pictured inside.  A few pages away from the woodstoves was the section on spinning – a joke was made – a lightbulb went off and voila! In the future we’ll sell not only the yarn but finished knit, crochet, felted and woven items made of the yarn/fur.

Currently we have 7 adult rabbits. 4 are pedigreed French Angoras and 3 came from an Amish small animal auction – I’m pretty sure they’re French as well but they could be crosses of some sort. Of the pedigrees there’s: Abby (a red-eyed white doe), Bucky (a broken black buck), Sundown (a fawn doe), and Little Joe (a lynx buck – and all around little turd).  For the Amish buns (who are all 3 black) there’s: Gertie (doe), Yoder (buck – and such a sweetie), and Moto (a little too interested in my fingers…).  If you’re not sure, a Doe is a girl and a Buck is a boy.

Now on to the meat of this story – the new bunnies!

3 weeks ago (on June 12^th) Gertie, (my black French Angora doe that came from an Amish small animal auction) had babies. I hadn’t realized she was pregnant at all – I’d actually been concerned about how thin she was. But Harvey saved the day (I was at work) and quickly set up a box for her and diligently searched through the grass beneath the cage for the escaped babies (they fell through the wire mesh of the cage floor).  I came home to 6 kits and one highly agitated mother. Then I heard a noise… and upon some investigation, found 5 more kits – for a grand total of 11 babies.

I was a bit shocked.

Now keep in mind – I’ve raised rabbits before.  As a ‘tween’ I had a lucrative pet bunny business breeding New Zealand White rabbits (large white rabbits with red eyes – normally used as a meat animal) and did numerous 4-H projects with them (support your local 4-H!) but 11 babies is a lot. Well she was pretty upset which was understandable so I put the additional babies in the box and left her alone.

First thing Saturday we’d lost 3.  She hadn’t eaten them (as Does are wont to do on occasion) – they were just dead in the box.  By that afternoon we realized something was wrong and we posted a plea for help on the Ravelry Angora Rabbits group.  After getting some advice we took the babies out and attempted to force feed them (we held the doe on her back and held the kits up to the teats to feed).

I have never seen a doe react to her babies like this one did.  When she bothered to stick her head in the box, she would jerk back when one of them moved like she was scared of them!  My New Zealand mothers never ignored their babies.  When I looked in on them the experienced mothers would watch from the doorway of the box until I was done and the new mothers would jump in the box to stand over the babies, hiding them from me. If they didn’t want the kits, or something upset them badly at the birth they would kill them, eat them, and move on. (Disturbing, yes but more humane then allowing the little things to just starve to death!).

Sunday morning we were down to 6 and my late Sunday night we were down to 3.

We managed to keep 3 until this past Monday  (the 22nd) when we lost the little black.  I don’t know what happened with him. We had noticed a scab under his chin a few days earlier but he seemed to be okay. I think perhaps the doe may have hurt him during one of the feedings – she usually manages to wiggle free once during the process and has stepped on them once or twice.  Or there could have been something really wrong with the litter and we didn’t recognize it like she did.

 Gertie is still indifferent to them – when we let her up after feeding she doesn’t even sniff the babes – just goes to check out whatever tool has been left on the desk while we put the bunnies back in their box.  I think we’ll try 1 more breeding with her but if she does this again we’ll retire her to a fur only bun. I’m thinking of putting her with Yoder – most of her babies had lots of white on them and I’m wondering if she and the boys are color biased – it’s possible if they came from a farm with all black angoras.  They might not even realize the off colored rabbits are rabbits. (Moto took a chunk out of Sundown’s nose when I tried to breed them – and she did not kindle, aka ‘get pregnant’).

As of today the broken black’s eyes have been open for a week – the gray bun has just opened his first eye this afternoon.  They are hopping about the box and perking their ears at the noises around them.

Here they are:

 

 

And here’s Mama (who’s really tired of us laying her out on a towel twice a day to serve as buffet)

For some reason I don’t have a picture of Abby… I’ll post one soon.