Man Plans and God Laughs

Ice Cream, Cream for short, was due to have her Flemish Giant babies today according to the lady we purchased her from....but either her previous owner wasn't correct about the breeding date or Cream can't read a calendar!  Well, the people who know me well, know that I think God has a sense of humor and he was laughing at our "plan" over the last few days!

Now on to our plan -  Since Mark finished taking out the barn floor and the cement mason will be arriving within the next week, we figured we'd give Cream one day with her nesting box and then move the cage to the pole barn, where it would be quieter.  And Mark was making lots of noise in the pole barn building our potato box and watering system for the garden, so when he finished those projects, we knew we only had a short window of time to move them before the litter arrived.  WELL, We blew that one!

You're suppose to insert a nesting box into her cage three days prior to her due date - and thought we were doing that but within about 12 hours after the nesting box was placed, she started building her nest and promptly had her litter.  The babies were so quiet that we didn't realize they were born.   

So, we put her out in the yard ring pen for some exercise and then started to move her cage, and as we were moving it into its place in the quiet pole barn, we heard baby bunnies squealing.  OMG were we surprised!  We were VERY careful with the pen, but even though we were, we had two bunnies fall out of their warm nest.  Everything I had read said to leave well enough alone for the first 12-24 hours and see if she puts them back, since they were just outside the nest. 

Yesterday morning I went out to Cream's cage to check on the brood - one of the two was not breathing and the other was still alive and still squirming slightly so I petted Cream (she was very sweet and inviting), gave her a rabbit treat to make her happy, and picked them both up.  I felt REALLY badly that our move caused the death of one of her litter; however, rabbits notoriously lose almost half of each litter - everything from deformities, failure to thrive, naturally falling out of the nest, being stepped on by their mom, to even being accidentally being bitten if they are too large to be born and the mom bunny tries to help pull them out. We had another problem in our plan - Mark, Marti, and I were suppose to drive to Marquette yesterday to return some large items to the Loews and pick up some other important items.

Since my family raised bunnies as children, I KINDA knew what to do.  I reached into the fridge for goat's milk (the best substitute for rabbit milk), warmed it to room temp, grabbed an eye dropper, cut a swatch of fleece fabric and grabbed a little box with stuffing to use as a nest and we jumped into the truck for the 1.5 hour trip to Marquette.  I figured if we could get the little one warm, get it to take some milk it just might survive.  Marti and I took turns warming the little one by holding it in the fleece cloth in our hands - that was more important than the food.  It finally started to wiggle wanting to be fed.  We had to stop for gasoline so Marti took that time to try to get it to suck some of the milk from the dropper...it took about 4-6 drops.  We felt better but watched it sleep, stretch, snuggle into the warmth...this little one wanted to live and seems to be a fighter. 

To make a long story shorter, it survived the day (it took milk three times) so when we arrived home, I washed my hands, carried the little one out to the cage, gave Cream a treat, rubbed my hands into her deep white fur for quite a while to pick up her scent, picked up the baby with my bare hands for the first time, rubbed the baby all over with my scented hands, picked some of the fur from the nest, rubbed that fur all over the baby bunny, and then placed the baby into the nest with the other babies.  The entire nest of babies went nuts squealing - I think it was because this one was colder than they were...you all know what it feels like when your spouse comes into your warm bed and puts his cold feet on your skin...I squeal too! 

Well shortly after that they all calmed down and Cream seemed OK with the addition.  This morning I checked the nest and all seemed to be wiggling, stretching and climbing over each other to get in the inside of the pack - I think she has seven or eight babies.  Three black and the rest white/pink.  I took the photo practically standing on my head in her hutch.  I know it's not a great photo - I'll get a better look at all of them tomorrow when I clean the nesting box.  I'll let you know then.
Life is very interesting when you are rabbit ranchers!