Weigh In at Six Weeks Old–New Zealand White Meat Rabbits

I am late in getting this up. It has been a crazy day today. And painful. I ate something that I was allergic to and paid the price. It just goes to show no matter how familiar you are with a product that if you don’t read the ingredients list every single time, if you don’t see that they’ve made a change no matter how minor they might think it is, it can still put you down for hours. I have so few things that I don’t make from scratch. Just a few little luxury items. Well, there’s one less on the list today. And almost nothing got done.

But anyway here are the weights from the weigh in yesterday. I can’t believe these little darlings are six weeks old. I’m going to have to get a bigger container to weigh them in next week. I don’t think the bigger ones will fit by then.

Kit 1: 1 lb 13 1/4 oz
Kit 2: 2 lb 1 3/8 oz
Kit 3: 2 lb 13 3/8 oz
Kit 4: 2 lb 7 1/4 oz
Kit 5: 2 lb 6 1/4 oz
Kit 6: 2 lb 1 5/8 oz
Kit 7: 2 lb 2 3/4 oz

Total litter weight is now at 15 lb 12 7/8 oz. This is an increase of 3 lb 8 1/2 oz from last week. Everyone topped the 2 pound mark this week except Kit 1. It is decidedly smaller and has been week to week, but has been a bit closer to the other two lower weight kits. This week the other two caught up some, but not this one. I will do what I did before and she and the next smallest will be the last removed to the grow out pens so they have a bit more time without competition for food to catch up. Kit 3 is almost 3 pounds! I really hope she is a girl because she is the friendliest rabbit ever and has the sweetest disposition. I would like to keep it if it turns out to be a doe. One that grows that fast is a line I want to continue.

I’m still not sure I am going to keep Lola. She is being very defensive of her cage the last couple of days. She may go to freezer camp yet, especially if Kit 3 is a doe. In which case Kit 3 will become the new Lola, because I really like the name.

Starbuck is still being a sweet-tempered buck. He would make a very good house rabbit if he weren’t growing up to be a breeder and if I wanted an indoor pet, which I don’t. He likes to just sit next to you and he likes to be pet. Sweetie Belle is showing some signs of temper. I really don’t want to deal with that in one of my pedigreed rabbits. I should have new cages by the weekend so will separate Sweetie Belle and Serenity and see if that helps. I was hoping they could grow up in the same cage for a while longer, but with Sweetie Belle being so territorial she obviously doesn’t like sharing quarters.

It rained for most of the day so nobody got to go out to the tractors. We did let the kits out on the shed floor to play and Starbuck got a turn out today, too. Piper and Leo wanted none of it, Phoebe we’re leaving alone until she either has kits or passes 35 days, and Lola made it clear she didn’t want out. With Sweetie Belle being the way she was, we didn’t take her or Serenity out either. It is better to pay attention to what they are telling me than to just take them out every day. I am amazed at just how much they can tell you with their behavior and movements.

I’m not sure if I am ever going to get a garden in this year. Maybe it’ll just be a fruit year. I can order 100 pounds of green beans to put up from a local organic farm and 25 pounds of tomatoes from Eastern WA. Those are our mainstays. At the very least I want to get more chard in for the rabbits and plant some kohlrabi because it can be so hard to find. Other than the potatoes that are already in, I just can’t seem to find the time on a day it is not raining. It might be okay to plant so late if we have another mild fall and don’t get our first frost until mid-December like last year.

We will have a ton of fruit to put up, though. The majority of it will be frozen, because my jam stash looks like this:

That is more than enough to get through another year. Although I might make more strawberry just because it is a favorite and it’s the only flavor we are low on. And maybe a strawberry apricot.

I want to can some carrots and potatoes together. I would need to buy carrots regardless as I have never been able to successfully grow carrots. But I want to have them canned together so that I can just add them and canned meat and some broth and a bit of flour to make gravy together to make an easy stew on busy nights. I plan to can some rabbit meat in the future and some beef for that. I like the idea of being prepared to do easy home cooked meals. It’ll make the drive-thru even less inviting than it currently is.