03/27/2022
We had a very close call yesterday, but I am happy to say it was a successful intervention to save Venus's kits!
💓
During the morning check in neither Venus nor Mercury had pulled fur for their nests. I thought to myself, "new moms are waiting for the last minute I see..." 🤨 I left the bunny barn and checked back an hour later to see a whirlwind of fur in Venus's cage and no change in Mercury's nest. Venus had clearly been waiting for me to leave earlier. I came back a few hours later and my heart was pounding when I found five of her eight newborn kits born in the cold part of her nest. She had done everything right except land those five in the pulled fur. She cleaned them all up perfectly, but they were ice cold and not moving at all. Rabbits unfortunately cannot move their young on their own like many other animals and I knew I had to take action quickly to save the little ones. I rushed the five seemingly lifeless kits inside to warm them up and was able to revive all five! They are born hairless and absolutely depend on the warmth of the fur pulled by mama (and their siblings combined body heat) to keep them warm for the first few weeks. Once they started to warm up they started wiggling around and squeaking and I was able to bring them back out to join the three other kits that were perfectly healthy in the fur pile 💓
