Chubbers' Baby Story

On Monday, July 23, I woke up at 6am. Matt was in the shower so I decided to rush downstairs to check on Chubbers, our rabbit, to see if she had given birth. It was dark in the family room and kitchen area. Chubbers was quietly laying down. All appeared to be well and no sign of bunnies. (Or so I thought.)  I sleepily walked back upstairs and told Matt no bunnies.

 

 

Wait, I'm guessing you're wondering how we got into this predicament in the first place. It all started when Matt, the kids and I took our vacation to Utah. Chubbers was sent to his Auntie Beth and Uncle Matt's house to be bunnysat. Since we were taking our nieces to Utah, Beth offered to watch Chubbers. Our sweet bunny would hang out with it's cousin bunny, Thunder.  I also gave Beth some special instructions.  Should she become attached to Chubbers while we were away.  I'd be happy to leave her there to permanently live at Casa de Meyring.

The first day Chubbers visit she and Thunder played all over the backyard.  Later that afternoon Beth called to say the bunnies were happily playing outback.  I quickly panicked, she's a girl and Thunder is a boy!  Beth said, well, it's too late now, what's done is done.  We decided it was best to keep the bunnies seperated for the balance of the trip.

Upon our return Chubbers continued her stay and after a few days my brother called and said, pick-up your bunny.  We brought Chubbers home and immediately noticed a change in mood.  She was irritable and when I tried to pet her she nipped at me.  I did what any same person would do and went straight to my friend Google.  After reading all the rabbit pregnancy symptoms it was pretty clear she was indeed pregnant.

Alright, now we were on baby bunny watch 2012.  We needed a new cage as hers was to small for babies. She needed a nesting box and some peace and quiet.  At least we could promise 2 of the 3.  After getting her all set up in her new digs she started building her nest.  She'd take large mouthfuls of her timothy hay and put them in her nesting box.  We knew at this point birth would be any time.  Four days later.................

After my shower that morning I came down and immediately noticed the fur everywhere.  I knew this was a sign of birth.  Matt checked the nesting box and saw 2 tiny pink babies cuddled together.

We immediately decided to protect the cage from Andrew.  He likes to share his toys with Chubbers and this wasn't a time for sharing.

Here are the two little babies.  (Please excuse the blood.)  When I was taking the picture Chubbers jumped on top of her nesting box protecting those babies.  We checked them all day long.  They cuddled, wiggled and snuggled all day.

This morning we noticed there was only one baby.  I panicked.  I grabbed our scoop and checked the litter box and the entire cage, nothing.  I checked chubbers, she was clean.  Where is the other baby?  I moved the box, listened, nothing.  I had to check the box.  I felt around under all this fur.  Not only did I find the missing baby, there are at least 2 more!  We have at least 4 bunnies if not 5.  For fear of getting too much of my scent on them I didn't pull them out and count them.  At this point we are just hoping they are thriving and chubbers is feeding them.