Zuzu's babies are overwhelmingly adorable - I know their genders now and I named them last night. Some litters have themed names - some babies just have names that they are born with ... you just have to discover them. This litter had those names that we had to discover. I wanted to name them themed names from Gilmore Girls, but after looking at them, those names just didn't fit them! 
I love having fun while naming babies. So I asked my sister to come outside and help me name this trio. One of my little brothers wanted to help name them too, so he came along as well. 
While we were holding and playing with the babies, their names were "discovered"! And they totally fit their little personalities!! 

Prince was the first baby we named, and his name just came to me! He is so darling! He's the smallest, and he stole my heart. He loves to be held in my hands and loves to give kisses all over my fingers. He's going to be a little heartbreaker and already looking really, really nice. This is what I like to see in a 3-week-old! 

My little brother named Finn after one of the characters of the new Star Wars movie. I thought the name was too cute and it really fits this little guy. Finn looks really wise and smart. He doesn't like to be held in your hands like Prince Charming does, though. He's crazy, and loves to binky and play in his cage. But he also LOVES cuddles on your lap. Like Prince, Finn is looking really nice already. He reminds me so much of his uncle Wicket with his tiny ears and fat head! 

Heidi was a last little one named. We had a harder time coming up with her name, although her brothers' names came so naturally. My sister helped me come up with the name for Heidi, our only little doe! My sister was thinking of flower names and mentioned a few that we didn't think fit, then she mentioned "Hydrangea". I thought that was so cute and said that we could call her "Heidi" for short. And then my sister and I both realized that Heidi, as her full name, is a much better fit! She's so cute but is definitely the biggest! I think she's going to be a big false dwarf girl - she has longer ears and a longer body than Finn. Besides their weight difference, that's how we tell the two of them apart. She knows she's big and is very feisty - she loves looking down from the top of the nestbox, where her brothers can't get to yet because they are so much smaller. She definitely asserts her authority and dominance as the biggest in her litter! She's the craziest and has a spunky personality!

I'm in love with these babies  and I'm having so much fun with them! Good job to my awesome mama Zuzu!

In other news, there will be new litters on the way soon, Lord willing! I will be breeding Butterfly and May this week, to Wicket and Typhoon, respectively. When they have their litters (depending on how many kits they each have), I will breed Angus to Wicket. I'll be showing Clementine as a senior my upcoming July shows, and after that I will breed her if she doesn't do very well. Because of her ears, she might never show as well as I would like her to. But she'll make awesome babies. 

LCL's Angus had 6 kits on Thursday, the 18th, at 6:30am. When I went to check on Zuzu and give Zuzu her baby back, I noticed Angie was in the box delivering her kits. 

I left and let her do her thing, and when I checked on her again, at 7:00am, she was still in the box, cleaning something or still delivering. Then, I checked on her again around 8:00 and bribed her out of her box with a treat. She had delivered SIX gorgeous kits, two were peanuts sadly and have passed on, but the remaining 4 are still doing fantastic!! 

Angie and her babies are in the house right now for a week or two. I will make another blog post going into depth, but sadly Zuzu's singleton was eaten by a rat so I want to make sure Angie's kits will be safe until all the rats are dead. 

Angie's kits are four different and really fun colors! She has a chestnut, opal, cream, and chinchilla!!! I just love all these colors and I'm really surprised we got a chinchilla, but super happy about it since it's one of my favorite colors!! The babies are 9 days old today and will open their eyes any day!

Zuzu had her first litter at around 3:30 AM Thursday morning, on the 18th. I woke up at 3am with my alarm, because neither of the girls looked close to starting labor when I went to bed at 11pm. When I checked on them, I saw that Zuzu was in her box, and she was pushing. I assumed she must've had one a little stuck, because they don't push that long for one kit.  When I checked on her again at 3:30, she had two, one of them was dead, so most likely it died in the birth canal while she was pushing. The other was on the wire, but it was breathing. It was very cold though, so I brought it inside and warmed it up. 

After coaxing Zuzu out of the box, I saw that she had one more kit, and it was big and dead as well. Then, when I checked on her at 6:30 am, I noticed that she had delivered another one inside the nestbox, also big and dead. I'm very thankful she was able to pass the kits without too much trouble. She has nice wide birthing hips! Her remaining baby has been with her for several days now, and she's an awesome first time mama! Her baby is always fat and well fed, clean and healthy and Zuzu is doing a great job. 

Her one little baby is a little chestnut. I am so proud of my Zuzu, she did amazing. I have two things I am most excited about her as a mom. #1: She doesn't eat babies like her mom did - score!!! Maybe that's not a genetic trait, but an environmental one? #2: She didn't get mean, grumpy, or nippy during pregnancy, labor, or after birth. After she had her kits she just wanted attention. *LOVE* her!!! 

With Butterfly currently in labor, I wanted to share some of my tips and tricks for making sure a doe has a healthy litter, or, doing everything you can to help the doe have a healthy litter. 

Herbs - 
I have not yet tried this, but raspberry leaves or raspberry leaf tea is supposed to promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy litter. Give raspberry leaves (or tea), during the last two weeks gestation for a quick, strong birth and to prevent retained afterbirth. Overall, a great prenatal supplement. I need to start doing this with my does!
"PREGNANCY TONIC: Combine the following: dried, raspberry leaf, nettle, and goats rue (Galega officinale) in equal parts, and half part Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum). All organic either grow your own or get it from a health food store. Feed: 1 Tbs. per day at feeding time, to pregnant does beginning one week before kindling through the first month. These herbs help ease kindling, offer nutrition and support lactation. Just sprinkle 1 Tbs. over their food, once a day" (Rise and Shine Rabbitry). 
​
Exercise - 
Similar to human woman, does that get exercise pre pregnancy and during the pregnancy are more likely to have a healthy litter compared to does that spend all their lives in a 24" x 24" cage. I like to make sure my does have a lot of exercise the week they are due. Exercise also prevents obesity, which can lead to a doe miscarrying a litter or inability to get pregnant. 

Never let the Doe Run out of Water - 
When a doe starves or gets too thirsty, she can't provide nutrients to her kits and she becomes skinny faster than usual. And underweight doe is at risk of losing the litter or having a very stressful pregnancy and delivery. 

Proper Nutrition - 
For the development of a healthy litter, the most important thing is a proper diet. Does need LOTS of protein, fiber and vitamins to grow a healthy litter. Pellets with at least 20% fiber, 16% protein and added vitamins and minerals, like Purina Show (the feed I use), are perfect for growing healthy kits. 

Prevent Obesity - 
An obese doe will have a harder time getting pregnant and if she does, her body will have a larger amount of stress on it and the kits could be unhealthy.

Insure a Stress-free Environment - 
If you need to make a major change to the doe's diet, environment or anything similar, do so before the 26th day of gestation. Does have more stress as their bodies prepare for delivery on the last 4 days of gestation. If you can, make sure the doe has a quiet, stress free area to deliver in. That doesn't mean you need to remove her from her current environment or from other loud rabbits if she lives in a rabbitry, but prevent small children from running in and yelling, or people she doesn't know from trying to touch her or anything else that could be stressful or unknown in those last four days. 

Keep the Doe from Getting too Hot - 
When a doe is pregnant or in labor, she is a lot hotter than usual and so when the temperature gets to be above 80 degrees, make sure she can stay cool, because with kits in her belly or with labor, she can overheat a lot quicker than a rabbit that is not pregnant or in labor.

Prevent your Doe from Getting Underweight - 
Underweight does have a higher risk of losing the litter to miscarriage, producing underdeveloped kits, or just overall an unhealthy litter because their body simply does not have enough nutrients to support the doe and her litter. 

Leave the Doe Alone Once she's in Labor - 
I like to check on my does every hour or every other hour the day they are due. But once I can tell a doe is in labor, I like to wait for about an hour and a half before I visit her again. If all goes well, she can deliver a live litter of 5 or 6 in twenty minutes. And usually it's about an hour or so from the start of labor to when she gets in the box and starts to kindle. 
Sometimes I will watch the doe give birth if she is a veteran mom and I know she won't mind, but with my first timers I like to have them do it alone by themselves unless something goes wrong. 

Even if you follow these tips perfectly, some does are just bad mothers and they have unhealthy litters, litters full of dead babies or peanuts, or they don't nurse their babies or whatever. That doesn't have anything to do with what you did or didn't do. Most of the time a healthy or unhealthy litter is all based on genetics, or the size of the kits, and even the breed. 

**My friend Liz from Clear Sky Rabbitry has been breeding for several years, and she suggests the following:
~Calcium before and right after delivery is very important to help with strong contractions! Many breeders give a Tums chewable tablet once a day starting on day 28. Liz starts on day 30 and then one after kindling. My personal favorite is kale, since I don't usually have Tums on hand and I'd like to stay away from the sugar. I gave Saige lots of kale every day when she had a stuck kit and it helped her with the contractions and kept her from retaining the kit (it was stuck for a week). 
~For milk production and gaining weight: calf manna or dandelions can help a doe gain weight after a particularly difficult labor or after kindling/nursing lots of kits. Some does don't produce enough milk for all their kits, and calf manna really helps with that. *I need to get some!* 

I hope you guys enjoyed and that this helped some of you!

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing how I prepare my nestboxes for my does and why I choose to do and use what I do. 
I add the box on the 27th day, since it is possible for does to kindle on day 28. 

I found some AWESOME articles on colony-raising your rabbits. It's always been such an intriguing idea. Of course this method of rabbit raising isn't for everyone and it's definitely not a method I would think of doing for myself and for my herd, but it's definitely something to think about if you raise rabbits for meat. 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/691ymxcxxbf54qj/Colony_Rabbits-Red_Gate_Farm.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/szqblj1dsqzzspf/Raising-Rabbits-in-Colonies-fljaoy.pdf?dl=0

I've always been intrigued about the prospect that the moon cycles can control things like conception and delivery in humans, as well as litter size, more bucks or does, and ease of conception in rabbits. 
These two articles are VERY interesting, they aren't too long and are well worth the read. 

CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE

The term "peanuts" and "max factors" are kits that are born with a recessive gene that either kills them, or disables them. Peanuts and Max Factors are very different. 

Holland Lops are a dwarf breed, though not every dwarf Holland carries the dwarf gene. Gracie and Sir Lancelot, who are longer and much bigger then most Holland lops, are non-dwarfs, or "normals". Cinnamon, my petite, 3.2 pound Holland, is a true dwarf, which means she has 1 dwarf gene. 
If I bred her to a buck that has a dwarf gene like she does, they would both have a 25% chance of producing a kit called a peanut. One in every 4 babies would have this chance, basically. That doesn't mean that in a litter of 8, 2 would be peanuts. Sometimes whole litters are only peanuts, sometimes there are no peanuts in a litter. A normal cannot produce a peanut, ever. 
A peanut, getting a double-dwarf gene, has the inability to grow. The often don't grow fur and as their normal siblings grow big and strong, they don't grow at all. Often, they die within 2 weeks, more often within the first four days. Rarely will they open their eyes. Peanuts have deformed back legs, pinched HQ, oddly-shaped head, and tiny ears. 

A max factor kit is a totally different gene. Recessive, like the peanut gene, but almost completely opposite. The max factor gene is much more rare then the peanut gene, but it does occur. 
Max factors occasionally have opened eyes, deformed back legs, weird feet, and develop spiked or soft fur because they have no guard hairs. Not all max factors die. Some can live amazing pet lives as an adult. Usually, they will become blind because of the open eyes at birth. 

Luckily I have not encountered any of the above babies, only healthy litters. But I am prepared for them. 

10-12 days after breeding a doe, I palpate her. Palpating is feeling the rabbit's stomach to try and feel baby bunnies. Cinnamon will be palpated tomorrow, on day 10! I'm hoping I feel some little baby bubbles! Please watch the video below on more about palpating and how to do it. It is very helpful! :)

VIDEO HERE