Breeding Cages

I don't have a specific set of breeding cages, used only for does about to kindle, or who are raising their litters.

I should, but I don't- especially for the mini lops.

This bites me in the butt sometimes. Take now for instance. I had a jersey wooly doe in a small cage. It's fine for her and her alone, but putting the nestbox in there was quite cramped. She kindled 2 healthy little babies and then I got to thinking (uh oh). "Is this cage going to be an acceptable size for her and two babies?". Of course not.

So, I had to do some cage shuffling to get the three of them into a nice large cage. No problems!

But wait. I've got the same situation- another doe, in a great sized cage for her. With nestbox, it ain't so great. So, I'm gonna have to shift her around as well.

It's really a big disruption on all our lives (people and bunnies). Larger breeding cages would be great for growing out a litter if none of the does were due to kindle.

I've had 12 mini lop babies born to a litter and the only thing than saved me (other than the stupidity of the babies) was my one huge 36 x 36 cage. It was a little cramped as it was, but since a few babies popcorned out of the nest and died of various things (broken necks, kitcicles, etc), we were able to work it out.

I think my solution will be to put my teenies (like my 2lb wooly buck and just weaned juniors) in to the smallest cages. Brood does will go in to the largest cages, with mini lops getting priority, and then show stock will fill in from there.

In certain cases, my teenies will get larger cages, for the simple fact I have 6 hanging holes. I don't know if you have ever seen a holland have a violent attack of the binkies, but imagine a mini lop doing it. Then imagine the cage is held up by four small chains. It's the stuff of nightmares.

Now I just have to find a solution to keep the rabbits from chewing on each other. It's always something, isn't it? :)

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry