This is the first journal I wrote earlier last year.
Peaches
Mating Date
14th Day of pregnancy
28th day
30th night - 31st day
32nd day
2nd day
3rd day
Sadly, the little baby bunny has died. Last night he felt a teeny bit cold, but he was pretty warm otherwise. The winter is not fun when breeding bunnies. Next time, we are buying a nest box heater to warm the babies. Plus, he was pretty small. I don’t know if that had anything to do with his body temperature.
Although no kits survived, it was fun breeding my doe and watching the pregnancy. I learned a lot from this experience.
2ND JOURNAL (beginning of this year)
Doe: Peaches
Signs of Pregnancy: "Moodiness", aggression, larger stomach, nipples full of milk
Diet for the Doe: Don't change the diet during this time; don't give her treats or fruits/veggies if you don't normally do. Give fresh water at all times.
Read on Pregnancy & Breeding in my site for more info.
After the babies were born...
Day 2 & 3
Day 4 & 5
Day 10
Day 12
2 Weeks
3 Weeks
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2001
I will write more as the kits grow.
PICTURES VERY SOON!!
Age: 6 mos.
Color: fawn
Breed: Holland Lop
Owner: Sarah (me)
Bred with: StormCloud - Holland Lop
This morning I brought Peaches, my doe, into StormCloud’s cage. StormCloud is my buck, and he is a little older than Peaches. I left them together, watching them, for about 10 minutes, and they had mated about three times. I could see that Peaches was accepting it and putting her tail up, not running away from or biting the buck, etc. I marked this day as the day she was bred, and counted 28 days ahead and marked it down to estimate a due date.
I took Peaches carefully out of her cage to palpate her the best I could. It wasn’t easy, it was very difficult. She tried to nip me and kept trying to get away. I took that as a sign of a possible pregnancy, since her attitude had changed a bit, but on the other hand, I’m not extremely experienced at breeding rabbits.
Today is the day my mom and I built Peaches her own nestbox. She will need this to deliver (hopefully) her kits in and they will stay in the box to keep warm. That was the first real box I had made, and it wasn’t the best, but it was pretty good! It fit snug in her cage in the corner. We put cedar chip shavings in, but after that I realized that that probably wasn’t a good idea, because the scent might be to strong for Peaches. So we took that out and put some hay inside.
I watched Peaches while we built the box and I could see little "things" moving around inside her stomach! I carefully cupped my hands around her (Peaches let me) and I could feel fetal movements. That is a sure sign that she is pregnant.
Peaches pulled some hair out in the corner of her cage, next to her nestbox. Actually, a LOT of hair! More the better I guess—now the babies will be warm. I also see the babies moving around inside her more. Should be soon now…
I woke up early this morning and went to check on Peaches. I knew she would have probably already delivered. She did—there were two babies laying on the bottom wire of the cage. I should have stayed up to watch her. It was her first pregnancy, so most likely (like with my other does) she would not know what to do. Later on that morning, though, I watched her sleep and saw something inside her stomach move around. A little later, after we came home from shopping or whatever we were doing, we looked in the box, just to check to see if anything changed. There we saw a little baby wiggling around in the box! I was so excited. I had never seen a live kit before. This was the first time breeding a holland lop for me. I've breed dwarves before.
Anyway, the baby was pretty small. Smaller than the other ones born. I carefully picked it up, and it was warm and wiggly. That was a good sign.
The baby is doing OK so far. Every hour I want to check on it! But I check on it twice a day, making sure it is warm and the mama is nursing it. She does so about twice a day. I’m glad she pulled enough hair.
Breed: Holland Lop
Age: over 6 months
I check the babies every night to make sure they are warm. There are two dark ones (blue/gray skin) and two light pink ones. I can’t wait to see what colors they will be.
All 4 babies are doing fine. They are getting a little fuz on their bodies. They are so cute. They are pretty fat and love to try to crawl out of the box.
The babies are now fast, furry, and fat. The pink turned white, and the other one turned orange/fawn like his/her mama. Each morning there’s always a baby on the cage floor next to the doe that I must put back in the nest. I read that they should be opening their eyes soon.
One baby has opened eyes a little.
All the babies eyes have opened now. They have grown furry and are very active, and are climbing out of the nest box and nibbling on hay.
Now their true colors are really starting to show. They drink out of the water bottle, eat with mama, stand on their hind feet, and love to run, play, and hop (after their nap of course). I took the box out today because it was getting soiled and unsanitary.