Expecting a Litter

Day 1: Since Bonnie’s breeding was unsuccessful last month, we decided to try again so we can have Baby Bonnies come Spring. We contacted the breeder we purchased Radar from (Buckeye Rabbits in Brownsboro, AL) and set up a date between Bonnie and Radar’s son, Rocky. We’re happy about this match and hopeful that Rocky has some of the great qualities that Radar had. Today’s experience was different that the first. Well, maybe not different...but...last experience in fast-forward. See our post **** to read what happened the first time. Within 20 minutes we had 5 fall-offs and Bonnie seemed very willing. Instead of paying for Rocky’s time, we offered the breeder two does from the litter in order to introduce genetic diversity into her group. I know what you’re thinking. As if paying for sex wasn’t weird enough, now we’re talking about offering children in a deal. Game of Thrones, much?

Day 2: Bonnie begins digging! Maybe a reassuring sign? Or maybe just a familiar one. Either way we’ll watch and see how long this activity persists.

Day 3: Just keep digging, just keep digging…

Day 4: ...Just keep digging, digging, digging.

Day 6: After we found out that Bonnie’s first attempted breeding was unsuccessful we took her nest out of the Bonnie Bus to give her some more room to forage. We decided to put it back in today since she’s been digging. Every resource we refer to suggests putting the nest in only days before expecting the litter, and the only reason I’ve read is to prevent the rabbit mistaking this space as her other “litter box” - the restroom. So we experimented in hopes that Bonnie would eventually create her nest in the space we’ve intended it for. She continues to dig little burrows at the edges of the Bus and at the divider that once held Radar on the other side.

Day 7: Bonnie is not in her Bus! Ok, just wanted to give you the scare that I received this morning as well. She is in fact in her Bus, just not on the side she’s supposed to be on. Since yesterday she dug a large burrow under the divider of the Bus and scurried her way to the other side. She’s just hanging out, just laying with her legs sprawled out and what I’m sure is a smug look on her face that’s showing me what she’s capable of. I left her in there, she’ll go back to her side eventually. Later I moved the bus to a new patch of grass so she’ll be forced to start over if she plans her next escape. No nest has been built overnight.

Day 8: No nest today, either. I must continue to remind myself that, while we saw signs of pregnancy last month during her false pregnancy, I cannot compare those events to what should be occurring. In fact, if there’s anything different occurring this time around then I should take that as a good sign! So no nest is good news.

Day 13: Bonnie has been  sitting in her nest box all day. Not busy, not making a nest. Just sitting. I’ve opened her nest box 3 times throughout the day and each time she was in the same spot. By evening, she still hadn’t moved and I was a little worried. I pet her, nudged her, and she still didn’t budge. I picked her up, holding one hand under her hind legs and the other holding her scruff. While she typically would scurry away and put up a little friendly fight over this, she was just limp. Ok, now I needed to figure out what’s going on. I checked for painful movements, cuts or sores but nothing showed up. Matt noticed there was no poop in the bus today and that was unusual. I looked in her feeder and there was some white fluffy mold sitting in the feeder. Could this be it? We brought her more food and a different cleaned feeder and threw some greens in with the hopes that she’d jump up and dig in. The rest of the night was filled with some anxiety for us - we have one rabbit, and a pregnant one at that, so any death would be a detrimental one for our rabbit enterprise. Matt had to remind me that today was a successful day overall (we purchased and installed our first package of bees!) so we shouldn’t let our anxiety ruin an exciting day.

Day 14: The greens were nibbled on and Bonnie is hopping around again! She’s back to her Collard-munching hole-digging dirt-nosed self. Ahhh. A deep sigh of relief.

Day 19: Bonnie keeps digging and our yard is starting to resemble the moon’s surface with craters everywhere. Everywhere. I decided to put some of Bonnie’s old nest material from the first “pregnancy” in her nest area to see if it would spark some activity in the nest instead of on the ground. I left her alone for a few hours and went back to check on her. I found her nest was built up with fresh grass and pine straw! Finally. Maybe an end to the crater yard. A few hours later we went to check on her again. She’s doing something new this time...something we have learned but never seen her do. Bonnie is scurrying around, pulling grass from its bases and carrying a mouthful to the nest. So cool! We’ve seen her nest grow day to day in snapshots but never seen her actively collecting grass.

Day 20: NO HOLES! Bonnie hasn’t dug a single hole today...Are we coming to the end of an era?! After all that digging we can now see why people bring their pregnant rabbits inside or in cages temporarily. Or keep slats on the bottom of their outdoor tractors. We’ve done the slats on the bottom before, but we really like the idea of keeping the environment as natural as we can.

Day 28: Holes again! She stopped for over a week, until I opened the Bonnie Bus to see two small holes next to her nest box. While it was pleasant when she wasn't digging, it was actually kind of exciting to see a change in her behavior again since we're so close to the expected delivery date. Could this mean she's actually pregnant? I am still suspicious, especially after last “pregnancy”. It was certainly disappointing and I hope we don't go through that again! We want baby Bonnies!!

Day 29: Nothing exciting…

Day 30: Getting closer…

Day 31: Ok, Bonnie should be pulling hair by now. Is she? No. But she has added a few little strands of grass! So far her nest doesn’t resemble the fluffy thick nests we’ve seen some mothers make, but it looks pretty well padded. Enough to nestle some kits in.

Day 32: It’s the day! We went to go check on her early this morning before Matt went to work. Nothing new! At this point we knew we had another false pregnancy. Ok. We can wait a few more days but then let’s talk about what we need to do next.

I make sure to check on Bonnie every hour or so today since we could stumble upon a surprise. Sure enough, I was surprised when I went out to the Bonnie Bus to find her pulling hair! Woo hoo! She sat down and continually pulled hair from her dewlap and side letting most of it fall to the ground beside her - or get stuck on her wet tongue. Alright, enough with the rollercoaster of signals - we’re sure at this point she’s going to be kitting (not kidding, ha). Now I check on her every thirty minutes. Pulling hair, pulling grass! Thirty minutes later she’s sitting in her nest.
My phone is at 16% battery. Crap. Gotta run inside and charge it, grab my real camera, text Matt and let him know what’s up, and run back out there. Surely I won’t miss that much.

I ran back (If you know me, this statement should surprise you) to get a front row seat. She had already given birth to a number of kits! They were actively moving around and pushing each other, eyes closed, smaller than a bar of soap. As she delivers, Bonnie is grooming them and eating their placenta. This went on for less than twenty minutes before she jumped out of the nest and plopped on the cool grass. Now time to groom herself. Huffing and puffing, eyes half shut - she’s totally pooped from today’s events. While she was out of the nest quickly counted and made sure all were breathing, moving, active and alive. All eleven look great! Yes, ELEVEN. We’ve learned there can be anywhere from 3-15+ in a litter, and honestly, by the size of Bonnie’s stomach and the fact that I couldn’t feel any on palpating her, I would have been thrilled with 3. 

I give Bonnie some greens from the garden and place them next to her. She doesn’t move much but she pulls them close to her and scoffs them down as she lays in place.