Rabbits~ Oppsy Daisy

Today is my birthday! Happy birthday to me. I got a birthday surprise from my favorite blue eyed broken rabbit, "Buddy." Buddy is a Lionhead/Californian/French Angora  mix. She and her brother "Bugs" were my first rabbits. Her ears have never really stood up but flopped around her face. A whopping seven pounds and trained to perfection. Bugs went to live with my #4 daughter in AL before I moved.

Sexing rabbits when young can be a hit or miss proposition. Last October, I bought a blue eyed, white Jersey Wooly from Mel. Actually, she was a cross breed between two of her Jersey Woolies  / Lionheads. We was dubbed "Snowball" because she was a puff of white fur. I took her home at my #2 daughter's insistence, because "she s is stinking cute!" and she was. I sexed her and honestly thought she was a girl for all these months.

I put Buddy and Snowball in the same cage for their trip up to Mel's during my move. Yes, they did the usual mounting each other to try and establish a pecking order.  They eventually settled down for the trip. Once here, they were separated into their separate cages again.

Snowball for weeks has been spraying Mel with urine for the past couple weeks, and she had her doubts about her being female, but the bunny has never sprayed me. I chocked it up to Snowball not liking Mel. Snowball is only about two pounds in weight. A tiny little thing.

We drove home from my previous homestead yesterday. Both of us were bone tired. We had the neighbor's grandson care for the animals while we were gone, so we knew everyone was well taken care of. We didn't check on all the bunnies after arriving home.

Imagine our surprise when Mel went out to feed and water them this morning to find six babies born on the wire in Buddy's cage. Three broken and three solid white. All unfortunately dead. We both cried. If only we had known. I had held her before we had left. She hadn't felt any heavier and I sure didn't feel babies in her belly. The babies would have been the beginning of the blue-eyed white part of our rabbitry. That was my dream to breed a BEW strain of angoras.

Well, now that we know we have a blue eyed, white buck and a blue eyed, white doe, we can try again later and selectively breed the other traits besides angora out of the babies. Both carry the Vienna trait. Right now, we are too heart-sick to try again. My poor, Buddy has been lavished with attention today. She looks sad and depressed.

As close as we can tell, she had them last night or early this morning.  She honestly tried to give me the best birthday present ever and it wasn't her fault that the babies died but mine. With no nest box or straw in her cage, she had little choice but to have the babies on the wire. She pulled a whole lot of fur, but it just wasn't enough to keep the babies warm. Such is life on the homestead. You win some and lose some. It's the cycle of life. Oh, and now Snowball is called Snowballs because he has two of them.

Y'all have a blessed day!