Babies! (First Time Parents)

We had grandiose plans to have the blog all updated before we got to this post, but will have to step out of order to share the big news! Agnes delivered her babies on Christmas Eve. Ruphenfeffer is the left out daddy...but he's adjusting :) This is our first experience with bunnies and babies, and YouTube just didn't prepare us for how it went. But all is well so far!

At about 6:15pm, Sunday night, MJ was out in the "Bunny Barn" with Agnes, letting her have her play time. Agnes sat down, pumped her tail and out popped a baby. MJ scooped up the baby and Agnes and put them in the nesting box. She came and told the rest of the family and then sat down to wait for the rest of the litter. We waited....and waited...and waited. Nothing. There had to be more! Meanwhile, number 1 was getting chilled with no other baby bunny bodies to snuggle up with. We brought it in and took some measures to warm him up, and put him in a shoe box with fur and hay in it.

Angora Kit (Number 1)

We waited longer. We had a security camera set up in front of the cage, attached to the tv and VCR and were recording. Waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting...someone's eye was always watching. We brought Agnes in and put Number 1 on her tummy to see if she could nurse him a bit. Seemed to satisfy him a little. While we had her out, we could feel more babies kicking. There were more!

At about 1am, most of the family went to bed. We decided to take shifts waiting and watching. MJ was on the first shift and I relieved her at 3. Agnes was especially agitated. She started pulling hair like crazy!

Agnes Pulling Fur

At about 4:15am, ten hours after baby number 1, Agnes did a tail pump and soon I saw a wiggly little baby. She delivered him on the wire. I rushed out to put him in the nest box, then called MJ to wake her up.

Agnes Delivering Second Baby

Soon after Agnes joined the baby in the nest box. Then her back started rippling and she whimpered a bit...all the books and videos talked about the bunny laying on her side...that never happened. We hadn't seen the back rippling thing before either. It was heart wrenching to watch. We went inside to watch on the camera and Google it. We were concerned for the baby, too. Not sure if she was squishing him or what was going on for sure.

  Agnes' Contractions (watch her back!)

After about 45 minutes the rippling stopped. MJ went out to check on the baby and Agnes willing left the nest box. She revealed a total of 6 more babies...including the baby born 10 hours earlier it's a litter of 7. So far everyone is doing well!

MJ Discovering the Litter

 

The Babies! 6 Dark and 1 White