Kit behavior, normal?

[bunnyjames]

Hi guys! first of all I want to say Merry Christmas! I know im kinda late with this but we went on vacation and just got back last night So i have a question, last night I noticed that two of the kits which are 1month and 2weeks were mounting the other kits!! I was wondering of this might be a sign of the begining of sexual maturity? Should I start separating the males and females? Im not sure what the sex of the kits and I would take them to the vet to get them sexed but my vet charges even for this simple examination and i just finished paying Zoe’s very, very, VERY expensive vet bill. I’ve looked on-line to see how this is done but to tell you the honest truth i cant tell the difference Zoe’s first litter NEVER displayed this behavior and neither did the foster kits. Is it normal for them to be mounting at this age? Its mostly 2 of the kits in particular and they seem to look for one kit in particular to do this too. Can that kit possibly be a female? Should I start doing a separate enclosure for the females?? The vet wont speuter them until they are 4 months.

[LoveChaCha]

oH my goodness! O_O

I would seperate ’em.. You never know. I think in terms of bunnies, mounting can begin very early.

I’m not sure when the male bunnies testicles drop ._. To be safe, I would seperate the bunnies.

[Sarita]

Males testicles usually descend around 3 1/2 to 4 months. So I’m guessing yours are only about 6 weeks old….and they are not sexually mature yet. You don’t even usually separate them from mom until 8 weeks old so I think you are safe for now to continue keeping them together.

[bunnyjames]

I just noticed something else, i put puppy pads in their enclosure and I just noticed their pee is very orange!!! like when you feed carrots to your bun or buns are very hormonal….. Is this normal for baby buns???

[bunnyjames]

oh they only eat pellets and hay and KRM. so it cant be because of something they ate.

[Sarita]

Yes, that color is normal for any rabbit. Do you still need to feed them the KRM though? If they are eating on their own, they probably don’t need this.

[bunnyjames]

No vet told me that I could stop already so im trying to wean them, but one of them which is the runt is underweight, which vet said to keep giving him/her KRM so i feel bad when they scratch at my legs trying to get some milk, too. Is it bad?? I just assumed it couldnt harm them since they really are suppose to be weaned until 8 weeks. They only get it once a day.

[Sarita]

I don’t think it will harm them but I don’t think it’s totally necessary but if the runt needs it and the vet says to keep giving it, you need to follow the vet’s advice on this :~)

[jerseygirl]

Weaning is a term I tend to think has a dual meaning: 1) Coming off mlk 2) separating from mother. I tend to thing of wean as the 2nd one. Rabbit kits will lessen/stop feeds around 5-6 weeks.

Moz, is there any chance the people from the shelter you worked with for the foster kits will help you sex these ones? Provided they have someone super experienced. I would also say this is not hormonal behaviour but it’s only a matter of time (not much time!). Sometimes it’s play, dominance, stress, excitement.

[bunnyjames]

I think your right jerseygirl that it might be due to excitement, it mostly happens when I let them out to play outside in the grass. They start zooming across the yard and they binky and thats when the mounting begins. The two that do it the most will even try to mount Chomper, Chomper of course does not like this and will run away or try and mount them. But it will also happen when i put them back in their cage, i dont know if its because they are settling down from all the excitement but basically they look like a train one behind the other in a line. lol! This is really weird for me since none of the other litters EVER displayed this behavior and I kept both litters until they wer a little more than 8 weeks. Oh and I did ask but they actually hire a vet assistant to do the examination and they only show up once a month, when they have at least more than 5 buns that have come in. I was wondering if i took pics of the area if anybody here would be able to tell, it would have to be with a cell phone thoug cuz i have no camera right now.

[bunnyjames]

here’s two pics from two different kits, this is the best i can do with the phone camera, i know its poor quality im not even sure u can tell the difference. I will go check if the SPCA will do it for free or maybe an animal shelter.

 

[jerseygirl]

You could, people have done that before – but it isn’t really going to give you accurate answers. Sexing them can be difficult when young. Even techs & vets have got it wrong before. I think it was Kralspace who’s Doe Pringles “changed sex” multiple times and even the vet was mistaken.

[jerseygirl]

Lol
OK, the pics are there. I just posted same time, submited my post and suddenly was confronted with baby bunny bits. LOL!

[bunnyjames]

LMAO!!!! sorry about that!!! i should ut some kind of warning or something. lol

[jerseygirl]

My 1st impression is left is male, right is female. HOWEVER, using this guide I’ve linked I think perhaps both are male.

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s…hp?t=46514  
 

So there you go, I think I’ve adequately demonstrated how sexing by pics can be fraught with error.

[FluffyBunny]

The 1st photo definitely looks like a male to me. I’m not sure about the 2nd photo, but it looks much more like a female. I’m no expert on bunny sexing, though, so I’m probably all wrong.

[bunnyjames]

I got the bunnies sexed!!!, vet charged me $30 for all 6!!!! By the way the one in the right is a male and the one in the left is female. Took them today since there is a possibility 2 of them might be leaving next week.

[jerseygirl]

I’m gonna have to quote myself here-

So there you go, I think I’ve adequately demonstrated how sexing by pics can be fraught with error.

So what are the rest?

[bunnyjames]

LOL!!!! 3girls and 3boys. Jerseygirl on the right one you can see the signs of a boy on the left side of the penis you can actually see a white thin tissue, well that’s where one of the testes are, they are small and look like kidney beans, lol! the vet showed it to me.

[jerseygirl]

*squints* I think i see….
I can actually see how the left one is female now that I know it is. And that thing with the distance from anus to genital proves true at least in these pictures. At least from what i can SEE. Perspective can certainly play are part in what we would be seeing and what you would.

And Zoe is still doing well?
 

[bunnyjames]

Yup she’s great, ive been meaning to post some pics of her but I dont have a camera. But maybe by next week ill get my wedding pics, I took advantage that a professional studio photographer was at my house and got him to take pictures of Zoe, Chomper and the buns. Really cute by the way since the photographer thought considering the occassion Chomper would look super nice in a bow tie, lol!!! He did though!! He put Zoe a lil red ribbon around her neck and filled a wicker basket with a bunch of daisies and a couple red bulb roses and put the babes in there and took pics of them. Luna had her pic taken with all the bunnies which looked really adorable, she was sitting in the grass with all these bunnies surrounding her, Zoe felt she would look better sitting on Luna’s lap, lol!!! Ill try and post the pics. though.

[LoveChaCha]

OH NO BUNNY PICTURES!!!!!

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