Our most recent litters of kits are 16 days old – time is flying by! Siobhán’s 4 kits are healthy and very well fed, and Oonagh’s 7 also look great.
Siobhán’s kits all have her chinchilla coloring; Oonagh has some agouti and some steel coloration in her litter. Since their eyes have opened, the little ones have been getting out of their nest boxes and seem to like sleeping in the food dish. We were able to get some cute shots, but they’ll outgrow that dish in no time.
In addition to exploring their surroundings, the kits can now see their moms, and they pester the does relentlessly for a meal. You can’t help but feel bad for the does, watching the kits constantly trying to wiggle under them to nurse. They don’t get a moment’s break….and they seem relieved when we start putting them back on pasture during the day.
Even while they’re still nursing their kits, we feed the does grass and other pasture vegetation (silver maple leaves are a hit, even dry, brown ones) so their kits take to pasture quickly. When the kits are a few weeks old, they ease into eating grass and other greens, too. At a month+ old, they can go out in tractors during the day, and at 6-8 weeks (when the does wean them), they go into tractors full time.
As fall approaches, the pasture will become less lush, so the sooner we can get them out there to mow it down, the better. And they’ll do an awesome job fertilizing the grass, too!