Today we got Kai back. The lady that bought her did not tell me that she was going to give him to someone else as a gift. As it turns out, while the family was interested in getting a rabbit in the future, the timing wasn't right, and a gift rabbit was not on their list of things they wanted to deal with right now. Fortunately they're very responsible and instead of dumping Kai somewhere, they contacted me to return him. Kai is now safely back in the grow-out pen with his brothers (Kin and Kenny), and little Lucien.
Please let me use this experience to explain again - pets should not be given as gifts! Even if you have full permission from the other person, or the parent of the child you wish to gift an animal to, please don't! Instead, consider giving them supplies to help support their new pet, a gift card to your local pet store, or offer to pay the fee to purchase an animal. Or even bring them out to meet a breeder so they can select their own pet. But please, please, please... don't give animals as gifts! We do not support giving animals as gifts unless it is a parent buying a pet for their child - and they are aware of the care required and are willing to step up if/when the child loses interest. Even then, we dread these placements, because more often than not, they are the ones that get returned.
Tonight I went to check gender on the 2-week old litter in Alice's nest box. Three of the four have swollen genitals, and two of those also have scaley naked patched on the sides of their back legs. I have never seen this before in any of our rabbits, so I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. Maybe Alice is just being overzealous with cleaning? Or not cleaning enough? I suspect it has to do with her using the nest box as a litter box early on. The ordeal cost her six of her ten kits, many of which died even after I moved the kits to a safe dry location. Two cold nights when they're caked in dried urine. Now this. I have posted to one of the rabbit groups I'm in, but nobody seems to have a clear answer. I will keep an eye on them (which will be much easier starting tomorrow night as we will be back in our home).
In related news, one of Alice's brown kits seemed to have "weird feet" in a picture I took before, but I didn't have a chance to really look at the kit. Tonight I was giving him (or her?) a good inspection and realized, the little baby has lost all of the toes on both front feet! Likely due to the cold spell right after the urine issue. Bunny doesn't seem to mind when I looked at the feet, and they seem to be healing up nicely, so I figure it'll heal up on its own and bunny will just look a little funny upon close inspection. Hey, whoever gets him/her will only have to do half-duty for nail trims.