Okay so this is a long story with lots of weirdness
Please share your opinion about any of the events
Back ground: my boyfriend has raised meat rabbits his whole life and knows his stuff but this experience has left him confused at every turn. I only ever had 2 pet rabbits
Story:
We bought a 20lb pregnant female Flemish giant from a city 5 hours away from our house. We paid a pretty penny because the breeder said she's probably going to have 14-16 babies
I put her in my cat carrier and drove her home. She didn't like it at all and hated me for the first few days.
We expected the babies for June 1-3 ish.
About 2 weeks early she started bunching straw so my bf said the babies must be coming.
She started moving straw around but didn't build a nest in the nest box.
Next she started pulling out fur but not enough and she just kind of left it all over the cage
She gave birth to 3 babies 1 week earlier than we expected but we only found 2 initially. She had each in a different space and didn't make a nest. We found the third buried in straw with a broken back.
We tried to keep putting the babies together but for the first 2 days they could be found anywhere in the closed in portion of the cage.
Here's the first weird thing about the kits: all three were born with fur, not a light dusting of color, they had proper fur.
After a few days she built them 2 nests and covered them up with fur. The babies were rarely in the same nest each time we checked in. By the fourth day they were usually in a nest together but which nest yet would be in would change.
By the time the due date rolled around we gave up hoping she might have more (I'd read online that they could space them out when stressed).
Even though she's only got 2 she's favored one over the other. One kit has always been fed regular and the other has had a few days where mom didn't feed her. She was quick to learn to come out and find her own food as soon as she was able. The well fed kit is almost double the size of the other but my bf says the little one is the normal one and the large one is freaky. She's not fat though she just looks like she's from an older litter but they were born the same day and are about 3 weeks old now.
They opened their eyes on schedule.
So couple questions: would you give this mom another chance and see if she's a better mom with a bigger litter next time?
Why did they have fur?
All other comments or ideas of why things were weird is appreciated
Okay so this is a long story with lots of weirdness
Please share your opinion about any of the events
Back ground: my boyfriend has raised meat rabbits his whole life and knows his stuff but this experience has left him confused at every turn. I only ever had 2 pet rabbits
Story:
We bought a 20lb pregnant female Flemish giant from a city 5 hours away from our house. We paid a pretty penny because the breeder said she's probably going to have 14-16 babies
I put her in my cat carrier and drove her home. She didn't like it at all and hated me for the first few days.
We expected the babies for June 1-3 ish.
About 2 weeks early she started bunching straw so my bf said the babies must be coming.
She started moving straw around but didn't build a nest in the nest box.
Next she started pulling out fur but not enough and she just kind of left it all over the cage
She gave birth to 3 babies 1 week earlier than we expected but we only found 2 initially. She had each in a different space and didn't make a nest. We found the third buried in straw with a broken back.
We tried to keep putting the babies together but for the first 2 days they could be found anywhere in the closed in portion of the cage.
Here's the first weird thing about the kits: all three were born with fur, not a light dusting of color, they had proper fur.
After a few days she built them 2 nests and covered them up with fur. The babies were rarely in the same nest each time we checked in. By the fourth day they were usually in a nest together but which nest yet would be in would change.
By the time the due date rolled around we gave up hoping she might have more (I'd read online that they could space them out when stressed).
Even though she's only got 2 she's favored one over the other. One kit has always been fed regular and the other has had a few days where mom didn't feed her. She was quick to learn to come out and find her own food as soon as she was able. The well fed kit is almost double the size of the other but my bf says the little one is the normal one and the large one is freaky. She's not fat though she just looks like she's from an older litter but they were born the same day and are about 3 weeks old now.
They opened their eyes on schedule.
So couple questions: would you give this mom another chance and see if she's a better mom with a bigger litter next time?
Why did they have fur?
All other comments or ideas of why things were weird is appreciated
Okay so this is a long story with lots of weirdness
Please share your opinion about any of the events
Back ground: my boyfriend has raised meat rabbits his whole life and knows his stuff but this experience has left him confused at every turn. I only ever had 2 pet rabbits
Story:
We bought a 20lb pregnant female Flemish giant from a city 5 hours away from our house. We paid a pretty penny because the breeder said she's probably going to have 14-16 babies
I put her in my cat carrier and drove her home. She didn't like it at all and hated me for the first few days.
We expected the babies for June 1-3 ish.
About 2 weeks early she started bunching straw so my bf said the babies must be coming.
She started moving straw around but didn't build a nest in the nest box.
Next she started pulling out fur but not enough and she just kind of left it all over the cage
She gave birth to 3 babies 1 week earlier than we expected but we only found 2 initially. She had each in a different space and didn't make a nest. We found the third buried in straw with a broken back.
We tried to keep putting the babies together but for the first 2 days they could be found anywhere in the closed in portion of the cage.
Here's the first weird thing about the kits: all three were born with fur, not a light dusting of color, they had proper fur.
After a few days she built them 2 nests and covered them up with fur. The babies were rarely in the same nest each time we checked in. By the fourth day they were usually in a nest together but which nest yet would be in would change.
By the time the due date rolled around we gave up hoping she might have more (I'd read online that they could space them out when stressed).
Even though she's only got 2 she's favored one over the other. One kit has always been fed regular and the other has had a few days where mom didn't feed her. She was quick to learn to come out and find her own food as soon as she was able. The well fed kit is almost double the size of the other but my bf says the little one is the normal one and the large one is freaky. She's not fat though she just looks like she's from an older litter but they were born the same day and are about 3 weeks old now.
They opened their eyes on schedule.
So couple questions: would you give this mom another chance and see if she's a better mom with a bigger litter next time?
Why did they have fur?
All other comments or ideas of why things were weird is appreciated
Okay so this is a long story with lots of weirdness
Please share your opinion about any of the events
Back ground: my boyfriend has raised meat rabbits his whole life and knows his stuff but this experience has left him confused at every turn. I only ever had 2 pet rabbits
Story:
We bought a 20lb pregnant female Flemish giant from a city 5 hours away from our house. We paid a pretty penny because the breeder said she's probably going to have 14-16 babies
I put her in my cat carrier and drove her home. She didn't like it at all and hated me for the first few days.
We expected the babies for June 1-3 ish.
About 2 weeks early she started bunching straw so my bf said the babies must be coming.
She started moving straw around but didn't build a nest in the nest box.
Next she started pulling out fur but not enough and she just kind of left it all over the cage
She gave birth to 3 babies 1 week earlier than we expected but we only found 2 initially. She had each in a different space and didn't make a nest. We found the third buried in straw with a broken back.
We tried to keep putting the babies together but for the first 2 days they could be found anywhere in the closed in portion of the cage.
Here's the first weird thing about the kits: all three were born with fur, not a light dusting of color, they had proper fur.
After a few days she built them 2 nests and covered them up with fur. The babies were rarely in the same nest each time we checked in. By the fourth day they were usually in a nest together but which nest yet would be in would change.
By the time the due date rolled around we gave up hoping she might have more (I'd read online that they could space them out when stressed).
Even though she's only got 2 she's favored one over the other. One kit has always been fed regular and the other has had a few days where mom didn't feed her. She was quick to learn to come out and find her own food as soon as she was able. The well fed kit is almost double the size of the other but my bf says the little one is the normal one and the large one is freaky. She's not fat though she just looks like she's from an older litter but they were born the same day and are about 3 weeks old now.
They opened their eyes on schedule.
So couple questions: would you give this mom another chance and see if she's a better mom with a bigger litter next time?
Why did they have fur?
All other comments or ideas of why things were weird is appreciated
We have Giant Chinchillas and New Zealand crosses. We are NOT experts, but we have read somewhere that rabbits can be bred again even if they are pregnant. It may be that she got bred and a short time later got bred agin. This might explain why she was "early" and why one kit was quite a bit bigger than the other. It could also address some of the confusion and other abnormal behaviors. One of our does did the 2 nests thing, one that she paid more attention to. My thought was maybe she didn't have as much milk as she should and thinned out the ones to receive. There was not a specific bunny that received. We also have goats-One of our does had a kid one morning and had another 24 hours later. She never accepted the second. We had to put her in the milk stand and force her to allow him to nurse. She threw a fit!! Our conclusion would be to give her another chance or two to adjust. Sounds like the original breeder did not watch her very well and stress probably contributed, which is not the rabbits fault.