I had been leaving the 2 nestboxes in the shed at night. I take them away from the doe and just set somewhere in the shed. The main concern is that a kit doesn't get dragged out on a teat by the dam. They are about 10 days, and they have enough fur and all to handle a cool night. I thought.
I found Foxy's broken litter very sluggish. The smallest one was dead. I expected this runt to die so not a great loss there. It just wasn't thriving. I don't think any of them are being fed enough to put on the fat they needed to get through a cool night. Also, the fur in her box keeps disappearing. I keep adding more from the emergency fur, but somehow she is pulling it out. I brought the box in the house to warm it on the heating pad before giving it to her.
Taleah's litter of himis was fine. They are very well-fed and fat, and there is a lot of fur in her box. In fact, maybe too well-fed. They are twice the size of Foxy's.
Foxy didn't hop right in to nurse. She was more concerned about her feed hopper being filled. So I made a snap decision to switch them around. I put all the brokens in Taleah's box, and 3 of Taleah's in Foxy's. They were the biggest ones and probably BU so I can spare them if Foxy doesn't care for them. The one fat himi I left in Taleah's can help keep the brokens warm and stimulated. That worked, they were much more active the next time I checked on them. And fed. Taleah is such a calm doe. Not much fazes her.
And yes, the boxes came in the house last night. It's 36 this morning. And I didn't turn on the heat so I'm cold. I'll manage, I don't want to run the heat unless absolutely necessary. It shouldn't be necessary anymore.
Here is the broken litter.
Left to right: Siamese Sable, Chinchilla, Chestnut, Chinchilla. The little chin between the sable and chestnut is the one that died.
The other reason it wasn't a great loss is that the chins are "sabled". Note the brownish color. Chins are to be black.
The day I took this photo (at 8 days), I was calling them sable martens. Then I remembered the dam had a sable chin sibling. It faded at 4 weeks. I went out and looked again, and also remembered that earlier chin had dark ears and eyelids like this. I haven't seen chins in the box since the earliest days of the rabbitry, and couldn't remember what the kits looked like. Now I know.
Doesn't make me happy. I'd almost rather they were sable martens. Sable chin is wrong for NDs and not all that attractive. As broken, it might pass on the table, but I doubt I'll keep it. I don't want to see any more of this. I probably will because I bred Foxy's broken black sis to the same buck. He's sire of both these does. Hopefully I'll get some selfs out of that instead of chin.
Might have to think about moving the chesntut buck on. I got out of shadeds and he keeps throwing them. I like what he's done for broken type, but maybe this is as far as I can go with him. As soon as I get offspring from the opal buck, I'll sell the chestnut. Maybe seek another from different lines less likely to carry shaded. He would be better off in an otter/chestnut herd where the shaded gene isn't as likely to express.
BTW, the chestnut's pedigree is almost pure chestnut. There's one otter in the 3rd generation. That can be a problem with a "pure" ped like this. The undesirable gene could be farther back and carried on down. There's nothing to suggest it's there until it pops up in a litter. And to tell the truth, I'm not sure his ped is correct. The breeder isn't good about getting peds out to buyers, and just recently started using Evans software. I got lucky in that I had ordered the buck ahead of time, and asked that he please have the ped in hand. The ear tattoo doesn't match the ped. I just let it go as not worth the hassle. I just changed the ped to match the ear.
In other news:
I went to the big Sunday flea market yesterday to see what I could find in poultry. Nada. Lots of pretty bantam roosters, but no hens. No guineas. I'll try again in a month or so. Should be more available as the breeders start getting more hatches. The "guinea guy" said he didn't have any hatchlings, but might have some older birds to spare. I'll be watching my hen closely so I can attempt to save hers when she lays.
tnt
