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RABBIT STUFF
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CASSIE'S DIARY - her first litter
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SATURDAY
11th JULY 1998
Chris
woke me at 6.50am! ….our pet rabbit, Cassie has had some babies, both
alive and well. After looking the hutch there is a lot of fur in a nest
under the shelf and it is moving! I
think there is another one in the nest, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Thumper
was rattling to come out at 8.17am!! He kept trying to get near Cassie so
I put him in the kitchen and closed the
door, when he went back he had some food and settled down to rest.
Cassie has moved the babies into the nest and keeps licking and sitting on
them.
 12..05pm…Fed
Cassie, let her out for exercise.
I peeped in the nest and there are two more babies alive and well, warm
and wriggling so I decided to put the other two in the nest, the one at
the front of the hutch felt cold when I put it in the nest. When Cassie
went back in, she sniffed round the nest, had some food and lay under the
shelf; I’m surprised as there is not much room!
Looked in the pantry again just before
meeting Chris from work, Cassie was still under the shelf but it looked
like a baby Thumper kept crawling and wriggling in and out of the nest and
trying to find his way back in again. Four lots of mischief if they
survive.
SUNDAY
12th JULY 1998…day 1
Went downstairs as soon as I woke up, looked in
the hutch and PANIC!! All I could see was a large amount of hay stuffed in the
corner under the shelf, no sign of any fur or babies but there are scuffling
noises coming from the hay. Chris says that’s where the babies are inside the
nest.
 MONDAY
13th JULY 1998…day 2
There are scufflings coming from the hay in
the corner so we think they are still alive. Tried to inspect the nest but
its too well made to see anything so we’ll have to wait two weeks to see
what pops out, hopefully four cheeky little faces!
TUESDAY
14th JULY 1998…day 3
Robert
noticed that the nest is nearer the front of the hutch than yesterday
and it is moving!
Fed Cassie ( nearly two bowls of food a day now.) I had a quick
peep and Robert is right THE NEST IS MOVING! There are four babies all
alive so I covered them up again before Cassie noticed I was near the
nest. I made the right decision the other day when I put the other two
babies in the nest back in again, they have all survived!
WEDNESDAY
15th
JULY
1998…day 4
I
checked the nest (still at the front) ,all four babies are still alive,
only one of them
is still pink which I assume will look like Cassie (white) all the
others are dark so I assume they will look like Thumper.
THURSDAY
16th JULY 1998…day 5
The
babies are still in the nest but there is a gap at the top of the nest and
when I looked they were all laid close together. Another week and they
will have opened their eyes.
FRIDAY
17th JULY 1998…day 6
Cassie
wanted to come out of the hutch as soon as I fed her and cleaned her hutch
out. Then I looked in the
nest, the babies are growing really fast now, the little pink one has just
a touch of white fur growing through but I don’t really know what the
other three will be but whatever it is at three weeks will be their final
colour.
11.10am…I
looked in the pantry to see if the noise of the washing machine was
bothering Cassie but it wasn’t as the babies were suckling! She was
facing away from me and didn’t notice I was there, I rushed upstairs to
tell Chris but by the time I’d got downstairs again, she had finished
but one of the babies was still out of the nest and so we sat watching
while he found his way back to the nest again.
SATURDAY
18th JULY 1998…day 7 (1 week old)
The
little pink one now has white fur on its face but not much on the rest of
its body, the other three are still dark and are growing really fast now.
Let Thumper out for a run round but he kept sniffing round Cassie’s
hutch so the pantry door was shut to stop him bothering her.
SUNDAY
19th JULY 1998…day 8
Looked
in the hutch and the little pink one is now a little white one! The others
look like they might be black/white versions of Thumper (dutch). Let
Cassie out, she had a mad dash round the kitchen, she is starting to go
back to her temperament before the babies were born, which is a bit sad
because I had hoped by going in every day, she had become a bit tamer and
not just because of the babies.
MONDAY
20th JULY 1998…day 9
Cassie
had moved the top of the nest so it was possible to see inside, they are
lovely and cute and have started to open their eyes a little.
Two of the dark ones have a touch of ginger on their fur, same as
Thumper but we’re not sure what colour they will be, we’ll just have
to wait and see.
TUESDAY
21ST JULY 1998…day 10
Looked
in the nest and the babies were asleep as usual, all snuggled up together.
Their eyes are open a bit more than yesterday and two of the dark ones
have definitely got ginger fur on them but the other dark one is greyer
with bits of white especially around the ears.
WEDNESDAY
22ND JULY 1998…day 11
The
babies were near the top of the nest. It was bright and sunny so I got
some very good photo’s of them in the nest.
THURSDAY
23rd JULY
1998…day 12
Everything
the same as yesterday until Chris and I looked in on the rabbits before
going to bed. Cassie was laid down a bit funny with her bottom towards the
end of the nest, suddenly there was a mad scramble and all the babies
rushed to get to Cassie because it was feeding time! We tried to stay and
watch but she seemed nervous with us watching so we left her to it and
went to bed.
FRIDAY
24th JULY 1998…day 13
Fed
Cassie then tidied the nest up a bit because it looked like the babies had
been using it as a toilet! About five minutes after I’d finished, a
little grey and white furry thing came out to investigate. It wandered
around the hutch looking a bit lost then crawled back into the nest.
They have all burrowed right to the back of the nest.
Their eyes are fully open now; they should start to come out of the
nest soon as they are 14 days old tomorrow.
SATURDAY
25th JULY 1998…day 14
A
cute brown furry thing was wandering round the hutch looking for his mum
because he wanted some more breakfast but Cassie wasn’t having it so he
went back into the nest. Cassie has a really healthy appetite now, Two
bowls of food twice a day now as well as hay, carrots and bunny treats!
10.00am…the
little brown one came out
for another wander round, sometimes the others peep out of the nest
but they soon go back in again.
SUNDAY 26th JULY 1998…day 15
All
four babies finally started to come out of the nest today, so we did some
filming with the camcorder and took lots of photos. The babies came out of
the nest everyday after that and from 3 weeks old we let them out for
exercise.
At
nearly 7 weeks old they were old enough to be separated from Cassie before
Patch, Twitch and
Snowy
went to Middleton’s Pet shop ,Sheffield on the 3rd
September 1998.
We
have kept one of them, a friendly little brown one that we have called
“Squirrel".
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Since
writing this Squirrel has sadly died:
11th
JULY 1998 - 6th January 2002
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Next: Cassie's Diary (2)
- Trio of Trouble
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