The Miracle of Birth-Rabbit Edition

I know some (probably most) of you readers know nothing about rabbits. I am going to give you a crash course in Rabbit 101. 

• A female rabbit is a Doe
• A male rabbit is a Buck
• Baby rabbits are called 'kits'
• Rabbit babies are born bald in a nestbox; if they are not covered, they will die because they cannot retain body heat
• Does only nurse their young twice a day
• The gestation (pregnancy) of a rabbit is 28 to 31 days
• When a rabbit wins at a show under certain criteria, the winning is referred to as a 'leg,' if you have 3 legs, you can register your animal as a grand champion

Alright, now that you know the basics you can understand the jargon in this post. When does build their nest boxes, they typically begin to assemble it anywhere from three days to a few hours from when they go into labor (which is called kindling). During this time period, the doe will rip out her own fur. I am so glad that when I go into labor, I will not have to rip my hair out.... Anyways, look at this nest box below, isn't that AMAZING? Also, all of these photos are SOOC. You are looking at pure, unedited goodness.

The kits you see below are now 4 days old. As you can see, they are starting to get some peach fuzz hair.

They feel like velvet and are starting to not look like little rat babies. 

This particular breed is called a dwarf hotot; they are pure white with black eyeliner tracing their entire eye. 

Aren't they adorable??

They do not really move, but I managed to catch this guy mid-flail. 

I don't think he liked my flash...

Sorry little buddy!

This is the momma.

She was a first time mom so she has had nothing but bad experiences.

You typically lose the first litter because the mom doesn't know what she is doing.

She had her babies on the wire (which is bad because they will lose their body heat and die); luckily we got to them all in time. Then she didn't know how to feed them so we had to hold her down and nurse the babies individually. However, she has finally figured out what to do, which is a huge relief because we have a bunny waiting list a mile long!

 There is something just incredibly precious about little babies;

they are my coping mechanism  for stress because they just have such a sweetness. 

 The litter in this box is a different breed. 

These are jersey woolies and they will get INCREDIBLY fluffy.

My goal is to learn to spin their wool into yarn so I can crochet with natural fibers.

The two gray ones will be such a beautiful color; I am so excited to see how they turn out.

Unlike the dwarf hotot, the woolies have a broad color spectrum. 

 Look how tiny!!

Thanks for letting me share my babies with you! In about two weeks, you will be stalking my blog daily for pictures of how cute these guys will be. 

hoppily,