Hello and welcome to my Manic Monday.The word Mo (It's A Blog Eat Blog World) chose for us to post about is kit.
As some of you know, I have a "menagerie". A menagerie is a collection of (live, wild, exotic) animals or the place they are kept. A diverse or miscellaneous group (can be applied to people too). My menagerie consists, at this time, of: 1 dog, 1 cat, 3 budgie birds, 5 chinchillas, 1 rabbit, as well as chickens and the wild pigeons that live in the chicken house.
This one rabbit, GoldN Glory's Grace Hawk, is the last of the line of pure breed, papered, pampered, Netherland Dwarf rabbits I used to raise & show. Every breeder has a name for their rabbitry, and mine was Gold 'N Glory Menagerie.
A baby rabbit is called a kit, or kitten, and they were my favorite part of that entire experience. When raising rabbits, you keep all adult rabbits in separate cages (also called holes, for example, when a 10 foot long cage has 5 compartments it's said to have 5 holes, or be a 5 hold cage.) You do your breeding based on several things like head, body, color, etc. If say, the doe (female) has a nice head and butt, but a poor shoulder, you make sure the buck (male) has a very good, strong shoulder on him to compensate. Netherland Dwarfs come in several colors. While the color genetics is way to deep to go into here, you do have to know something about it when breeding so you keep your rabbits true to color.
Once you've chosen the buck to go with the doe, you put the doe into the buck's cage, never the other way around. It is important at this time to observe enough to know whether they mate successfully or not. All of these details must be written down in your breeding records. About 2 weeks after breeding, you palpate the doe. This means you gently feel her abdomen to see if you feel the fetuses, the little lumps that will soon be kits, to confirm whether she "caught" or not. If she did, then 28 days after she was bred she should kindle (give birth to her kits). Knowing her due date from the records you've kept, you know when to prepare the nest box (stuff it with either hay or shavings) and give it to her. Usually you breed 2 or more does on the same day so they all kindle on the same day, or a day either way is possible too, of course. A day or two, or sometimes just a few hours, before the doe kindles she will pull hair from her stomach and inner leg areas to prepare then nest for her kits.
On the due date when you go out to the rabbitry, you will usually find a nest box full of new born kits. If the kits are touched by a stranger, the doe will smell the strange scent on them and she will kill each of her kits. That is an instinct, it is necessary for survival in the wild. However, because the rabbits all know they person that feeds and handles them on a daily basis, they are familiar with your scent, so I was able to handle the kits with usually no problem from the does.
The day of birth you check to see how many kits are in the nest box, and if any are dead you remove them. You write into the records the day the doe kindled, how many kits she had and how many, if any, were dead. Every detail is always recorded in your breeding records. Daily, each kit is checked to be sure it is being properly fed and is still healthy.
That is just the tip of the ice burg, so to speak, of breeding and raising and showing rabbits. Just a fraction of the "whole kit and caboodle", and it is more than enough for one post.
This one rabbit, GoldN Glory's Grace Hawk, is the last of the line of pure breed, papered, pampered, Netherland Dwarf rabbits I used to raise & show. Every breeder has a name for their rabbitry, and mine was Gold 'N Glory Menagerie.
A baby rabbit is called a kit, or kitten, and they were my favorite part of that entire experience. When raising rabbits, you keep all adult rabbits in separate cages (also called holes, for example, when a 10 foot long cage has 5 compartments it's said to have 5 holes, or be a 5 hold cage.) You do your breeding based on several things like head, body, color, etc. If say, the doe (female) has a nice head and butt, but a poor shoulder, you make sure the buck (male) has a very good, strong shoulder on him to compensate. Netherland Dwarfs come in several colors. While the color genetics is way to deep to go into here, you do have to know something about it when breeding so you keep your rabbits true to color.
Once you've chosen the buck to go with the doe, you put the doe into the buck's cage, never the other way around. It is important at this time to observe enough to know whether they mate successfully or not. All of these details must be written down in your breeding records. About 2 weeks after breeding, you palpate the doe. This means you gently feel her abdomen to see if you feel the fetuses, the little lumps that will soon be kits, to confirm whether she "caught" or not. If she did, then 28 days after she was bred she should kindle (give birth to her kits). Knowing her due date from the records you've kept, you know when to prepare the nest box (stuff it with either hay or shavings) and give it to her. Usually you breed 2 or more does on the same day so they all kindle on the same day, or a day either way is possible too, of course. A day or two, or sometimes just a few hours, before the doe kindles she will pull hair from her stomach and inner leg areas to prepare then nest for her kits.
On the due date when you go out to the rabbitry, you will usually find a nest box full of new born kits. If the kits are touched by a stranger, the doe will smell the strange scent on them and she will kill each of her kits. That is an instinct, it is necessary for survival in the wild. However, because the rabbits all know they person that feeds and handles them on a daily basis, they are familiar with your scent, so I was able to handle the kits with usually no problem from the does.
The day of birth you check to see how many kits are in the nest box, and if any are dead you remove them. You write into the records the day the doe kindled, how many kits she had and how many, if any, were dead. Every detail is always recorded in your breeding records. Daily, each kit is checked to be sure it is being properly fed and is still healthy.
That is just the tip of the ice burg, so to speak, of breeding and raising and showing rabbits. Just a fraction of the "whole kit and caboodle", and it is more than enough for one post.
Enjoy your Manic Monday!
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18 comments:
I love rabbits. They are a fun pet and a joy. I wish I had one, but my Siberian Husky thinks that rabbits are a snack food. So, no rabbits for us. Sigh.
Oh, I love rabbits, too. What´s a chinchilla, Miss Alice???
very interesting post. thanks for sharing on how to take care a rabbit.
That was truly fascinating. I never knew there was so much work in breeding rabbits. If you can, put up a picture of your menagerie please.
Oh, you´re a busy bee, girlfriend!
I´d love to see a picture of your menagerie, too.
Happy MM!
Great post!!!! Now, I wanna cuddle with a teensy baby wabbit :-)
excellent post, would not want to miss a kit...
That was a great take on "kit" - I love rabbits, but have never had rabbits that had babies (kits).
I didn't know you had so many animals in your menagerie - esp the chinchillas. Excellent.
It looks as if it's a whole science to put the right rabbits together so that they get nice babies. Fortunately we can choose our partners ourselves, lol !
as a kid, we had rabbits that we housed in our chicken coop. Great post!!
very intersting! I love bunnies, we've had a couple over the years.
I never knew a baby rabbit was called a kit...very interesting. Great MM!!
Wonderful post! I bet raising rabbits is so fun and rewarding :) Happy MM!
When I was young we had a small black rabbit named "Nibbles" who was just the cutest thing ever. Even when rabbits get big, they're still just so darned cute!
Great post for MM, thanks for visiting!
I didn't know most of this. What a great post on kit. Have a great MM. :)
funny thing, on a cruise ship there must be lots of these cause all the women have no hair on their tummies or inner legs, they must be ready. (i saw them at the pool). ha ha ha
smiles, bee
Very interesting. One of the things we used to enjoy during the fair was to visit the rabbit cages. A lot of those male rabbits were huge!
Happy MM!
Awesome post! I wanna see a picture of the kits. :)
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