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Baby Bunny ER

Welcome to my Emergency Room for baby bunnies.  OK, it’s really not a room, more like a spot on the couch.  These 8 young’uns were born this morning.  I found them scattered in the rabbit hutch, which in MN when temps drop below freezing, is very bad for a baby bunnies.  When this happens, first thing I do is put as many of the cold ones into my bra.  I know, it sounds weird but there is a very small window in which to save kits and a ride up to the house in my bra starts the warming process.

There are a couple of ways to warm up a chilled kit (baby rabbit).  The bra way is a good way to start but it won’t do the job as it’s too slow.  The kit(s) need to be warmed as quickly as possible.

You can warm them up by placing them on a heating pad (set on low) and/or also by using a plastic bottle filled with hot water.  As you can see in the above picture, I did both as these babies were really cold. I cover the whole area with a towel and try to make a barrier so they don’t crawl away and you end up sitting on them.

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Baby Bunny Hot Tub

Another way to warm them is by placing them in hot water.  I take the hottest water I can get from the tap.  Remember, you want to warm them not burn them.  Then, if they are really cold, I drop them in the water.  I usually only do this when the baby is just about frozen.  It doesn’t matter at that point in time if their face goes into the water as they are barely breathing away.  And yes, it works and no, they don’t drown.  But as soon as all 4 limbs are moving, I lift their heads out of the water.

You can also place the baby in a plastic bag, like I did above.  That is a snack size bag that I put the kit in and then placed it in the water.  This baby was chilled but not freezing so I choose to warm it this way.  You have to be careful so the nose isn’t against the bag or it can’t breathe.

After the kit is warm and moving. I put it on a heating pad (set on low), add towels, the rest of the siblings, etc.  It takes a while for the head to warm up so be patient.  You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to save a chilled, almost frozen rabbit.  Make sure you check them often as you don’t want them to get too warm, that’s not good either.

Once they are warm, they are moved into a nest box and place in a warm area.  We bring mamas to the babies in the winter.  All our babies are kept in the house during the cold months until they are about 3 weeks old.  At this age, they are ready to endure the chilly days and nights.  They are then moved out to the bunny barn where they join their mama until they are weaned.

We have saved many a freezing rabbit by doing these things.  We don’t save all of them but we try.

Good Luck!
~ Carol

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Sampson, Scottish Highlander

Today was the big day, our first beef animal was to be loaded and ready for a quick trip to the processor tomorrow morning.  It turned out to be quite the adventure and we made just a few mistakes.

Rich brought the fold (that’s what a herd of Highlanders is called) back from the east pastures, across the creek, to the tree pasture where we have a loading area.  That was probably mistake #1.. bringing the WHOLE fold back.  There are 17 animals in the group, which included Sampson, a dairy steer, a bull and the cows and calves.  The fold moves pretty much as a group so I’m not sure we could have just brought Sampson back.  The animals aren’t exactly tame but they do know that when Rich shows up, they should follow because usually that means fresh pasture or hay is going to be offered.

So, thinking we were prepared, Rich brought over a small square bale of hay and placed a bit of it next to the fence line.  This of course brought all the older animals over.  The calves are shy and wanted to play instead of eat.  Rich, after a few tries, managed to laso Sampson’s horns.  That is about the only way you can rope a Highlander.  Sampson was not happy and let everyone know.

After Rich got Sampson secure to the telephone pole (fence post) our bull, El Dorado, decided that Sampson needed to be put in place and went after him.  Poor Sampson, I thought, that lasted one second as the 2 crashed down the gate with Rich standing on the other side holding the rope on Sampson.  Yeah, the gate went down like paper and next thing I know, Sampson has Rich pinned against the fence, with his head and horns thrashing.  El Dorado just stood there next to the downed gate.  Madison and I were grabbing hay and throwing it out into the paddock, trying to get El Dorado away, so Sampson could relax.  Soon Sampson backed off of Rich.  Rich was just fine.  We decided to leave Sampson settled down and headed back to the farm site to get the truck and trailer.

We returned a shor time later to find El Dorado pinning Sampson against the fence line again.  This time, Sampson was really on the losing end of things.  He was bleeding from the scrapes of El Dorado’s horns.  Rich manged to get a gate between them and El Dorado just kind of gave up after that.  Sampson wasn’t too hard to get into the trailer.  He actually went in quite easily.  Once loaded securely, I apologized to Sampson.  I felt so bad for him.  Rich and Madison burst out laughing saying, “like tomorrow is going to be a better day for him…”  Must be the city slicker in me, Rich and Madison are farm kids, hehe.

Tomorrow he makes his final trip to the local processor.

~ Carol

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The boys arrive

Our first set of twin lambs arrived this morning and they are both rams.  Rich found them.  Dandy lambed while I was on a shopping trip.  I’m so glad she didn’t have problems like last year.  I just love this picture with Madison’s 4H llama, Buckly.  Do you see the little lamb laying next to him?  Our llamas are so good with babies, be it lambs or kids.  This is not an unusual scene in the barnyard… llamas working as nannies while the mamas take a break.  They also help find lost babies.  They are such intelligent animals.

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New Lamb

Once I was back home, I checked out the new arrivals.  I believe they are premature.  Their hair/wool is very short and tight.  They are missing hair/wool on the back of their legs, appear a bit bony and are small.  They do seem healthy and happy.  They readily nurse and Dandy is tending them like a good mama should.

Madison checked on the little ones tonight.  She has named them Johnny and Jimmy for now.  They also are now sporting sweaters as we are expecting temps to drop into the single digits below zero tonight.  With them not appearing to be term, I think they can use the extra warmth.  I’ll see if I can snap a picture of them tomorrow modeling their coats.

~Carol

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OUCH!

Yep, I’m hurt.  This is my ankle this morning.  I managed to slip off the steps of the pouch when going out to check the bunny barn last night.  I thought I broke it when I heard the snap as I hit the pavement.  It’s not broken but it sure does hurt!  Rich had to help me back into the house as I couldn’t step on it.  Madison did the reminder of the barn checks last night.

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Snowflake kindles

On her last check before bed she found Snowflake’s fresh kits.  There are 7 little pink bundles in there.  That’s a small litter for Snowflake who is a large rabbit.  She usually has no less then 9 for us but she’s getting older so I’ll let it go THIS time,

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Well, I better get my chores finished.  Takes me longer as I’m hobbling and not walking ;P

~Carol

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Baby bunnies

This morning brought us more baby bunnies.  This time is was Himi, one of the crossbred rabbits.  She’s a first time mama and decided to give birth on the wire on the cage instead of in the nest box.  Rabbit does are not suppose to nest this way but once in a while you have a rabbit who has to be different.  It usually happens with a new mom.  Every bunny here gets a second chance and usually, they get it right the second time.  You can’t make a rabbit nest in a box so if she’s a habitual offender, she shouldn’t be in your breeding program.  Of course, IF you screw up and fail to provide her with a nest box, she can only make do with whats she’s got.

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Himi's nest of the wire

The above picture was taken about an hour before Himi kindled.  This is not what you want a mama rabbit to do, build her nest on the wire.  I was lucky because: 1.  it was warm inside the barn; and 2.  I knew she was kindling so I could get the kits into a nestbox before they wondered on the wire.  Then, continued on to find warmth, ending up outside of the cage and a tasty meal for a hungry chicken.  If this situation had happened during the night, the litter would have all died.

Did you know that a new baby bunny will search for heat?  These tiny hairless creatures will seek out a heat source.  You’d be amazed at how far a kit can crawl.  They can fit through a very small opening.  We have found kits, who are both blind and deaf at birth, across the barn on the ground.  They chill very quickly and IF they don’t become dinner for some other critter, they will succumb to the cold.

Unlike cats or dogs, mama rabbits do not sit/sleep etc with their babies.  They nurse the kits once or twice a day and don’t return until it’s feeding time again.  Feeding takes less them 5 minutes on average.  After nursing and butt cleaning, mama is gone.  Sounds uncaring, doesn’t it?  This trait carries over from their wild rabbit ancestors.  Baby rabbits do not have any scent to them making them hard for predators to find so mamas do not spend any extra time in the nests if they want their babies to survive.  Of course, today’s domestic rabbit has lost a few of those distinct traits.  We have mamas who hang out in nest boxes because they can.  They are not there to “tend” babies, they just want to sit in the nest box because its comfy.

That is your rabbit lesson for the day.  We will have a quiz later this week….  

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~Carol

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Newest arrival

This little ewe lamb arrived this morning.  Her mama is one of our 2 year old katahdin ewes.  So we are now 3 for 3 on the ewe lambs.  The season seems heavy on the girl side.  Not good when you want a few market lambs but that’s ok, Rich says we are still building the flock so we will take healthy girls.

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ewe lamb

It’s been a great season for lambing.  The day time temps are staying above freezing.  It really makes me think that I should have bred my goats eariler as it has been so warm that kidding would have been less stressful.  I bred them to start kidding in March which will just be that much warmer.  It’s all good

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~Carol

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New lamb

Yes sir, lambing season has started here at Coyote Ridge farms.  Our second lamb arrived last this afternoon.  Rich found this one which was still wet.  He  came up to the house to announce it and Madison took off for the barnyard to check out the new little one.  Dottie is our new mama.  She happens to be one of the ewes who’s actually tame.  As Madison worked with the baby ewe, drying her off a bit, Dottie was busy giving Madison sheep kisses and growling at Ellie (dog) who happened to be on the other side of the fence.  

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Dottie’s mama was my milking ewe.  Dottie is tame enough that I could milk her but I’m thinking that since she is 1/2 Katahdin, her udder is not built for milking but I’ll check it out.

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11 days old

Our first litter of bunnies is now 11 days old and eyes are starting to open.  They start to be fun to play with once their eyes are open.  We are also starting to see the colors come in.  It looks like we have 2 blue chinchillas, 2 blues and a black.  We won’t be able to sex them until they are about 4 weeks old and it’s still a bit iffy at that point.  At 5 weeks, it’s pretty easy.

Oh and one last thing, my new car (well, new to me) arrived today.  I can proudly say I now own a car from this century

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~Carol

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Summer time pie in the winter time

So here we are at the end of January and I’m making a summertime pie!  lol  Earlier today, I was actually out in the freezer looking for some pork chops.  I got very excited when I discovered some frozen rhubarb in the corner..  At first, I was thinking Rhubarb coffee cake but then the frozen strawberries caught my eye.  Oh boy, I should make pie and so I did.  Unfortunately, I made it too late tonight to eat it so we will eat it after our pork chop dinner tomorrow.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (modified from Pillsbury)

DIRECTIONS

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Mini Lop has babies

Madison brought this little family up from the bunny barn yesterday at supper time.  One of the broken black mini lops, Whisper, kindled while she was doing chores.  There were 5 but one didn’t make it.  We are up to 3 litters now and the season has just begun.

~Carol

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First Ewe Lamb of the season

What a wonderful surprise we found this morning in the barnyard, our first lamb of the season and a ewe lamb to boot!  I noticed her as I was walking with Rich to the barn.  I could see this small white lump with ears next to our Dolly Llama

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We also went to the vet office to get my car that died there last week.  While there, I got the ATB for Waffles (Madison’s cat) who has a UTI.  Lucky for us, the car needed a simple jump and the starter is still working although we don’t know for how long.  So we are actively looking for a replacement.  We took a mercury sable for a test drive today.  I’m really thinking that this car will replace the caddie.  It’s very nice and a friend of mine is selling it so I’m know it was well taken care of.

No news from the bunny barn.  We have lots of mamas building nests but no one is having any babies.  Maybe I’m just rushing them,

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~Carol