Angel

   Angel was a female rabbit from the first litter L.E. and Oreo ever had.  She was born April 10, 2013.  She had her first litter with Rhett, November , 2013 and had 5 lovely babies.  She was a great mother.  However, Angel did not have a sweet disposition.  When she was by herself or pregnant, she was the complete opposite of her name.  She was very nasty and did not like to be touched or held by anyone.  Ironically, she was always extremely sweet when she had a litter.  May 29, 2014 she had her second litter of 8. 

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of her, but she was an albino rabbit, with the exception of a grey nose and ears.  Early last week, I went out to check on her and her litter to see she wasn't really eating.

I thought maybe she was hot or just tired from taking care of her litter.  I misted her with some cool water, pet her, and went on to tend the other rabbits.  The next day I came outside and she was lying on her side, stiff. 

I was shocked to see her gone and very sad, but my main thought was on her litter.  They had just turned 3 weeks old, so they were not weaned.  I brought them inside and researched how much milk baby bunnies are supposed to drink at 3 weeks old. 

I mixed up some formula and have been feeding her babies every morning and evening since she's been gone.   Now that they are older, they always have pellets available for them to begin eating as well as getting a small snack of the milk formula around lunch time each day. 

The babies will be 4 weeks old June 26, 2014. (tomorrow)  Since their mother is gone, they've been inside the house with us.  We have a pop-up baby crib that they are in, along with towels, water and food.  One got diarrhea last Friday and we lost him Sunday morning.  The rest, however, are doing very well and I will be keeping updates on them!

I wondered why Angel had been sick and what could have caused it.  I believe my mother figured out the question.   Recently I had bought 3 hutches off of craigslist.  Every rabbit that I've put in there seems to have died.  This weekend we're going to build new hutches and burn those old ones to prevent any more rabbits from getting sick. 

I had 2 other females get sick.  They were acting the same way, lose of appetite, lethargic, etc.  I wanted to keep them from dying as they are wonderful creatures and also both have young litters as well.  I looked up many different things, and found that pure pumpkin was good for them.  Along with comfrey leaves, plantain, and dandelions.  I've been giving that to them and it seems to have done the trick!