Official SS Rabbit Thread

[Aidenbaby]

We get our pellets at our local American Pride Co-op. It's the same place I get the chickens their food from.

Annabelle is currently enjoying life as the family fertilizer maker.

 

[Bettacreek]

Down the road, someone had been tearing a building down, and had a huge double rabbit hutch beside the pile of rubble. I saw the guy there today, burning the pile of rubble, and I was going to stop to ask if I could buy the cage off of him, but decided to get my eggs in the mail first. By the time I had come back, he had torched the hutch! I'm still kicking myself in the ass for that one. I will probably want to strangle myself when it comes time to get something built for momma does and their litters. That thing was HUGE and NICE!

 

[FarmerDenise]

Down the road, someone had been tearing a building down, and had a huge double rabbit hutch beside the pile of rubble. I saw the guy there today, burning the pile of rubble, and I was going to stop to ask if I could buy the cage off of him, but decided to get my eggs in the mail first. By the time I had come back, he had torched the hutch! I'm still kicking myself in the ass for that one. I will probably want to strangle myself when it comes time to get something built for momma does and their litters. That thing was HUGE and NICE!

I've done that! It totally sucks, big time!! You just watn to kick your self in the rear end!!

I feed my rabbit primarily from the yard and timothy hay. We pull huge handfulls of weeds in the morning and at night for him. He always has fresh timothy hay available. For those rare times we cannot get timothy hay, we give him oat hay. This is to keep his teeth ground down. He also gets twigs from our fruit trees, mostly peach, but also plum, cherry, apple and grape. He also gets some sort of treat most days, this may be a piece of pumpkin, a carrot, an apple piece, a whole ear of pop corn (ours are small) a bit of broom corn (including the broom part) and handfull of grains, a few raisins. It toatally depends on what we have available at the moment. I try not to give him the same treat every day, so as to vary his diet and also not to give him too much of a specific good thing (like too much sweet stuff, several days in a row)
He uses a litter box. We keep it filled with old hay and we use it to fertilize our crops.
Our rabbit is a chinchilla rabbit and he weighs about 13 pounds. He is a pet and is neutered. He lives in a large enclosure (about 10"x10") on a concrete floor and chain link fencing all around. We have a Patio umbrella in there for shade and protection from rain. We also have several boxes set up so he has a cave like environment. He likes to sit on a metal chair in his pen and watch us work in the field. He also interacts with all our other animals.
His pen used to be part of the dog pen. We just put a partition in it, for the rabbit.

We want to make a bunny tractor for him, so he can get his own weeds. Right now we have a lot going on, so it'll have to wait. I was happy to see what others are doing. It is giving me some good ideas.

Did I see someone use an X-pen for a dog, for their rabbits. We have one of those. I just worry that the rabbit would get out somehow.

 

[tortoise]

I use the ex pens.

None of my rabbits dig in them because I keep them busy with grass, treats, toys, or breeding.

I have 2 rabbits that hop over my 2 foot tall ex-pen. I have a 4 foot tall pen for them.

Pricey buggers unless you find them cheap at a thrift sale like I did.

 

[tortoise]

Pickle had her babies! 8 little squeakers.

Test cross results are in - she is homozygous for the "broken" (En) gene. Sweet. Except I just bred her to a chinchilla buck. Whoops! I'm hoping for show colors because the babies sell for SO much more $$.

 

[MamaDoula]

These are our new bunnies...

A mama california and her two babies (california/flemish), and two adolescent New Zealands.

Also, our adolescent female NZ has been nesting, or at least that's what it seems like to me. She's not grown yet, and, to our knowledge, hasn't bred. (Unless she's much more talented than I gave her credit for. ) What do you think? Should we give her a nesting box? :bun

 

[tortoise]

I vote for nesting box (if it isn't too late). Rabbits can breed at 12 weeks old, so it isn't impossible to buy a baby preggers rabbit.

 

[rebecca100]

If that is her hair I see pulled then definately!! You can palpate to know for sure. If she is to the point she is getting ready to have them then the babies would be really easy to feel.

 

[MamaDoula]

Thanks, we're getting a whelping box ASAP! No bunnies yet, but we might as well have one just in case, since we were planning to breed later, anyway (after we learned a bit more! I guess we're getting a crash course. )

 

[tortoise]

Most does will kindle within 24 hours of beginning to nest. Let us know!