Minutes before kindling

I had some excellent luck today and was able to witness the birth of Bluefin’s very first litter. I had checked on her a couple of times earlier this morning and afternoon, since that’s when my does usually kindle. No fur, nothing. Was she going to be a day late? Not kindle at all maybe?

Here she is in the middle of giving birth

As I went into the barn at about 7pm to do my chores before it got dark, I noticed she had scattered some random fur around and had some bedding in her mouth. She was looking frantic. I straightened up her nest a bit for her and about five minutes later, in she went and began whining and having contractions. I was very pleased that since this was her first time kindling, I could be there to take care of any problems that might arise.

Turns out she didn’t need my help at all and about ten minutes of unhappy twitching and squeaking later, she had delivered seven healthy and clean kits. Fantastic!

I’m always amazed at how chill my rabbits are even with two big dogs and a bunch of cats perpetually wandering around their cages. We were all there watching and she didn’t care at all, just got down to business. When I gave her a big dandelion plant as a treat after she was done she pounced on it like a lion.

So here are some rare shots of Standard Rex kits only minutes after being born. It looks like we have three black otter, three blue/blue otter and one self white! I’m not sure if the white kit will turn out to be albino or what, but I am super excited to have a new color turn up in a litter. Hopefully Bluefin takes good care of them… I know I’ll be monitoring their progress closely.

Thanks for reading!