The Picket Project (Week 2)

Its now been a little over a full week since we found Picket in the middle of a four lane road and wow, how much she has grown in that little bit of time.

First, we found out that Picket is actually Pickette.  So, from here on out, while we are still referring to her as Picket, she is indeed female.

We are still feeding her goats milk at this point.  She has been doing very well on this and is growing strong with it.  She eats on average four times a day, drinking around an 8th of a cup of warmed goats milk from a pipette at each feeding.

She loves her feeding time and gets really excited when its time to come out for a meal. I had purchased a bottle for her and while we will probably use it in the future (she'll be eating milk for at least another 4 weeks) I'm hesitant to use it at his moment because of risk of aspiration with her. With the pipettes, I can see and control the flow of the milk easier.

On Wednesday, we started her on a probiotic supplement to help prepare her gut for eating solid foods. In the wild, she would have normally eaten the cecotropes (a special type of poop) of her mother. While it sounds gross, it's very important to establish the healthy bacteria colony that a rabbit needs in their gut to process solid foods and without it, she could get very sick.  Since I don't have a momma Jackrabbit on hand and no access to cecotropes from other rabbits, I instead ordered a supplement called Bene-Bac that supplies the bacteria needed.  She's had three doses mixed in with her goat's milk and will continue to receive doses for a total of 5 doses (one every other day).  Following that 5th dose, we will give her one dose a week just for maintenance.

Today we started her on some pureed bananas which she really enjoyed.  Over the next few days we will start introducing a variety of vegetables such as bok choy and celery. We have also introduced Timothy Hay and Orchard Hay for her to start nibbling.  This week, I will be dehydrating some sweet potato and apples to mix into her hay in hopes to get her to start foraging.

LOOK AT THOSE EARS!!!!

She's definitely grown quite a bit since we found her. And her face is beginning to take on the classic hare shape.  I'm curious to see how different she will look between now and this time next week, both in size and in her shape.

I woke her from a nap with the flash