Oh Those Rascally Rabbits!


Mother Rabbit looks on as her kits eat
Last night it got so cold that we filled large jugs full of hot water to put into the bunny pens to keep them warm. Lately it is with trepidation that I open the rabbit hutches first thing on these very cold mornings almost turning away afraid I will find a frozen, dead bunny and will have failed that animal so greatly. So far, no bunny-sicles. I opened the hutch this morning to find lots of active baby bunnies hopping around, waiting for their food. I also found their water was frozen solid. I poured hot water in and on it and dumped out the frozen puck, refilling the dish with warm water dosed with a few drops of apple cider vinegar for their health. Once they were all set with food, water and hay, I moved on to the next hutch and the next.



It is difficult to express the joy I get from watching the rabbits. I was never particularly drawn to rabbits in the past. My sister once had a pet rabbit and I don't think I ever even pet it. Chalk it up to teen age angst and eye rolling everything in my path. It was a good thing I hadn't gotten attached to that rabbit as a hawk soon carried it away, screaming, as my tender little sister sat helplessly watching.

These rabbits are better protected perhaps because of the experience with my sister. My rabbits live in large wooden hutches with their own yard which is all contained in  a mobile rabbit tractor (mrt?). They see new ground everyday and when the ground isn't frozen they eat new patches of weeds and grasses everyday. Right now it is a challenge for both them and the chickens to find anything worth eating from the the ground so we supplement their diet with table scraps, pellets and hay. When the ground is soft, I have to move them twice a day to thwart their digging efforts to escape.




There is the baby rabbit that jumps straight up in the air from a standing position, the one that takes flying leaps, the one that snuggles it's mother, the one with the black nose and the one that always has poop on his back. I love them all, even poo-back,  and get great joy from watching the bunnies socialize and grow and play. For now, they all get along and yet soon I will have to separate the mother from her children, as the mother with be a threat to them and as much as she has given them life, she can take it away, like us I guess who plan to eat them in the end.

Comments

  1. Sarah B14 December 2013 at 06:00

    update: After taking rabbits indoors to the basement, one keeps peeing in her water dish in protest, one has escaped and I don't trust those baby bunnies at all! At least they are warm!

    ReplyDelete

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