The Nursery

Quinoa and Sullivan (Five Babies)

Date of Birth: December 3, 2024 (about 5:30pm)

We are beyond relieved that Quinoa is finally a mother and that Sullivan has proved himself as a breeding buck. These babies are the very first for each of them! Six babies for a first-time mama is quite a litter. Truthfully, we aren't certain if all of them will make it, as a couple of them look rather bruised, as though they were stepped on by their mama's big back feet. They could pull through, but it will take a couple days to find out what will happen. We're going to hold off on taking and posting photos of them until we're reasonably confident that we have babies who are going to survive their first week. There seem to be a mix of colors among them, so that will be exciting! More news (and pictures) to come...

12/6/24 UPDATE...Sadly, one of the babies didn't make it. We believe Quinoa stepped on it in such a way that she damaged its back or neck and it wasn't able to turn over properly to nurse. Despite all of our efforts to help it nurse, it was unable to latch on. The baby that passed was one of the black-looking babies pictured below.

12/10/24 UPDATE...All the babies are doing well. Color-wise, we believe we have two orange, a cream, a chestnut, and an opal.

Rosie and Gumption (Four Babies)

Date of Birth: December 2, 2024, 2024 (about 5pm)

We are so excited that Rosie and Gump have four beautiful babies! Rosie had a single stillborn kit during her previous pregnancy and was depressed for a while, so she is looking very please to have such a nice family to care for. This is her largest litter. (She has had four kits before, but one or two were usually peanuts and didn't survive more than a few days.) The babies are all big and healthy looking. Barring any unforeseen problems, all should thrive, as we don't have to worry about any peanuts being in this litter since Gumption is a false dwarf buck.

Color-wise, we believe there are two solid blue babies, and the other two are probably going to be chinchillas or something else pretty from the agouti family, as they have pink inner ears and bellies, which will be white or cream. We're looking forward to watching these babies blossom and grow!

12/10.24 UPDATE...Rosie's babies are fat and healthy! Coloring indicates two blue, a cream, and either a squirrel (blue chinchilla) or opal.

Penelope & ? (most likely Finnegan) - 2 babies

Date of Birth: October 18, 2024 (sometime between 12 -7am)

Penelope and Mystery Dad have two healthy babies...and a peanut and a stillborn, which was born late in the day on the 18th. Gumption was the sire listed on our paperwork, but I tried to get her interested in another buck before putting Gumption in with her. The first buck, either Sweet Tea or Finnegan was the sire because of the presence of the peanut. Hopefully the color of the lighter baby will help us figure out the sire. The darker one looks like a solid blue, but the lighter one is still a mystery. Both are doing well. The little peanut baby looks like it pass in the next day or two as it is especially weak and tiny. :(

10/26/24 UPDATE...Both of Penelope's kits are doing well. They are black and black tort in coloring. A few days makes a huge difference in determining coloring. :)

10/29/24 UPDATE...I'm having greater difficulty in ascertaining the sire of this litter than anticipated. Penelope is orange, which is a black-based color, but she carries dilute (her mother is Rosie a squirrel, aka blue chinchilla.) Three out of the four bucks we could have paired her with (Sweet Tea, Finnegan, and Gumption) are all dilute in color, so the coloring should have tilted towards creams and blues, if the dilute genetics were being expressed. Sullivan could have been the sire, but solid black doesn't come up as a color possibility when adding him to the genetics software we use. Black tort does pop up as a color possibility. Sullivan also carries chocolate and could carry dilute as he has lilac and blue in his lines. The day we bred Penelope was the same day we discovered Sunshine is a buck, so I checked the possibility of him being the sire, but, because both Penelope and Sunny are agouti colorings, and the fact that neither kit carries agouti markings, leads me to believe Sunny is not in the running, either. In circling back around to the other possibilities, I'm leaning towards Finnegan being the sire, as he's the only one who has both black and black tort being more than a 6% genetic possibility when paired with Penelope. The moral of this story is to always write down the name of any buck who is placed in the pen with a doe, whether anything seems to happen or not.

11/1/24 UPDATE...And now we believe the lighter baby is a blue tort, rather than black tort, so we'll be revisiting the question of parenthood once again. Last week's photos caused the baby to look more orange and grey, while this week's are showing more cream and blue. The chonky black baby is still a chonky black baby. Both are absolutely darling and seem to be fairly mellow at this point.

11/15/24...New pictures of the babies! The blue tort still looks like a buck and is very inquisitive and mischievous. The little back muffin's gender is still too difficult to tell. We'll check again next week. It tends to be more mellow and laid back.

11/20/24...These little muffins have their HCB names! The solid black is Figgy Pudding, and the blue tort buck is Wenceslas.

Henrietta & Gumption - 6 babies

Date of Birth: October 15, 2024 (sometime between 2-5:30pm)

We are pleased tp announce that Henrietta and Gumption are the proud parents of six healthy kits! We don't have to worry about the presence of peanuts, as Gumption is a false dwarf buck and doesn't carry the dwarf gene. Our concern is that we need to make certain Henrietta can produce enough milk to feed all six babies. Her previous litters with us resulted in two kits and then three, so she has doubled the number of babies she will need to feed regularly. We will give her supplements to build up her milk supply and allow her to free feed while she is a nursing mama. We had hoped to foster a baby or two to another Bun, but no one else has kindled...yet.

There is a good likelihood that there are two chocolate and three lilac babies. We aren't sure what the little pink baby will turn out to be, but it could be a tort or sable. All the kits are solid colored. We look forward to showering this not-so-little family with attention and sharing pictures with you as they grow.

10/18/24 UPDATE...Our concern about Henrietta's ability to nurse all six babies is warranted. When we checked the kits this morning, four of them were on the thin side, so we put the two chunky ones into a little basket, transferred Henrietta and the other four kits to a laundry basket, covered it fully with a couple of towels and let a bit of time pass. Fifteen minutes later, all the babies had chubby tummies. We're going to need to repeat this process morning and night for the next several days while her milk supply builds up and the babies gain enough strength to find their way to her, without getting shoved to the bottom of the cuddle puddle.

10/22/24 UPDATE...Henrietta's babies are doing well. They are in the little "squirt" stage, when they urinate at the drop of a hat, usually whenever something in their environment changes suddenly. They all responded to getting their photos taken by erupting with copious puddles...all over each other. Ick. Although it's not pleasant to handle urine-drenched babies, it's a sign that Henrietta is doing well with feeding them, so we rejoice in it, all the same. It still looks like there are three lilac, two chocolate, and the lighter baby could be a chocolate tort, but we aren't certain yet, as we have never had one before.

10/29/24 UPDATE...Eyes are open and ears are flopping. Lots of waddling around and even a bit of face washing. They are doing so well!

11/1/24 UPDATE...Four of Henrietta's babies are getting to be quite adventurous. One of the chocolate babies and a lilac baby are preferring to cuddle in the nest box, but their littermates have been crawling out and exploring. One of the lilac babies is especially active and has been running all around Henrietta's pen. The other chocolate tends to follow their mama to try to sneak some snacks. The others tend to waddle around a bit and then end up in a cuddle puddle for naptime.

Chocolate #1 - Holly

Rather shy and observant, but look at that grumpy face. We suspect this little one is an "old soul." This little nugget wasn't cooperative about peeking at its gender, but we're about 80% sure it's a little doe.

Chocolate #2 - Ivy

This Bun loves to explore and has a mind of his/her own. This baby looks like a wee doe.

Lilac #3 - Noelle

This little Bun is curious and likes to explore, but is also a bit on the shy side, for now. We believe this baby is a little doe.

UPDATE 11/7/24...This wee Bun decided to escape the double-layered exercise pen by climbing out and received a sizeable bite just above his/her left eye, leaving a loose flap of fur. The injury is most likely from our doe Francesca, as she tends to be very territorial. and her pen is was fairly close to Henrietta's The baby is very frightened and we are treating the wound with a warm, diluted iodine solution, as a measure to prevent infection. Now we wait and see. We so hope it will be okay. Henrietta and all of her babies have been transferred to a large cage to prevent further run-ins with our other pen Buns.