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Post by macmex on May 31, 2024 12:39:19 GMT -6
Time will tell about the Silver Fox and heat. We haven't had enough to tell, and Zorro (what I named him) is still young and adaptable. I just counted it out and realized that the Silver Fox X kits should have had their eyes open for a couple days now. I need to get in there, past their ferocious mother, and count them. All my does tend to be a bit on the aggressive side when they have babies in the box.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 28, 2024 11:14:01 GMT -6
Blackeye Gets Pampered Today. After a wash, mite treatment and a manicure, he’s ruling the house.
Blackeye Hiding
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Post by macmex on Jul 29, 2024 7:03:43 GMT -6
Looking good! I still have his son, Mancho. He too is looking good.
I got my first little of kits from the Silver Fox buck. They grow FAST!
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Jul 29, 2024 15:55:01 GMT -6
He’s so sweet. I just love my buddy Blackeye. Glad to hear about the Silver Fox. Seems like they are holding up to the heat well?
I’m impatient and want to breed the Blues now, but it’ll be her first litter, so I’ll wait.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 10, 2024 11:46:33 GMT -6
Something wasn’t right with black eye. He acted tired. He’s always been a skinny guy, so it’s hard to tell about his weight without a scale which I don’t have. I kept bringing him in and he’d hide behind the washing machine and take a nap coming out occasionally to inspect the house. But he just seemed tired and his self care had gone done.
I checked everything, his teeth, feet, etc. Dunno?
The rabbit feed was at the bottom of the bucket but there was plenty there for them to eat but we I was letting it run dry so I can clean the feed tub. I thot maybe the feed was too stale, so yesterday I ran up and got a couple fresh bags. He went right for it.
Mind you, I had been foraging for them with limited diversity so they had something to eat besides pellets, even hay.
Today I saw that he had a small bout of diarrhea last night indicating a large shift in diet. Same pellets, big difference! Note: The other rabbits are just fine. His poo was kinda smallish but his behavior was back to normal and he was constantly cleaning, back to good self care and bouncing around again in the cool.
Every bun bun is different. Black eye is an old guy, now. He was not getting enough nutes from the stale pellets.
I might pick up a bale of alfalfa and see if he can put some more weight on.
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Post by macmex on Aug 10, 2024 12:42:12 GMT -6
He is indeed getting old. I have his son, Mancho, and Mancho is getting up there. Of course, they're only about 6 months apart in age. The new buck, a Silver Fox, is doing great. His offspring are super docile and grow very very rapidly.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 27, 2024 16:24:13 GMT -6
macmex, I thought to ask you if I can feed something to black eye and the old doe to help them put on some weight? Blackeye’s genetics have proven they are light eaters. At his age, I don’t like him getting too thin. He rarely misses a meal as he gets free freed. I never ration any bun buns unless they truly over eat (Californias are bad about this.) But I wonder if introducing something way off the mark might be detrimental?
My old Doe remains lightweight but she can eat a ton of foraged greens. Boggles the mind.
Some on the facebook forum are suggesting calf manna. I saw the bags at Atwood’s today, but I don’t need 25# of cattle cubes.
Mine have never had the luxury of sweet or any carbohydrate treats. Their only luxury are black oil sunflower seed treats and the occasional kale from the garden (etc.) Blackeye won’t eat a bunch of those like the others. The only ‘bad’ food they get is what’s in their pellets, namely corn and whatever leftover crushed grain is in them. My doe is 8 years old, so I hate to change the regimen since it works so well.
Wow. I guess what I already know is: Whatever I give them should be done very carefully.
Would you mind weighing in your experience with this? Even if it’s your forage, I can compensate by growing vegetables for them. I have some dandelion seeds I should plant out his winter. Yeppers.
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Post by macmex on Aug 28, 2024 7:13:26 GMT -6
Frosty, I rarely keep breeders after they start having issues. Mancho, Black Eye's son, is getting up there but, apart from needing his nails trimmed, he's looking good. I have never had to try to put weight on a rabbit. However, I have found that an occasional carrot seems to really build them up. I've done this with does who were not producing so well and found that the carrot, being high in vitamin A, seems to boost them quite a bit. It's just important not to over do it with carrots. High vitamin A can kill a rabbit, which might be why I lost two does about a year ago. I had some old, yet sound sweet potatoes and put them in their cage as a treat. 10 hours later I went back and found both of them dead. I suspect it was from too much vitamin A.
Still, I've had good results, giving a rabbit 3-4" of carrot when they need some building up. They seem to adore this treat too.
Another option might be to add some pure alfalfa pellets to their diet. While living in Mexico we raised alfalfa and sometimes that was all the rabbits got. They adored it and thrived.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Aug 28, 2024 13:56:09 GMT -6
Okay. I’ll give a wee bit of carrot a try. I totally forgot about alfalfa. I had bun buns that I was not breeding a long time ago. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was giving them free Atwood’s rabbit feed and free feed alfalfa hay. They got fat. You reminded me of this. However, the price of alfalfa is just . . . I’ll look for some alfalfa pellets. I’ll see if Stilly Mill will sell me a small bag of compressed alfalfa calf cubes. They can cut their teeth on.
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Post by FrostyTurnip on Sept 2, 2024 10:58:38 GMT -6
If everything goes well, we will have baby Blues soon. Yay!!!!
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