Please help - my rabbit has had babies

Hello

I have just been googling for some information and found this site, I hope someone can help.

We have 2 rabbits, they are both 6 months old and were supposedly sisters. When my eldest son (7) came home tonight he went to feed them as normal and came running back in the house saying there was a dead mouse with no fur on it on the floor of the hutch and the rabbits were scared.

I went out (thinking a mouse wouldnt be able to get in the hutch) and found a dead baby on the floor of the hutch, and another one in the litter tray. They were both on the bottom floor of the hutch. I then looked in their "bedroom" further and found another dead one with two that were alive. The dead one in the bedroom was very very small and seemed like a runt baby, I have taken it out and left the two alive.

Then I had to try and decide which was the male and the female to take the right one out, I am sure I have, and also got a neighbour to come and check aswell. We have now seperated the male (hopefully) at the bottom floor and the mummy on the top floor.

The babies are covered up in hay and fur and it was really hard for me to find them. I looked at them last night around 7.30 pm and they werent there then, I have been and spoken to the rabbits this morning but didnt look in their bedroom, so am unsure how long they have been there.

Can anyone answer any questions and put my mind at rest?

a) Will she know they are there even though they were covered up totally and should they be covered up totally?

b) She doesnt seem interested in them whatsoever although I have read this is right, can you put my mind at rest (please)? I have looked at them (but not touched them) and they dont have big bellies and have wrinkled skin.

c) Might she abandon them because there was a dead one with the 2 alive ones.

d) Will the babies be OK because the mum and dad are obviously brother and sister?

Obviously we will need to get one of them or both neutured, havent looked into that yet to be honest, just need to know I'm doing the best for the babies. We will keep them if they live (hopefully) and get them neutured too.

I really didnt want this to happen, hence having 2 female rabbits, but now it has I really dont want to lose them and feel awful at having lost 3 of them.

I'll probably think of some more questions so hope you dont mind me asking you.

I'm so sorry what a shock for you and your son.
Mum rabbits do tend to only feed their babies 1 in a 24 hour period and the rest of the time will tend to keep away from them (she'd do this in the wild so as not to draw predators attention to them)
She will know they are there even though they are completely covered in fur.
As for whether she will look after them I'm not really sure. If she is very young herself and this is her first litter then possibly not. If they've been fed they should have nice round bellies.
I hate to tell you this but because the male was still with her after she's given birth she could possibly be pregnant again. :?
Also I'm not sure whether the babies will be ok if they're brother and sister, they may be fine, or may have more of a tendency to tooth problems etc or the may not survive. I'm really not sure.
I'm sure there'll be lots of other people here more knowledgable about such things along soon.
Wishing you luck with the remaining littlies and fingers crossed for no more x

Oh, no! The mother is probably already pregnant again because they can and will mate as soon as she has given birth.
The babies only get nursed once or twice a day, uaually at night, and left alone the rest of the time to not attract predators. Don't worry if the mom seems to ignore them.
Someone with more knowledge should be on presently to help you better!

Are the babies crying or making any sound at all? I dont want to be the barer of bad news but it dosnt sound like they are being fed...possibly that they are dehydrated too, it could be the trauma surounding the birth has led mum to abandon them

Ooooooooooops! :shock:

First you must seperate the two adult Buns. A Doe is extremely fertile immediately after kindling so she may actually already be pregnant again.

Does usually only feed their kits once every 24 hours, normally at night. As your Doe is still so young she may not be too good at nursing. But really you cant intervene. Its best to leave her to do as best she can.
She will need a good diet of various hays, her concentrate feed and if she is used to veg dark leafy greens can help with milk production.
Its best not to disturb the nest. But if you need to check the kits rub your hands in the Does toilet area first so you dont transfer your scent onto the nest material.

Do keep posting on here and everyone will help you out as much as we can.
Oh, and welcome to RU :wave:

Janex

oh no you poor thing i am so sorry. I cant imagine how horrible that must have been to see.

I am sorry I dont have any baby experience but I wanted to say Good luck with the other babies.


xx

If you can distract mum away from the nest with some nice food and disguise your smell as Jane has suggested I think it may be in the kits best interests to see if they are being fed. They should have round bellies, be warm to the touch, have a pink hue to the skin and if you gently pinch the skin it should bounce back into shape (if not they are dehydrated). If they are crying out then they are trying to get mums attention and be fed.

Thanks.

Just had another look at them, they have either moved themselves or been moved because they werent in exactly the same place. I hope shes been in there moving them and checking on them!

They are not making any noise whatsoever but they have the movement of their breathing and they are also moving their legs. My son said they were making a squeaking noise earlier but I dont think they were, or if they were they didnt do it whilst I was standing there.

If she is pregnant again already, well, we will have to cross that bridge when it comes to it (and be overrun with rabbits). I havent even seen them "doing" anything and I just cant believe it. Is there any signs that I would be able to see if she was, she has looked no different all the time we have had her.

I wont be surprised to find them no longer alive in the morning, its strange, a few hours ago I wouldnt even have dreamed about it - or having any more rabbits, but now there there and breathing, I really want them to live.

Well to take all your questions in order:

a) Will she know they are there even though they were covered up totally and should they be covered up totally?

She hid them there, of course she knows The bunnies need to be covered as they don't have fur themselves, the nest is to keep them warm.

b) She doesnt seem interested in them whatsoever although I have read this is right, can you put my mind at rest (please)? I have looked at them (but not touched them) and they dont have big bellies and have wrinkled skin.

Completely normal. She probably won't feed them when you are around anyway. A normal domestic rabbit won't mind if you touch them, never expereinced a rabbit aboundining her kits only for such reason.

c) Might she abandon them because there was a dead one with the 2 alive ones.

No. If one kit is dead something was wrong with that one. She won't stop caring for the others as long as they are okay.

d) Will the babies be OK because the mum and dad are obviously brother and sister?

Probably yes. Bunnies genereally function well even when inbred, espesially if it's only one generation

Otherwise I hope you have taken the buck out by now, and he should probably be neutered as soon as possible.
If he was with the female when she gave birth there is a chance she is already pregnant, which also means it could be that she'll aboundan this litter when the next one comes in 4 weeks (not all rabbits do this, I've heard of one who actually raised 2 litters at once, there was about 6 weeks between them I think, accidental breeding of course).
I wouldn't recomend seperating the babies from mom after only 4 weeks, but if she turns too aggresive towards them it's unfortunately necasssary I still wouldn't recomend putting them up for adoption untill they are 8 weeks, as their immune system is still very fragile before this. If the mother allows it or is not pregnant, the kits should be with her for at least 6 weeks, preferably 8.

Good luck.
Feel free to ask if you need more help.

EDIT: a little note on the squeaking, I only know this from other people but from what I've heard, squaking and overly active babies means they are hungry, so them being silent is actually a good sign. Bunnies aren't very vocal anyway, the kits being no exeption.

bizzybizzy said:

Thanks.

Just had another look at them, they have either moved themselves or been moved because they werent in exactly the same place. I hope shes been in there moving them and checking on them!

They are not making any noise whatsoever but they have the movement of their breathing and they are also moving their legs. My son said they were making a squeaking noise earlier but I dont think they were, or if they were they didnt do it whilst I was standing there.

If she is pregnant again already, well, we will have to cross that bridge when it comes to it (and be overrun with rabbits). I havent even seen them "doing" anything and I just cant believe it. Is there any signs that I would be able to see if she was, she has looked no different all the time we have had her.

I wont be surprised to find them no longer alive in the morning, its strange, a few hours ago I wouldnt even have dreamed about it - or having any more rabbits, but now there there and breathing, I really want them to live.

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Awwwww well its one day at a time and there is no point stressing about whether your Doe is pregnant again as it wont affect what she needs.
Have you removed Daddy Bunny from Mummy and Babies?
That's the one thing you can do for her.
As long as the babies are well covered with hay/fur then just leave Mummy to it. She will do the best she can for them given that she is still so young herself.
What do you feed your Buns? Optimum nutrition is essential whilst your Doe is lactating.

Crikey, I remember the shock I had many years ago when THREE of my Bunnies gave birth...............:shock:

Janex

Thanks.

Just been out again and tried to distract her.

One seems stronger than the other, the stronger one is the warmest and does seem to have a roundied belly as opposed to the other which is a bit cold and smaller.

They are both moving around quite a lot, more than I would have expected, but obviously I have never been in this situation before so its hard to know!

She then came in to see what we were doing, so we spoke to her, gave her some fuss and shut the hutch up for the night.

Hopefully she knows they are there and that they are alive. We covered them up again and then she went to the other end of the hutch again, which is where she always seems to be. It is quite a big hutch.

Hi

Yes, after much deliberation with a neighbour we both decided which one was daddy, I had made my mind up and then she did the same and we both agreed on the same one.

The only thing is daddy is downstairs in the hutch now with a bowl of food and a bowl of water, they are both used to drinking out of a bottle, hopefully he will be OK with a bowl until tomorrow.

They are fed on Burgess Supa Rabbit Excel Junior. Do I need to give her any extras or change her food.

I feel so cruel to see them both, one upstairs and one downstairs, they look like they are really missing each other and now I dont know when they can be with each other again. That in itself is heartbreaking, if only they could understand me when I'm telling them why.

A lactating doe needs around 4 times her normal amount of food and should have plenty of nutritious fresh veggies (if she eats them normally) and loads of hay. You may also want to add a vitamin supplement to her water such as Vetark ACE or Pro-C.

Make sure the babies stay together, they keep each other warm and if they stray from the nest cover your scent and tuck them back in. Kits stand a much better chance of survival if mum can rear them than if you have to hand rear so you need to give them and her every chance to do this.

Crikey! :shock: Welcome to RU! :wave:

You can't have come to a better place for advice, everyone here is brill!

Not knowing from experience but with a bit of educational guess work I would imagine that excel junior is fine for feeding mothers and to give her as much as she needs all the time, ie. never let her bowl be empty.

Certainly don't change her food.

Again, welcome to RU, wishing you all the best with the kits

Can I get that supplement from a pet shop or do I need to get it from the vet.

She does eat veg, we usually give her green cabbage, carrots and cauliflower leaves, so will continue to do so (unless anyone here tells me anything different).

Checked her food bowl and water the last time we went out and it still had plenty in it, we always seem to manage to keep it full, they eat as and when they want to.

The babies were together last time we checked and she came and had a look, I really hope she manages to get through this, I dont think i would be able to hand rear them anyway, I wouldnt have a clue where to start and would probably do more harm than good.

I would like her to rear them herself, get molly neutured (and change his name), get the babies neutured and have a happy family of bunnies.

It sure has made some interesting conversations in our house since school anway, with three children, asking how, why and when and everything else. The mashed potato boiled dry the casserole was just left in the oven, they sure made an entrance to remember and one day I wont forget and hopefully they will be here to remind me of it.

Aw hello Bizzybizzy.... I don't have any baby experience, however I just wanted to say welcome and that I am sending lots of vibes for the babies, hope everything goes ok? Please keep us updated..... Charlotte x

I believe Pets at home stock Pro-C or you can order ACE or Avi-Pro plus online from www.vetark.com

hi and welcome! what part of the country are you in? there might be a member close to you who can give you some friendly advice over a cuppa!
hope things work out. i presume daddy has obvious testicles?
good luck x x

Firstly Hello :wave:

I hope all goes well for you and the buns

Sooz22 said:

I believe Pets at home stock Pro-C

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They do, I got some from there

:wave: Hi, what a welcome into the rabbit world! I hope the babies come through ok.