Thursday, February 25, 2010

BABIES!!

As of Tuesday afternoon we have 5 new baby Californains.  As excited as we were, it was quickly extinguished when we saw that new mama Tori seems to be having issues.  Rabbits make a nest for their babies, pulling fur from their necks/stomach.  This usually involves a very OCD process of preparing  their nest most of the day they give birth.  Tori not only didn't pull any fur, she didn't even make any sort of nest.  She gave birth, babies landing where ever she was at at the time, cleaned them up,  and then sat on them. ( I also think she bled a bit more than usual so maybe that has something to do with it.)   She didn't hurt any of them. Honestly I think she was just trying to figure out what to do with them. Anyway, she seems to have given up, and the babies have not been fed yet. D and I flipped her over this morning, and the babies went to town, but I don't think they got anything. We are going to try again later.
Rabbits are horrible moms anyway.  It's a wonder any of them survive.  They only feed once a day for 3-5 minutes, do not care which babies they nurse, do not retrieve any that may fall out of nest, and basically ignore them. They are prey animals, and do everything possible from attracting attention from predators.
We really are hoping that after she calms down and gets over the shock and surprise of becoming a mom, she'll feed.
We have started to see signs that they are at least getting a small amount of food. The fact that they are still alive is one.  We are also seeing some tiny poops, and one has some milk around his nose this morning. But defiantly not getting their tummys full yet. =(
Our other Cal still has not had babies and I am starting to think she missed.   We've been having problems with the buck used on her. (Which is J's buck that has done really well at shows, so it figures.)  This is his second breeding. No babies from him yet.
I am convinced that whoever made up the phrase "breed like rabbits" never actually tried to breed them!! They make it sound SO easy! ;-)

2 comments:

Melanie said...

That whole phrase "____like rabbits totally sicks me out every time!" But we are glad that the babies made it. Some days I completely GET Tori's uncompassion toward babies!! Hope she snaps out of it!

Rhonda said...

That's neat about the new babies. I hope the mama rabbit does ok soon with taking care of them. I didn't know about how their maternal instinct (or lack of) was, so I learned something. :)