Good news, Bad News, Exciting News.... lots of NEWS.

There is a lot to post about... I kinda got busy the last few days!  I have some good news, bad news, exciting news, and just... um, news.
Here goes.... bad news first, I guess.
Haylie kindled this morning. She has been busy making a nest lately.

I've really been looking forward to this litter as my first litter out of Mickey... unfortunately when I went out this morning, I found one dead peanut and one VERY large kit that looked to also be dead, it was really cold.  I held it in warm water (something a friend of mine told me to revive kits) and to my great surprise it actually started moving around, I totally thought it was dead.  But I guess it was just too far gone... even though I kept it warm, it only lasted about a half hour.  :(  It was so sad.... but the kit was HUGE.  He was the size, or BIGGER, of my babies who are 7 days old... a mini giant, seriously.  I am guessing Haylie had a pretty tough labor with him, as he was bruised and the other things showed signs she had a rough time.  :(  Poor girl, I am just so glad I didn't lose her.  I ended up finding yet another dead baby in the box after that, possibly a peanut too, I couldn't really tell.  So this was a huge bummer for me.... :(  I'm thinking I will wait a bit to breed Haylie again, and give her some TLC for a while.  She is a great mom, she did her best.

Chocolate Chip.... the little rascal wasn't bred!

"Haha, fooled you."

Most likely the reason she started making a nest (although she didn't end up pulling fur) was because Bella was having babies next door.  Rabbits will have actually start pretending if another rabbit is doing the real thing... crazy, I know!  So anyways, she is now, or should I say, better be bred by Mickey.  I bred her on Saturday morning, so we will see what happens.  She is now 7 months old and has yet to have her first litter, so.... fingers crossed.

Dolly is due tomorrow at the earliest, which is 28 days.  She usually kindles 30-32.  I'm really hoping that 1) she's bred, and 2) she has a healthy, live litter.  Out of my 4 does that were "bred", one didn't take, one's babies died, one had a healthy litter, and one left to go, we'll see what happens.  I'm going to give her my nest box with the heater in the bottom.

Now, how about some good news!?!??  Here is my super exciting news!!!  My wonderful, I mean, WONDERFUL Dad surprised me with a brand-new, wonderful, I mean, WONDERFUL cage stand!  Complete with TWO stacks, pans, the whole works!  It's 10 feet long and absolutely PERFECT!  It is a lot like my old one, only everything is improved!  I'm SO excited about this!  I feel quite professional now with two stacks... lol.  ;)

I still need to make two more cages to go on the bottom end there.

The bottom ... a row of babies.

Me with my beautiful stand.  :)

The pans... they work awesome! 

Thank you SOOOOOO much, Daddy!  It is awesome! 


And now I need to catch up on my swiftly-developing babies!  Here we are: Day 5, 6, and 7.

 Day Five:

Day 5: in my hand.

Day 5 still... fat belly after nursing.  :)

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Day 6

Day 7:

I discovered two of the kits have little black spots behind their ears.  This is a DQ for a hotot, but they will be great pets or can still be used in a breeding program.

Here's one of the babies cuddled up in my hand.... they are SO cute.

And the whole litter in their nest:

Now I'll end this post with some pictures of Haylie's gorgeous little kits, now going on 8 weeks old.

This one is a buck:

Cute little buck:

Absolutely gorgeous little doe.  WOW.

Another beautiful doe... only this one does NOT pose.  I never have tried to take photos of a more difficult rabbit, EVER!  But she's awful cute.  :)

I am making some decisions on who is staying, who is going, and some other things right now... hopefully I will get everything worked out soon and know WHAT I'm going to do... decisions, decisions!  So hard.  :(  But I will try to get everything figured out and post who is going to be for sale... but I know for sure one or two will be soon!

Thanks for enduring this long post.  :)