Friday, March 4, 2011

Bunny mysteries

Some mysteries surrounding bunnies...

When they're so little, can you tell by their behaviour which are male and which are female? I can't say for sure, but my suspicions with both bunnies turned out to be correct. With both lots of baby bunnies, the females seemed to be more curious and adventurous, and the boys were total sooks. Make sure if you have baby bunnies that you don't try and sex them based on this though, because if I'm wrong, you'll end up with more little critters.


What happens when the mother has a second litter when the first one hasn't been weaned yet? In my case, we separated the boys from the girls after 8 weeks (the earliest they were supposed to be weaned) for Pepper's benefit, and at 9 weeks old the boys went to their new home. Checkers, the older sister was surprisingly the one who would play with the babies. Here she is sitting with them, just as if she were the same size as them!

How do bunnies feed? Here is Smokey trying to let Pepper know she was thirsty. Baby bunnies seem to pester their mothers if they can throughout the day, but the Does tend to only feed their babies at night. They are so funny - they wiggle around right against their mothers and roll themselves on their backs and latch on. Sometimes they will only snatch a mouthful or two before Mum realises what they're up to and hops along. Then you're left with a little bunny madly waving its paws in the air trying to flip over and chase Mum again.


Smokey was successful this time, and fed for a while, as it was night time. When they got older, I felt so sorry for Pepper. The babies would kick her in the face, as usually you would get all three trying to feed at the same time. She was so patient with them though. I'm so glad I'm not a rabbit!



Happy family! - and Midnight (black bunny) trying to sneak a feed from Pepper.

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