The journey of the two baby English Angora rabbits continues as they start to develop further. This is the end of week 3 so 21 days old now and are quite the characters. As they are being hand reared they are very used to being handled and very friendly and social at such a young age in comparison to naturally raised young. Fortunately there were two to hand rear at the same time which has, I believe, helped their development in contrast to when I have only had one to hand rear.
Day trip out
This was their second day trip out, as I needed to take them with me to ensure they continued to get fed on a regular basis. I took their whole box with them so it was familiar to them and they slept most of the journey. They has a massive feed before we went as well as once we got to the destination about 2 hours away and showed no ill effects of the travel. During their day trip out they had around 4 feeds and then sleep in between.
Feeding regime
This has slowed down now to around once every 3 – 4 hours but sometimes they want a lot whilst other times less. The smaller of the two is now feeding well and around 140g in weight after starting out 3 weeks prior at 30g but still a messy drinker getting milk all under the chin but seems to have got the hang of sucking from the smaller syringe. The larger one is now 200g in weight and feeds well still but lets you know when they have had enough and has moved onto a larger syringe so they can take more in each feed. I have put some ready grass, hay and grass in with them as well as a rusk biscuit for them to now start chewing or gnawing on as they start to move onto wanting more solid forms of food.
Eating greens
Sleeping
The two babies still sleep for most of the time and tend to cuddle or huddle together at this age for warmth and comfort. They sleep in a range of positions often on top of one another and the larger one often sleeps on their back with feet in the air.
Development of the two baby Angora rabbits
Both babies are developing well and putting on weight but at different paces. The smaller one has a large body but a small head and is still a bit wobbly on their legs. Both have they eyes wide open when they are awake now and are starting to want to explore and stand up on their hind legs on the side of the box. They both have started to chew and testing out the other foods now in their box. Their colours are developing but they still have a short coat and all their features look too big for their size so lots more growing to do. They are self washing / grooming which is good and they also groom each other but still developing balance and often fall over trying to use their feet to groom their ears but this will improve in time.
Accommodation upgrade
As the babies grow I have now moved them into a plastic box with a removable lid which I have replaced with a piece of lace so they have a bit more room to move about now they have opened their eyes and grown in size. I change the bedding of newspaper, towels and paper towels regularly and keep it clean. They are still indoors in the living room where it is warm. They have a bowl of grass, hay and and biscuits in their box and will soon need an upgrade from this I am sure.
Will continue to chart their journey so keep a look out for week 4 coming soon.