The Story of Keri and Lily – New Zealand White Rabbits

New Zealand White Rabbits – The Story of Keri and Lily

Last Spring I was contact by a lady via Facebook who had bought two rabbits at an auction and thought one of them might be pregnant.  I explained that when does reach maturity (around 6 months old) if they haven’t mated they may still think they are pregnant and make a nest – they pick up hay in their mouths and carry it to their chosen site – and sometimes they will even go as far as pulling out their fur to line the nest.

I explained that there was nothing she needed to do except ensure the doe was making her nest in a safe place – sheltered from the weather.   Both does had the run of her fairly small garden with a choice of several boxes to shelter in.

Does are generally very capable mothers and will just get on with it, have all their babies at one time, in one place and feed them until they are old enough to feed themselves.

So back to the story of Keri and Lily:  Shortly afterwards, the lady came back to me and asked if I knew anyone who wanted to buy her two rabbits.  I had lost both my does – I had been keeping them in runs outside in the summer – during the day – and something took both of them at different times – despite the fact that I was outside with them most of the time they were out.  I was devastated – and couldn’t find any NZWhites to replace them – so straight away I said I would have them.  She lived Devon way but we were visiting my sister who lives in Cornwall – so we arranged to collect them on the way back.

It was a boiling hot day – and we anticipated arriving around lunchtime – so I texted to ask if she had managed to catch both the does – she hadn’t!  So when we arrived both does were happily running around the garden – and were both quite grubby.   I ended up chasing them around the garden until I figured out a way to trap them.  Eventually we got them both into cat baskets and headed for home.

Both does settled in well but one of them had ear mites – so I had to treat both of them.  I mated Keri and she gave birth to 12 babies – although one of them died.  Dandelion (my buck) is 4 years old so he’s doing really well siring such a big litter.  It wasn’t until the babies were around three weeks old that I noticed some of them were getting black noses – and soon they had black ears, tails and toes – obviously Keri had some Californian blood in her.  I then noticed that she did have slightly grey ears – but of course I hadn’t noticed that when she was running around the garden all dusty!

By this time, I had mated Lily and she had a litter of 3 kits.  And I had mated Keri again because pure NZWhites are always in high demand – I’ve never had a problem selling them.  But I did now have a problem with selling rabbits that were not pure breeds – which is why I have so many rabbits available.  For breeding for meat these rabbits should be excellent, despite not being pure – they have enough NZW blood in them – and both breeds are large rabbits – and they are cheaper at £15 each than buying a pure breed.

Happily I have found new homes for both Keri and Lily but still have their babies to sell.

I have also found a pure NZWhite doe – Lunar – and she has just had a litter – so I will also have some pure NZWhites available around the middle of March.

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