The rabbit kits are 2 weeks old now and very active. Well, they actually sleep a lot (still) but since their eyes are open, they can often be seen peeking out from the nest box, looking to get into mischief.
Each morning, several of the kits will be out, usually huddled together. They can get out of the nest box, but it’s too tall for them to get back in. It’s warm here, though, so there’s no risk of chilling. They usually try to get a meal from the does, squirming and pushing to try to get under them, and the does just ignore them until they get annoyed and move away from the youngsters, sometimes causing the kits to do an ungraceful somersault as the does hop away. They’ll get a meal when Mom is ready, and not until then.
One of Ava’s white kits was even nibbling some hay this morning. It may be the same one that later decided to perch on her back while she was relaxing (of course, there are 2 other white kits in the nest box, so it’s difficult to tell, but it sure made for a good photo opp). Ava’s white runt is also looking good and is easy to spot among Loretta’s darker kits. It was fortuitous that both does kindled at the same time, allowing one of the kits to be fostered to another mother, or we may ultimately have lost one. Lesson learned: going forward, we will always try to have two does kindling concurrently, just in case.