Bunlotl (2) – The baby phase

“I know it’s wrong, but I’ve experimented with DNA. In my tiny laboratory I’ve mixed and combined the DNA of many different animals, but my biggest success was with two of them. The DNA of a rabbit and an axolotl.
I’ve done it! A new species was born! I call it… the Bunlotl.”

 

The baby phase

I’ve managed to hatch six babies successfully. Blue, dark blue or white in color. There were no differences in color, or the difference was caused by the incubation method. If the color was determined by the sex is impossible to say. They’re way too little to determine the sex of these little animals with absolute certainty.

Despite knowing that they needed food to surive, they didn’t attempt to find any themselves. Their oversized heads on a too small body made sure that they couldn’t get around very well. I assumed this would be different in water, but here the baby Bunlotl also preferred more shallow water. Due to the fact the small animal doesn’t have gills, this is understandable.
I’ve had to intervene multiple times to ensure they didn’t injure themselves accidentally, but despite all my caution, one of them didn’t survive. It became clear to me that they needed an adult Bunlotl to help them in their development.
I decided to step in as a replacement parent-Bunlotl, and started to search for something they could eat. I tried a diversity of foods like herbs, grain, worms, cat food, things hat rabbits and axolotls like… But the baby Bunlotl’s didn’t have a preference. They stuffed everything that would fit in their tiny mouths.

 

The digestive system

By feeding the Bunlotl, and by dissecting the one that passed away, I discovered how they digest their food. The tiny creature puts the food into their mouth with their tiny undeveloped hands, and makes a chewing motion. I suspected they had something like teeth to chew, but this turned out to be false. The food is put into motion with their tongue and chewing motions, molding it and activating the salivary glands.
These are quite special, since they have two kinds. One with enzymes, and one with acid. This causes the food to digested enough to be swallowed, before the stomach takes over. Their food is digested slowly, and it can easily take 6 hours before any excrements become visible. These excrements are wet, elongated granules with puddles of moisture. The Bunlotl only has one exit, which causes the excrements to come out simultaneously most of the time.

 

Growth spurt

Up until now the babies looked more like axolotls than bunnies, but this was slowly starting to change. The Bunlotl’s started growing, and little by little the changes were visible every week.
First the hindlegs started to grow, allowing them to keep their balance more easily and learning how to walk and even hop. This did mean that they were starting to explore, so it was crucial to keep an eye on them.
Next, their bodies started to grow, along with their front legs. These were somewhat underdeveloped up until now, and slowly but surely three fingers started to develop on each tiny hand. The backside of the body also starts to look more and more like a bunny, the ears and tail that started to grow in this last phase clearly show there is rabbit DNA in this tiny creature.

The mysterious gem on their foreheads remains tiny, for now.