ROSEMARY
After church yesterday (about 1:00 PM), I noticed that Rosie had pulled more fur and there was blood in the cage. She had started labor. Only...there were no babies.
It's very uncommon for a doe to bleed before a baby has been born, unless she is miscarrying. Sadly, we found a baby that had fallen through the cage wire. We think a cat dragged it out of the rabbitry and played with it. Poor thing looked like it had been chewed.
Rosie's labor had stopped. If the babies were in the birth canal before her labor stopped, sadly that could mean that they would all be born dead.
About an hour later, Rosie started her labor again. Within fifteen minutes she had delivered 5 beautiful live babies. She has a solid black, broken black, a broken tort of some sort and two solid torts of some sort (don't know if it's a blue or black tort yet). They are all doing fantastic today.
Rosie has proven to be an amazing mama, just like her mama and her grandma! The pictures below were taken yesterday. Only a couple are posted.
Hazel didn't start labor until 10:00 PM Sunday night. I went to bed at 10:30, because I had to wake up early for work the next day (today). I checked on her again at 2:00 AM, and she had kindled (rabbit word for "give birth"), 4 babies.
She had one live baby nestled in the fur, warm and cozy. Two babies were dead sadly. One of the dead babies was a peanut.
Another baby, a big one, I almost threw away with the dead ones. But to my surprise, he moved! He was alive, but very, very cold. And he only had one ear.
Hazel has a tendency to eat her dead babies. I believe she thought that baby was dead, and ate part of him. Because he was cold, he came inside and spent the night in a makeshift box in a warm room in our house with a bunch of Rosie's fur, which is the only extra fur I have.
Because he already smelled so much like Rosie, having been in her fur all night, I gave him to Rosie this morning. He's very warm and snuggled with siblings last time I checked. I was also worried that if I gave the baby with one ear back to Hazel, she would smell the blood on him and eat him some more. So far the one baby she has that is unharmed is completely fine. I'm not sure if I'll let her raise it completely yet or not. I may give it to Rosie if she has enough milk. We will see.
HHR (Holly's Hollands Rabbitry), went from a rabbitry of 5 to a rabbitry of 12....literally overnight!
I will post more when I get the chance with updated pictures of the kits.