Thumping Giants Rabbitry

We've had a poor baby year. We lost a couple of early litters, and our first litter for this round we only have 2/10 kits alive (first time mom, and strung them out all over the hutch without cleaning them) . We have another doe kindling, but its a waiting game now. Hopefully fat ole Dawn isnt just hugely fat. We are supplementing our two fawn babies, and holding momma to nurse them, as well. We've been wanting babies so badly! We're praying for more healthy babies, and smart mommas!

Hey, we're still here!! Its been a long while since I posted last. I got a few girls out yesterday to check things over...they're looking pretty good! We're behind on breeding, but we should be seeing babies in about 3 weeks. Kerry (lt grey doe pictured) has been bred to Thumping Giants DJake (Denese's -cover photos- littermate brother), last week as we met up with Dink Archer for a bit of parking lot/social distancing rabbit buck swapping. Here are a couple of our girls: Acorn (fawn), Nada (steel), and Kerry (lt grey).

On November 9th we bred Denese to a gorgeous buck, owned by the Swenson's in WI...this morning I found one dead baby at about 12:45 am, and I was up watching her the rest of the night - praying she didn't have a baby stuck where I couldn't get to it. She was bleeding quite a lot so I was getting very nervous - I figured I would lose her if I didn't take care of it quickly. I got to the vet's office in Brookfield as it opened, and Harlan couldn't feel anything in the birth... canal, but palpated one small 'lump' still in there through her sides/stomach. He gave her some Oxytocin, to contract the uterus (would also help with the bleeding), and Cortisone (I think to help calm her), and we left her alone for a couple of hours. I knew that nothing in there would still be living, unfortunately, but I couldn't chance her retaining the kit and dying, or never be able to breed/carry kits again. Thankfully she passed a second kit around 10:30 - basically 10 hours after the first baby had been born. I have some Baytril to treat her with over the next 10 days, because of not knowing the extent of the tear that caused her to bleed so badly. This was the smallest litter we've ever had, with only two babies, and we lost both of them. However, we didn't lose Denese, and she's back home eating on some sweet potato! I was so worried things were going to take a different direction - I'm so glad it did not!

It's been So Long since I posted last. To sum it all up, this has been the year of Denese (the crotchedy ole sass does very well on the show table!). After she took BOB youth, in WI, she was BIS at our county fair, Best 6-Class at the NWMO fair, and BOB at the Sedalia quad show Flemish Specialty. This past weekend, despite her horrific coat, she took BOB under Bruce Ormsby at the KIAM Egyptian rabbit show in West Frankfort, Il. I believe her show days are drawing to an en...d, as it's time to get some babies out of the sass. We're also working on getting more kits out of Denese's daddy, Dirk. He's continued to show well, even at almost 3 years old he took BOSV this past weekend. He's been bred to a DBL steel black doe of Phil Humfleet's breeding (steel babies ), and Moana is next for some more lt grey beauties. Keep your fingers crossed! We had such a poor spring for babies this year, I'm looking forward to seeing nestboxes full again! See more