Ok people, this will be a long ride through the past, the present and the future. So relax and enjoy the ride. Don't forget to get snacks and drinks cos I won't be serving any, Bubu is still the president.
I have been wanting to do this for a long time now, finally, the opportunity is here. I have noticed that pets to Nigerians (especially to Nairalanders) mean dogs, dogs and more dogs. Only a handful have cats and parrots as pets. But pets are not necessarily animals you can walk down the street with, show to your friends or just there to put a stamp on your social status. Hell no, they are more than that. You can own a pet for the companionship it gives or for just the love of having an animal around you. And oh, did I mention that the cost of owning a pet doesn't need to rip a hole through your pocket?
Being a student with my limited means, I have always wanted something I can have and hold to pet.

A dog was not an option. This was cos of the cost of buying one, I just couldn't afford it at the moment. Even if I somehow manage to get any, the cost of it's maintenance no be here abeg. I would have to worry about it's food, vaccines, cage, et al. Now I have seen people who I consider fit for the gallows for the way they handle their dogs.Buying a dog is not the problem honey, the main issue is in it's maintenance. I wanted to give the best attention and care to any animal I would be adopting. So dog was off the list. I equally didn't want to scare people or spend a better part of the day giving lectures on how/why cats are not witches or the harbingers of death/evil. So bye Miss Feline. Parrots would be too noisy for my liking therefore I ditched that too.
After so much consideration, I decided to stick with a bunny. Bunnies were just perfect for my checklist. Low budget and maintenance, check check. Noiseless, check. Fun to be with, check. Acceptable, check. Ok, I would confess, it wasn't easy fielding questions on why a guy should have a bunny as pet. Like seriously people? This is not 300B.C. We need to grow up.

Anyways, I finally got Eva. She was quite small then, about 9wks. That was on the 29th of Oct, 2016. And she was (and still is) so cute then. I had a cage constructed for her which I can keep inside. It was customised in such a way that I can easily clean it out and take out the litter box without difficulty. She doesn't demand much, just get her pellets, with enough water for the day. Maybe spice it up a little with some fruits or veggies and we are good to go.

Growing up wasn't without it's challenges. Eva can go on a destruction spree the day she feels like it. And yes, she is good at her job. She can eat cables, papers, clothes, and just about anything that catches her fancy. It was quite annoying then. Cos of that she was always inside her cage. At a point, I resorted to beating her but it never helped issues. There was a day I left her unattended to and left. By the time I was back, she had eaten up my house plant. I was so angry that I flogged the living day light out of her. After lots of research, I found out that flogging her wasn't the best option as chewing things was natural to bunnies. They just don't know when to stop. Their front teeth are always growing, they needed to wear it down by chewing. Having understood that, I set out to teach her not to chew unwanted chewables.

I started by getting hay for her to chew. The high fiber content helped. Note that this was in addition to her regular feed. I also started training her to respond to commands, just like a dog. Now that part wasn't easy cos bunnies don't have concentration periods like dogs. You will need to be consistent, persistent yet gentle, always rewarding every single act of obedience. The details will be a story for another day. With time, she started responding both to her name and the commands. Once she starts nibbling at something I don't like, I promptly call her name and tell her to stop and she does. She also runs into her cage when I give the "inside" command. That was really exciting. She slowly dropped her destructive chewing habit, something flogging couldn't solve. I can leave her in the room and go to school and back without her disturbing or chewing even a pin. She also does not litter the room. All her toilet business are done inside her cage. I will also discuss how I achieved that later. Now she is a little angel, always obeying and being fun and mischievous.

Finally, Eva is now a big girl, pushing 2.2kg and very beautiful. I decided to breed her. Forgive me for not mentioning all the while that she is a crossbreed of Dutch and New Zealand. I decided to breed her to Dutch buck to see how well the kits will turn out. After much search, I landed a nice buck with the right qualities. I took her to the buck on Sunday 12th of this month. The drama was so funny. She refused to be disvirgined. The buck(a powerful guy he is) tried all the tricks in the book but Eva refused to fall. We had to force breed her by tying a rope on her tail, held her down and lifted her tail for the M.O.G to have his way. My guy scored 5:0 in total. At the last try, Eva let out this loud squeal, protesting the incessant assault. It was quite funny, seriously.
I will keep my fingers crossed and hope it works. Catch y'all.
pls, I would upload her pics later today cos my battery is almost spent.

So yesterday was one week post-breeding. Eva is still her normal self, nothing out of d ordinary. She does 3 things without fail; sleep, eat and sleep again. She still jumps around but not much. And she enjoys loads of petting, its fun d way she lays down her head, closes her eyes and just enjoy d ride. She is still her gluttonous self, running to me or anyone she sees or smells with anything edible. Although it's still too early for dat, I palpated her to see if there's any success with d breeding. Am just too anxious and impatient, right? lol!. I don't know whether it's true or my hyperactive imagination but I think I felt some blobs in there. Anyways, what do I know, I may be seeing things dat aren't there..

Eva before the breeding. She's such a beauty, isn't she?

Sweet little angel.

Today being day 8, I came back from exams, went as usual to give her a hug. I was a bit shocked dat she charged at my hands, almost scratching me. Ghen ghen!!! R u shidding me? My antennas r working overtime. Maybe we r having some cute bunnies after all.

pics as at today

Day 8

Day 10.
Did some palpation today and sure enough, there were some lumps in there (guess 3 or so). Gee, am finally going to have some bunny cuteness around. Impatient me.

I think she also likes lying down now.

Nice one op

Day 14
Eva is putting on some weight. She gobbles up anything she is given. I get comments like, "hey, ur bunny is getting fat o, sure u r feeding her well." Dats exactly what I want.
She is also doing a lot of scratching now; around her cage, beside d mattress, inside d wardrobe, just anywhere. Dats fine anyway, it will shorten her claws so she doesn't hurt her kits with them. Moreover, I don't intend disturbing her by trying to cut them.
I still can't wait for the D-day!

She's such a cutie

ElmaSpeed:
She's such a cutie

Thanks so much

following

Heard u don't touch the offspring when she gives birth as she might not feed the touched kid. Just an heads up

beautiful nice thread

You mean you potty trained a rabbit.. .. that mist be a challenge and half..

so cute！

wolewolsz:
Heard u don't touch the offspring when she gives birth as she might not feed the touched kid. Just an heads up

Dats wat I heard too but then I did some research and found out dat it does not apply to all of them. If u r really close to d does b4 they give birth, (and in dis case am super close to Eva, *winks*), they wouldn't have problems with u touching their kits. They would have been used to human scent and activities around them to bother.

Baroba:
You mean you potty trained a rabbit.. .. that mist be a challenge and half..

My bro, no be small matter o. Infact sometimes it can be plain frustrating and annoying. But with patience and consistency, d job was done. But due to her preggy, she sometimes drops a pellet or two around her cage area which of course is normal for an expectant doe.

Guys, my eyes are heavy with sleep and fatigue as I type this. My heart is also skipping beats like badly.
Reason: Eva has chosen to keep me awake. She has been quite restless since last night but the thing doubled up this early morning. She has been scratching and biting everything that it's now annoying. It's as though she can't resist it. I caged her but she won't stay in there. She kept on scratching and jerking her cage that I had to go and release her. Immediately I opened the door, she shot out like a bat out of hell to my bedside to continue her Julius Berger work of digging and biting. Now part of my bedsheet is almost torn off.
At the few times she laid down, I saw her stomach jerking. I could almost make out the shapes of the kits. She was also making this sound as if she was in pain (chai Jesus!). She is also urinating frequently, infact, the thing seems to be oozing out of her.
My fear is that today is only Day 20, she still has about 11 more days to go. Am afraid she may want to abort the babies (chukwu aju!).
And of all days to start this! Am supposed to travel this morning. Kai!! This thing is just tiresome for me o.
Abeg make una help me dey pray o.
No light and my phone's camera is bad, I would have snapped her for u guys. Kpele.

I finally slept last nite. Dis girl still carried her wahala enter dis morning. I think she wan do me April fool.

Following ... Welldone

Day 28.
Today is exactly 4wks Eva was bred. D journey still continues. She is obviously progressing well. Her stomach is not that big, she still lies down most of the time, as if she feels heavy. I started seeing her kits kick around d 25th day. Now they kick and move around pretty well. I can also make out their forms when I stroke her side anytime she lies down. Her feeding is irregular, sometimes she eats well while other times, she does not. But she drinks a lot.
It's as though she has forgotten about her digging job. Not as serious as she was before. I tried giving her a box of hay but she only eat from it and pooped inside. Maybe we will try some other time.
The only down side is that it's as if she has forgotten her litter training. She poops and pees anyhow outside but still around her cage. Research said it's natural and she would get back in line after kindling so am not worried. Did I mention that her fur around the dewlap is gradually coming off.
As from tomorrow, I will start getting hopeful. So everybody, lets start praying for a safe delivery, shall we?

Finally o, it's about to go down. No, sorry, it has gone down. D kits haff arrived o my people. Am so excited.

cedar3:
Finally o, it's about yo go down. No, sorry, it has gone down. D kits haff arrived o my people. Am so excited.

congrats bruv

Nicely presented, you made me fall in love with Bunnies.. I actually thought they are only good for chow.
Does she lose her fur?
Has she fallen Ill since you got her?
Will you be able to handle all 'em Bunnies she would birth?

Yesterday was d 31st day. Yet Eva didn't show any sign of imminent labor. It was so so frustrating. I even gave her some spanking, hoping to roughen her up into labor but for where. She would have none of that. She was so smug, enjoying her meals and sleep. She converted d nest box to a canteen and toilet. It was so frustrating. No pulling of fur, no making of nest, no nothing. Kai!!! If not that I could see and feel the kits moving, I would have sworn that she wasn't preggy after all. With all that frustration and annoyance, I started pulling d furs myself. They were coming off easily, another clue that she was preggy, and I got quite a lot of it. I had already prepared extra hay for her days ago, even made a rough nest on the 27th day. You can imagine how angry I was when I went to bed.
Fast-forward to past 04AM dis morning. I woke up to Eva's noise. She was scratching and kicking against her cage, making a hell of noise. I opened her cage, she sped out to go and lie down at her favorite spot. She was breathing fast. I gave her some water which she immediately lapped up, then relaxed a bit. A few minutes later, she was all over the place. I got angry again and locked her up. She was quiet for a few minutes before resuming her scratching, all d while making a grunting sound. I decided to leave her alone, thinking it was her normal disturbance. I never knew she was actually in labor. This was cos she wasn't showing any of the signs I read about.
My people, not too long later, I started hearing some squeals. I rushed to her cage and lo, there it was; what I Havre been expecting since. The first kit was just coming out. Oh my!!! I didn't know what to do. I stood there transfixed as Eva kindled 5 healthy kits. I quickly made a nest with the materials already provided. When she was done licking them up, I transferred them to the nest. It was then that she started pulling fur. I was amused. So all these animals are individuals, there are no hard and fast rules on how they go into labor.
Now am feeling accomplished, though a "mother's" work is never done.
Lets get the parrie started!!!
Who will pop the first champagne?

Few minutes after kindling.

Iron Lady