One of Natures Miracles!!

dreher

I breed some of the best blue, grey and chocolate Dutch in the southeast. On Monday I had a first for me. An older blue doe died while having her babies. Like I said never had that happen before. I start to clean up the dead babies, it was like picking up ice cubes, they weren't froze solid but it was a near thing. As I was picking them up one of the new born bunnies managed to twitch. It was so cold I thought I was imagining that it twitched. I figured that it might as well die somewhere warm so I took it over to a grey does nest box that had kindled the day before and put the bunny right in the middle of the grey does litter.

It isn't all that unusual to find a dead or nearly dead bunny. Sometimes the doe wont make a nest, will miss the nest box, you name it. If it can happen, it occasionally does happen. If you have a cold bunny and have a warm place to put it you can save about 1 in 4 if they are quite cold. If they are just a little chilly and you have a nest to put them in you will usually save all of them.

I usually breed 3 to 5 does in a two day period so if there are problems I will have a doe to foster off a litter or part of a litter. Animals are so much nicer than humans. I have already fostered off a litter of bunnies on 2 or 3 different does. My Dutch will even take bunnies from other breeds and care for them just like they care for their own babies.

Fostering is very common. I even sometimes balance out litters, switching a couple of bunnies from a big litter to go with a small litter. But never have I fostered a bunny as cold as the little blue that came on Monday. No human could possibly be alive with whatever that bunnies body temperature was.

I just came in from checking that grey does litter for about the 4th time since Monday. There is a healthy blue bunny in with about 6 grey bunnies.[:)] How nature does some of its miracles is beyond me!!

wolfpack

Hope the little one continues to do well.

Mercury

Well done. I used to raise Dutch rabbits. Always loved their temperament. I never had a doe die during birth though, that is pretty weird.

Merc

kimi

Interesting read. Wishing the little bunny all the best!!!

spasmcreek

friend of mine at the lake raises some brand of giant rabbit and was gone for a day and his high school age kid was supposed to feed and water it...he left the cage unlatched and bunny got out and someones dogs killed it....dad was so mad at the kid about sent him to an orphanage

dreher

Merc-Like I said, I've never had a doe die while kindling before. I need to look up her birth date but I think she might be 4 years old, or close to it. So an old doe, a really damp, cold windy day?? I guess I'll never know.

I think the thing I like most about breeding my Dutch is there is always something different happening, good and bad. I am always trying to come up with a better way to do things. My bright ideas sometimes aren't so bright, sometimes I'm wondering why I didn't think of something sooner.

The genetics thing is always a puzzle. Three full sisters, all three show does, 1 or 2 produce beautiful offspring, the other or others don't produce quality at all.

If it was easy it wouldn't be fun!![:D]

armilite

Thought you were talking about varieties of pot, but glad that everything seems to be working out.[;)]

wundudnee

We had nearly the same thing happen with a litter of pigs when I was a kid. One pig had got out from the sow and appeared dead. One of my Dad's friends was holding the pig about straight out by the hind legs and my Dad told him to just throw it over the hill. The pig barely blinked his eyes. The friend said this pigs alive. Thinking there wasn't much hope for the pig they took it into the house and warmed it up. Mom put it in a cardboard box and bottle fed it for a couple of days figuring the sow wouldn't take it back. about the third day she was holding that pig and feeding it a bottle and the pig bit her on the breast. She said that's it, took the pig out to the pen and dumped it in with the sow. The sow took care of it right away.

Another time we had two female cats with litters. They were mother and daughter. The daughter was still sucking on the mother. That was a little weird seeing her still sucking her mother while nursing her own kittens. To make it more unbelievable, one of the mother cats had brought in a wild rabbit baby and it was nursing also. The rabbit mysteriously disappeared.[:0]

retroxler58

Cool. Nature surely can be as gracious as she can be cruel.