If you have been to my Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts today – You already know that we had some baby bunnies join our homestead earlier today.
Our Doe pulled out all her fur and pooped out 8 kits on a hard cold metal grate. No one has told our bunnies what nesting boxes are for and they have all decided that the nesting box is a litter box – the metal grate is where the babies go.
We even washed our hands, rubbed the mama bunny, picked up all her fluff she ripped out and moved it into the nice, cozy, nesting box this morning (before she had the babies) so she would get the hint – the nesting box is where the babies go.
Nope.
When we got home from the store she had relocated all her fur back onto the metal grate and deposited all her babies there.
Ugh. You can lead a horse to water……..
Anyhow, metal grate aside, she had 8 babies and they are just as
cute ugly as the
last litter.Baby bunnies are nude and tiny and look like hot dogs with feet. I still think they are the cutest things in the world right now because I love baby animals.
I have freshened the nesting box with litter, filled it with bunny fur and gently relocated the kits (baby bunnies) into the box. I saw mama in the box with the kits not too long ago, so hopefully she will grow to like the idea and embrace the nesting box as a good, baby-bunny home.
I should be happy that the baby bunnies are even alive since it decided to snow today…. in APRIL. What??!!
Yup. There’s the proof.
So, all the bunnies are out of the stupid snow and in the cow barn. We are not milking now, so it’s the bunny-barn until further notice.
I have been banned from touching, moving, counting, or otherwise messing with the baby bunnies because I don’t want to prevent mama-bunny from bonding with her little ones.
There is a heat lamp keeping them warm while our doe (a first time mama) hopefully figures out that she is supposed to be feeding them.
Earlier I found one baby extremely cold and lying by itself. All the other 7 were in a warm pile.
Did he end up there by accident? Did the mama reject him intentionally?
Mamas will do this if they sense there is something wrong. Or it could just be that she is a new mama who has no idea what she is doing.
I had 3 choices:
- Let him slowly freeze to death
- Stick him in the baby bunny pile & hope he warms up
- Take him outside and step on him
No, I did not step on him.
I stuck him in the bunny pile and am hoping for the best.
Yes, I am DYING to know if he is still as cold as a fish or if he has warmed up and is recuperating…… I want to know if he is alive or if he has moved to the “Big-Bunny-Hutch-in-the-sky” …..but I am not allowed to dig through the nest to check on him. So we wait.
Hulk (our Buck) is also in the cow barn Bunny Barn because it’s April and it’s snowing – other wise know as “outside is stupid,” He has his own personal bachelor pad right now and seems pretty happy about it. We don’t want him to eat the babies or aggravate the mama…… and we certainly don’t want the mama to chew off his no-no-zone. So, Hulk is enjoying some personal space. For more weird information about bunnies go here.
If I end up with 7 baby bunnies instead of 8 it is still a success and we are celebrating.
Cigars & Champagne for Everyone! We have babies!
love,
Candi
