More on bunny breeding

It turned out that the bunny I thought might be pregnant was not. So I put her in with the male, yet AGAIN. This time things went a bit differently though. She seemed very excited and made little kind of oinking sounds, a bit like a guinea pig. I wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. But bunny boy seemed to think it was a good sign and went at it with enthusiasm. You might remember that the man I bought Mrs Robinson off advised me that if the male falls off as he finishes if he is doing it right. Bunny boy has never shown any signs of falling off before, but this time he suddenly keeled over sideways with a little groan as if he was dead. But he was ok and got up looking quite happy.

I took the female out and put her back a bit later and the same thing happened again.

Perhaps he has got the hang of it, or perhaps she feels spring is coming or something and is morei n the mood.

I put the other female in the following day, but she didn't seem keen and he didn't fall off. I tried again the next day and he did. So I am very much hoping that they have all got the hang of it and will be pregnant. Only time will tell. Reading about it suggests that mating rabbits often isn't as easy as general belief has it to be. Then you have to manage to keep the babies alive - not always easy eithr apparently. Hopefully one day we will have so much rabbit to eat, that we will look back on our struggles now and laugh!

Mrs Robinson has started trying to build a nest. Female rabbits collect straw/hay in their mouths in quite a distinctive way when they are nest building. They do build nests sometimes when not actually preganant, but this is a hopeful sign. She was also trying to burrow in the corner of the cage.

She is due in 2 weeks, so is starting the building rather early - apparently it is usually a few days before. Anyway this has made me think we had better start doing something about a nest box for her. If it were summer we might not bother with one, but the poor little bald babies are going to have a tough time of it as it is winter so we need to give them the best chance we can.