These photos shows the kits first week of existence since the day they were born. It was March 6 when they were born. We had bunnies before but the female never got pregnant so we didn't have the experience of raising baby bunnies. We only had these lion heads for a month and here the female already gave birth to four kits. One died right away, I think the Dad killed it. We didn't know that the female was pregnant so we never separated them.
Anyway,
I noticed that their first instinct when they feel their Mom's hair is to lay on their back and start digging for the Moms nipples. It must be painful for the Mom because the kits has their teeth already when they were born and you can hear the sound when they nursed.
2-day old kits. At two days old, they were starting to get mobile but still can't see since their eyes were still closed. The white one is definitely the smallest. The kids called him Bino (albino). Both parents are gray so we were surprised to see a white one.
3-day old. At 3 days old, we noticed that the Mom is not really nursing the white one so we bought a goat milk and tried to feed him.
I tried to let the Mom lay on her back so the white one could at least nurse a little bit but she kicked and the little one flew, I felt horrible.
From then on, we just tried to feed the white one with the milk that we bought. He was eating but not much.
The white one might be the runt but he was definitely the cutest.
You can tell the difference of how small the white one was compared to the black ones.
Four-Day Old . We really tried hard to keep the white one alive by feeding him with the goat milk but ever since the Mom kicked him, he didn't show progress of growth.
Although he was still trying to hold on to his dear life, we can tell that he was struggling to keep up with the growing black ones.
Five day old - Their eyes were still shut but they were becoming mobile. They can pretty much run around inside the cardboard box where we housed them together with their Mom.
Six Day Old - The kits still look like kittens or puppies but they are getting longer and more mobile.
We kept the Mom fed with fresh veggies because that's what I read from an online source that in order for her to produce milk, she has to have fresh food and need to be hydrated.
One Week Old - at this time, the white one died which really broke our hearts because we really wanted him to survive as he was the different and unique one among them. But I guess the Mom focused more on taking care of the healthy ones rather than the runt but who knows. All I noticed was that, she never really cared for the runt.
Anyway, here are the cutest poses that they do and I couldn't resist not to take pictures of them lol.
One thing that we all did when they were little was let them sleep in our palms, they really loved it. I think it was because it kept them warm.
They also love it when you stroke your fingers along their backs.
We've never really raised rabbits so this was all new to us. Of all the pets, this was different because the Mom does not really lay down to nurse the babies. The kits just lay on their backs and crawl; underneath their Mom to eat.
Pippin is a really good Mom though, she really take care of these two. She kept an eye on them especially when she hears the dogs. We kept them in my office when they were little so I could keep an eye on them and they would stay warm as it i was cold down the basement where they stay during winter.
At two weeks old, their eyes were starting to open up. At first they were red, it looks painful but I guess it was normal.
Just like human babies, kits sleep a lot. That's what they ever did, sleep and eat, run around a little but and then sleep again.
At this age, their hair are growing longer and you can see the gray ones growing too.
At this point, the kids have decided to name them Lilo and Stitch. They gave them a different name when the white one was still alive but decided to change it.
They are becoming more and more like bunnies than puppies (look wise).
We were very delighted when one of them have an open eye already, it was the cutest thing to witness.
These two really love huddling on each other when they sleep.
I guess being together gives them warmth.
Pippin, the Mom did not pull her hair so much but there were few spots that she did when she first gave birth. I think it's an instinct to them to pull their hair out and use it to keep the babies warm. But since we keep them warm, she stop pulling her hair.
I love watching them when they sleep. One love to lay on his back with his legs up, lol.
Sometimes, Lilo would sleep underneath Stitch, I thought it's so cute. Here are cuteness overload.
At three weeks old, they can jump and chase their Mom every time they want to nurse. We noticed that at this time, Pippin is not nursing them as much. I think the babies teeth hurts when they try to nurse on her.
We started introducing the kits to fresh food like lettuce. They even tried to bite on carrots.
At this age, they were becoming adventurous. They were jumping off the box.
My husband suggested that we should cut a hole on the box so they don't have to jump. They can go to the next box with out falling. We were worried that one of them will hit their head on the wood floor if they fall.
They are now six weeks and I made them a bigger pin down the basement. I still haven't let the Dad see them because I am afraid that he would still try to hurt them. My husband is planning to build them a house in the backyard just like what we did with Wubzy and Matilda at our old house.
