Hey everybody,
remember how excited I was about Georgia's little miracles?
Well, on the 12th of October, one of the bunnies climbed out of the nesting box and was found frozen in the far corner of the cage. The following day, three others were found outside of the nesting box (they had crawled out during the night and it was almost freezing out) and they too had perished. That meant the one left in the nesting box had no siblings to keep it warm and Georgia was not in the box to provide it heat either so, the last of five died.
When the one bunny was found on Saturday, I took it inside and held it/warmed it in my hands and on a warm bottle wrapped in fabric (the sleeve of a bath robe) to see if maybe it had just gone into a sort of coma due to the cold (which rabbits and other small mammals sometimes do). After trying to heat it for 30 to 45 minutes, Austin came home and I gave up. I was pretty sure the little guy was dead but I just wanted to make sure. Of course I blamed myself for what happened thinking "if I had checked on them sooner, maybe it would have still been alive" and yes, I did cry on Austin (I blame hormones but really, I probably would have cried either way). All in all, from the beginning, Austin and I knew that it is unlikely for a mother rabbit's first litter to make it (especially so close to winter when the risk of freezing to death is so high) but it was still a saddening event.
We put out a heat lamp the next night and ran it for one hour then let it turn off for a half hour from dusk until dawn to try to keep the adult rabbits (and hopefully the babies) a little warmer as winter approaches. This did not help the remaining 4 sadly. Georgia could have wrangled them all back into the nesting box or possibly laid near them to keep them warm but she was just a somewhat confused first time mom.
On the upside, Georgia should know more for her next litter. She got a lot right this time around and I believe she will have a fast learning curve. She had at least one of her babies in the box, once all 5 were born, they stayed in the box well fed and warm in the nest (which she fluffed regularly) for quite a few days. Once they started squirming about more is when trouble arose. She seemed to forget about them and the nest started to deteriorate a little. This means the little ones got cold and were probably looking for mom. She was still feeding them but did not spend a lot of time near them to keep them warm and did not spend much time keeping them in the box. She also didn't step on them though (at least not enough to injure them as far as we could see), which is a good thing
Austin and I will try breeding the rabbits again once it gets warmer or we will move the females inside if they are expecting. We are also going to modify the nesting box slightly so that it has a lip that the mom can get over but the babies will hopefully have trouble climbing over. Not only will Georgia know more but Austin and I will also know more about how to take care of the babies and how to keep them alive as best we can.
Thank you all for your support I hope this has been at least a little informative and not too sad. It is nature after all.
Keep warm as the winter months approach!
Sincerely,
Lauren
remember how excited I was about Georgia's little miracles?
Well, on the 12th of October, one of the bunnies climbed out of the nesting box and was found frozen in the far corner of the cage. The following day, three others were found outside of the nesting box (they had crawled out during the night and it was almost freezing out) and they too had perished. That meant the one left in the nesting box had no siblings to keep it warm and Georgia was not in the box to provide it heat either so, the last of five died.
When the one bunny was found on Saturday, I took it inside and held it/warmed it in my hands and on a warm bottle wrapped in fabric (the sleeve of a bath robe) to see if maybe it had just gone into a sort of coma due to the cold (which rabbits and other small mammals sometimes do). After trying to heat it for 30 to 45 minutes, Austin came home and I gave up. I was pretty sure the little guy was dead but I just wanted to make sure. Of course I blamed myself for what happened thinking "if I had checked on them sooner, maybe it would have still been alive" and yes, I did cry on Austin (I blame hormones but really, I probably would have cried either way). All in all, from the beginning, Austin and I knew that it is unlikely for a mother rabbit's first litter to make it (especially so close to winter when the risk of freezing to death is so high) but it was still a saddening event.
We put out a heat lamp the next night and ran it for one hour then let it turn off for a half hour from dusk until dawn to try to keep the adult rabbits (and hopefully the babies) a little warmer as winter approaches. This did not help the remaining 4 sadly. Georgia could have wrangled them all back into the nesting box or possibly laid near them to keep them warm but she was just a somewhat confused first time mom.
On the upside, Georgia should know more for her next litter. She got a lot right this time around and I believe she will have a fast learning curve. She had at least one of her babies in the box, once all 5 were born, they stayed in the box well fed and warm in the nest (which she fluffed regularly) for quite a few days. Once they started squirming about more is when trouble arose. She seemed to forget about them and the nest started to deteriorate a little. This means the little ones got cold and were probably looking for mom. She was still feeding them but did not spend a lot of time near them to keep them warm and did not spend much time keeping them in the box. She also didn't step on them though (at least not enough to injure them as far as we could see), which is a good thing
Austin and I will try breeding the rabbits again once it gets warmer or we will move the females inside if they are expecting. We are also going to modify the nesting box slightly so that it has a lip that the mom can get over but the babies will hopefully have trouble climbing over. Not only will Georgia know more but Austin and I will also know more about how to take care of the babies and how to keep them alive as best we can.
Thank you all for your support I hope this has been at least a little informative and not too sad. It is nature after all.
Keep warm as the winter months approach!
Sincerely,
Lauren
RIP little ones
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