ugh, today...well...ugh
got up this morning, got brows for the goats and grabbed their buckets as i was out of food, let the ducks and geese out then off to town for feed for the goats and rabbits and milk for me.
got hom, fed and watered the goats (i hate hauling that 5 gal bucket back and forth :/) then whent ot get the rabbits done, and there, in one hutch, a dead bunny!
Im REALY frustrated right now.
and even worse, its not pip...at least pip imkinda expecting to not make it...but no...its the little female tort lop clover...she wasnt fully dead, i dont know what happens, she was on her side, twitching, when i picked her up her head was arkwardly "locked" to the side and slightly back, i tried to staighten her neck gently but it wasnt going anywhere so im hoping broken neck and those twitches were her last electrical surges (they can twitch for a while) but given she was still violnelty twitching and i couldnt feel a seperation in the neck i brooksticked her to finnish the job, couldnt leave her thrashing like that.
i dont know what happend, she was fine when i left at 8:30 as i glance over every morning to se if Pip is still alive) and she was hopping about. i got back got the goats fed and then got to the bunnies so it was about 10am by that point and she was twitching and on her way out (eyes rolled back)
she has been fine! no signs of illness, normal poop,s eating drinking hopping around, getting scritches, bright eyed and floppy eared...and then...gone.
Pip however is still holding on...he doesnt look any more "alive' now than he has, still sits quietly in his corner not doing much...but there was few SMALL poops in his litterbox this morning and i glanced ovr and saw him nibbling on pellet (though still no interest in hay or much green fresh stuff, but hey, any food is good food right now.
All in all i think ill only be dealing with MY rabbits and breeders buns from now on...thats 2 of the 5 bunnies i bought at the market dead for little to no apparent reason and im realy upset and frustrated...
Im going to keep my eye for breeders selling young ADULT hollands and try and pick up a junior holland doe, but thats it, im giving the hollands 1 last go of it.
im NOT buying any more meat bunnies, ill see how haystack does when i breed her in the fall and keep back a daughter or 2 then...im not buying any more flea market bunnies. *grumbles*
its so frustratgin to see them gone when you KNOW you did nothing wrong.
i did manage to get Blackberry bred finally, been trying for the past 2 days and she and rowan were both simply REFUSING to present for him. i know rabbits are receptive about 12 out of every 14 days so i was hoping id just started out on one of the days they were both not interested...
but part of me was there thinking...my god what now!?
put her in with him this morning and immediate sucess...
im currently debating whether or not i want to breed rowan back to bigwig tomorrow or try her in with thistle.
with thistle i would get "intermediate" or small size standards, but it would give me a chance to see if shes carrying dilute but i couldnt sell the buns as pure bred standards (theyd be standard x mini) but it might give me some cool colors depending on what shes hiding under the black, if shes not carrying for dilute i should get black castor and black otter...if she is carrying for dilute though i could get opals, blues and possibly chocolates even...
hmm, desicions...
Bluebells litter was colorfull and sold fast
rowans litter is mostly black otters and despite being a popular color normally theres not been neer as many nibbles on the line...
and i KNOW im going to get mostly broken black otters out of blackberry. so im kinda thinking it might be worth chancing it with thistle and seeing what she comes out with.
Ive got bluebell due next monday and holly and hazel both due that following weekend.
anywho.
rabbit hutches/litterboxes done, everyone fed and settled, goats are happy because theyve been fed lol...and now its time to start figuring out the rest of the day. needless to say it didnt exactly start out great.