So, it's what passes for winter down here. Yesterday's high was only 50F, up from upper 30s in the morning, while today it's supposed to get up in the mid-70s with an overnight low of mid- to upper 50s. Tomorrow it's supposed to be a bit warmer, and more humid until it starts raining overnight through Thursday morning, then the temperature will drop again to upper 30s for overnight lows again for a few days. I had acupuncture last Thursday, but by Sunday night it lost to the cold front that rolled in. Ah well, we did get some garden stuff accomplished (more on that later).
While my back was just screaming yesterday in protest, I did a bunch of reading about rabbit breeding and general feeding and health, and found a couple nice little nuggets of useful info. One I had seen previously, and now saw confirmed is that rabbit pellets may be complete in nutrition at the feed mill, two vitamins are not shelf-stable in the pellets: vitamin A and E. Since they degrade in storage, supplementing goes a long way toward willingness to breed. Black oil sunflower seeds (usually abbreviated as BOSS) will provide stable vitamin E, and in general green vegetation has vitamin A, along with of course carrots.
I found another little gem in a forum thread I intend to try, likely starting tomorrow, and that is the mineral supplement that's best for bunnies is sheep mineral. One sheep-and-goat block, coming home tomorrow.
I've also noticed bunnies are bored. I have golf balls in there for them to roll around, and the boys in particular do that a lot. In fact, we figured out that Larry has been rolling his out of the cage, through a bent section of the door frame. Shalimar has been rolling her food dish around, which is a bit of an effort considering I bought no-tip dishes for the rabbits. Chew toys are recommended, in addition to cat toys to roll/throw around, so as a chew I plan to get the girls some alfalfa/timothy hay cubes. Another option will be to put in pieces of cardboard for them to shred.
On the breeding front, at least three girls are definitely bred. Shalimar kicked things off with the eager-breeder routine, which Lacey did a little less than a week later (and remember, this is her first time breeding). Brooke had been bred by Jack, but when I put her in with Larry the other morning, she willingly lifted for him, whereas she made Jack really, really work at less success. I'm wondering if it was a timing thing, or if Brooke simply likes Larry better. Since Shal kindled at 30 days last time, I estimate her to kindle on February 9th. MaryAnn has not been very enthusiastic about the breeding idea, but Jack acted like he made contact while she was on the run. Gracie has been in George's cage for over a week.
Finally, I'll be getting a new bunny boy from Frank and Caroline. Caroline said a friend of hers gave him and a couple girls away for free, because she couldn't keep them anymore. This fellow is a Dutch (breed) rabbit, may even have a pedigree, and has a lovely, solid, and thick body. Hubby has a pic of him on his camera, so at some point I'll post up what he looks like.
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