19 days old

Well the babies are now 19 days old.  They are getting in and out of the nest box on their own and even on top of the nest box!  They are also starting to eat regular food and drink out of a crock.  They are growing like weeds! It is getting very hard to get good pictures of them since they are so inquisitive and not sitting still for long. 

Lesson Learned

Well I am proud to say that all the babies have learned their lesson.  The nest box is better than the big old cage to an 11 day old baby rabbit!  Not a single one has gotten out of the box after their first little adventure yesterday and this morning.

Our cute little babies

Jumping ship!

Babies are jumping ship right and left!  The major problem is that they can not get back in the nest box without help.  I found the lighter patterned broken black out of the nest box yesterday morning and then later in the evening the black was out.  This morning when I went in to feed Steel, I found the last two out of the nest box. They sit there like a deer in headlights.  They don't know what to do.  They are not big enough to get back into the nest box on their own, so I put them back in. When I put the babies back in they immediately snuggle in with their siblings and go to sleep. Most of the time they dig their way to the bottom of the pack, like they are thankful to be back in. They are so very cute!

Beautiful Babies!

Here are our beautiful babies.  We have 2 broken blacks, a broken blue, and a black.  Just love them all!

Good morning, sweet world!

This morning one little kit took it's first wee little look at the world! Their eyes are finally opening!

They are growing so quickly! We've sold two kits so far. And, have interests in the other two. We are just indecisive about selling them or keeping them for show. Decisions, decisions. Bluebell will be going back up to Victoria after we show her in this year's Nueces County Junior Livestock show to be breed with an excellent buck. We also plan to breed Zoe to Levi soon. So more kits to come!!! So far this new adventure has been a wonderful one.

Out of the box

When I walked in this morning to feed Steel, I was in for a shock.  I found a little broken black baby out of the nest box. It looked kind of lost and was too small to get back in to the next box.  I felt so sorry for it. I picked it up and put it back in the nest box.  It immediately snuggled back in with its siblings and went to sleep.  I was not expecting one to be out so quickly.

Surprise

The babies are now 9 days old. I usually check them in the evening and tonight when I walked in to check on the babies I was in for a nice surprise.  They had their eyes open!  Of course, no one was cooperating for pictures group or individual tonight.  They all wanted to hide, face the wrong way, or act like little jumping beans. Hopefully in the next couple of days they will start cooperating and pose for a nice picture.  They are all just so cute!

Hulk: The Daddy

In an earlier post we introduced you to Steel, the doe who had our first litter of kits. She's also listed under the tab to the left, Our Blood Lines.

Below is Hulk. He's gorgeous. He is the buck breed with Steel to produce the gorgeous kits we've posted in prior posts. Three broken and one solid.

HULK

Isn't he cute! I love the way he's looking at the camera!

HULK

And, his pattern is fantastic!

Just wanted to share. Don't have information to post under his bloodlines since another breeder we know breed Steel to Hulk and Hulk is from out of state. Will post more about that later.

Babies at eight days old ;-)

Babies at 8 days snuggling

Babies in next box

8 days old

The babies are now 8 days old.  They are doing great and getting so big! It is amazing to me how much they have changed and grown in just a 8 days.  I can not believe the change.  Their fur has come in nicely and I can not decide which one I like the best. 

Baby fur

The babies are finally getting fur.  I think that they will all have nice markings.  I am looking forward to when they open their eyes sometime between Sunday to Tuesday.  They are growing so fast!

Wonderful Mama

Steel is being such a good mama! Last night I could tell the babies were messing around in the nest because I could see the hay moving.  Evidently Steel saw the hay too.  She watched it a minute and it continued to move.  She went over to the nest box and put her front two paws in and pushed on the moving hay.  It reminded me of when you would pat a baby to get them to settle down and go back to sleep.  She stopped and watched the hay.  It moved again, so she patted again.  After the second pat, all was quiet in the nest box. 

The same thing was going on again tonight.  One baby was actually outside of the little hole Steel dug in the nest box.  She saw the baby out and quickly pushed it back down into the hole.  The baby settled right down with the others and went to sleep.  I hope all our mamas turn out to be as good a mother as Steel is! I can't wait to breed her again.

Babies

The babies are doing great!  They are checked once a day in the evening.  The first one out was the biggest. It was the broken black with the most pattern.  This one has a awesome butterfly on its nose.  This is my favorite.  The next one out was the broken blue.  The kids love this one because it has a line of blue right down its back. After that came the lone black one. This one just curled up and went back to sleep.  Finally came the other broken black. This one has a lot of markings on the face and in the hip area.  This one also settled down quickly and snuggled in.  I am looking forward to when they get their fur.

Babies

I went in this afternoon to check on Steel and I found a baby on the wire.  The baby did not make it. Later on when I went to check the babies in the nest box I was expecting to have only 3, but to my great surprise I still had 4!  Steel had a fifth baby outside the nest box.  The other shocking thing was that this lost baby was a fourth broken.  Normally when you breed a broken to a solid you will get half solid and half broken.  This litter was very lopsided with 4 broken and a lone solid. 

I can tell the colors a lot better today.  We have 2 broken blacks, a broken blue and a black.

Babies

When I walked in to feed Steel this morning there was fur all over the place.  I was surprised that she still had any on her body! Her nest box was stuffed full of fur and hay.  I could hear little squeaking coming from the box.  Deep at the bottom buried under all the fur and hay were tiny babies.  Steel had a litter of 4 early this morning. She had 3 broken and one solid.  As of right now we think that we have 2 broken blues, a broken black, and a solid black. All are very tiny and active!

A few photos of the little ones! We are proud grandparents!

Nest Box

Nest box is in and we are waiting for babies.  We were told to expect them Friday or Saturday morning.  Steel rotates between messing around in her next box, laying down, and eating/drinking.  She is resting up for her big day.  We can't wait! Hopefully the babies will arrive early Friday morning.  Very anxious to see what colors we get.

Steel

Steel is lounging around a lot more now.  Usually when I go into the room she gets up and comes to the cage door to see me.  The past two days she just lays there unless I open up the cage.  I think she is ready to have the babies!  She is also very moody.  When I go in to check on her and she is out of food she will either flip her food crock or pick it up and throw it out the cage door into my lap.  This is a heavy ceramic crock too. 

Waiting to see what tomorrow brings us!!!!

Nest Box

Nest box is going in this week.  We are hoping for some babies by the end of the week.  Hopefully she will have 4 like she did with her last litter.