Litter Updates

Just thought I'd post a quick update. I wanted to take pictures today outside of the older two litters, but there is a major thunderstorm going on right now. I'll try to get it to though as soon as the weather cooperates.

New Zealands- all 5 are in with Kari, who has her paws full with the two litters. The black kit that I bottle-fed most of its young life is definitely a GT steel.

Harlequins- all 7 are running wild and driving their mamma crazy. One kit is so active that I don't know how much time she is taking to eat and always feels on the skinny side. I am trying to give her extra time with Kari to compensate for this apparent abundance of energy. I also decided to practice what I preach and cull the runt of the older Harlequin litter from the herd. She was nicely marked, but just had terrible growth and poor size. Valkyrie was almost twice as large when I compared the two, so that is interesting to see the differences even within the same litter.

Mini Lops- Dove's 3 and Serenity's 4 are all still with us and appear to be okay at the moment, though they are still really young. I always consider the first week to be a dangerous time since they are so tiny and fragile. Edit 01/28: I found Dove's kits dead against the side of the nestbox. It looks like she squished them, which really irritates me. Second edit 01/31: Now I am just mad. Serenity killed the two largest of her kits this morning, so only the runt and one other kit are left. I saw how it happened, too. When I was feeding everyone, I turned around just in time to see her (and Dove coincidently, who is in a stacker next to her) jumping in and out of her nestbox over and over again in a food craze, effectively stomping two of her own in her excitement to eat. The only reason she was even out of food is because she had apparently dug her pellets out for no apparent reason overnight. That is just poor mothering on her part-  of course jumping up and down on kits isn't going to have a good ending. I don't know why does that were already proven and did fine before are giving me problems right now.

In other news, I am sad to say that I had to euthanize my beautiful NZR buck, Scorch. He developed what appeared to be pneumonia suddenly, though I don't know what caused it. These are never easy decisions, but this is the reality that a responsible breeder has to deal with. As great as it would be to just enjoy the good, dealing with the bad is just another part of raising animals.