Monthly Archives: April 2008

Little Hope is doing fine at the moment and I hope it stays this way. Noobie has since pulled more fur to cover the nest and Little Hope seemed to have had a little too much milk. I sure hope that this would not cause any splayed legs problem. I have decided to take the entire nest box out during the day and give it back to Noobie late at night. That way, Noobie will not overfeed it.

More pictures:

Can you spot me?

Tentatively I am naming it Hope. I was beginning to feel hopeless when the second last surviving kit died. It now really depends on itself to survive because as far and mommy is concerned, Noobie is a great mum and she is awesome in taking care of her kit so far. It is a pity that the rest have to die because she deserves more kits and I am very sure she could handle them all if given a chance.

Will take more photos this evening and please continue pouring those prayers in for Hope. Thanks a lot!

I just witness the most magnificent rabbit behavior ever! I went down to check on the kit before going to bed and what I witness just caught me by surprise. I saw Noobie in the nest box. She was not affected at all with me turning on the light. She started grooming herself and suddenly she started doing something that I have not seen before – fur pulling. She pulled so much fur and started digging the nest box. I was so worried that she will accidentally scratch her one and only kit. Once she was done building the best, she lied down exactly where the little kit was!

I panicked, opened the cage door and chased her away from nest box to check on the little one. Lo and Behold, I saw this little crater where the little on laid. It is really amazing how she had created that crater and when she lies down flat in the nest box, the crater would protect her from crushing the little one. AMAZING! I am in awe! This is one great creature.

Check the little “pillbury’s dough kit” out:

This is totally heart-wrenching. Good news is, Noobie kindled and the bad news is, I am again left with 1 survivor. This is not as fun as that famous reality show SURVIVOR. I do not need Outwit, Outplay & Outlast in my rabbitry!!! That is the last thing I need. Kit #1, #2 and #3 are beautiful broken chocolate. Kit #4 was a beautiful solid chocolate. Kit #5 was a the only sole survivor at the moment and it is like chocolate. And Kit #6 is under developed.

Just take a look at these pictures and read my theory behind the deaths at the end of this post:

The under-developed kit

Aren’t they beautiful!? Ironically, I cannot have them. Wish they were alive.

The sole survivor, better not be a peanut.

I am proud of Noobie. She has great temperament. Saw her licking her kits when I placed them in the nest box. Hope she nurses this little one well.

Need to help Noobie pull some fur too. Hope this works!

I came down with these theories as to why this happened:

1) The Jet Lag Theory

California is 15 hours behind the local time. For the rabbit to be flying from California to Malaysia pregnant would mean that their body has got to get accustomed to the time. Even human get jet lag and I believe somehow, the journey altered their biological clock. Given the fact that my calculation was Noobie was overdue by a day made me believe in this theory even more. Basically, she was indeed overdue and the first few kits did not survive. Kit #4 actually survived the delivery but was too weak to make it. Kit #5 is the only sole survivor and I hope it will make it. Kit #6 was halfway developed which made me believe my following theory.

2) The Mother Nature Waiting Theory

Again I have to stress that Noobie was placed with a buck for 7 days. And we know that a doe has 2 uterus horns and it is possible for both horns to hold kits from different conception timings. I would guess that the first 3 kits were conceived earlier and the last 3 were conceived later. The reason behind this theory was because the last kit was not developed and I would guess that mother nature was waiting for its development to be complete before initiating the kindling. Therefore, the first 3 was way overdue and that was the reason why they were born dead as they were already dead in Noobie. Kit #4 was the unlucky one because it was hanging on to dear life when it was born. At first it look as if it will survive but within a couple of minutes it was breathing its last. Another evidence to support this theory of mine is that the kits had fur on them. They looked like 3 days old kits instead of newborns. The moral of the story is, never leave a buck and doe together to breed over for 1 week. We may get kits from different successful mating and therefore, this might happen.

The above is just my own theory based on my own reasoning. It doesn’t matter if has been proven scientifically and I believe more research should be done in this area so that kits would not die in vain.

UPDATE:

I was popping the question on my theories above in RabbitsOnline.net and BlueGiants did give me some very reasonable assumptions. He guess that there were probably 3 breedings that occurred throughout the 1 week Noobie was with Yuba. He also believe that the first kit to be born was either the sole survivor or the largest solid choc. The big kit probably blocked the uterus opening and thus causing a delayed in between the births. The undeveloped kit would probably be the last one in the uterus horn. That really explains the actual scenario that has taken place.