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baby bunnies

C

chloe27

Young Bun
we have 2 rabbits and this morning we have just discovered that our female has had a litter...we never kept the male and female together,they have always been in separate cages..so unsure of how this happened...a neighbour told me that she recently caught our next door neighbour in our garden near the rabbit runs...we have had an ongoing disagreement with our next door neighbour as we reported her for severe cruelty to her animals (different story)..so therefore we can only assume that she put them in the same run..she is crazy!

anyway back to my problem...i am really unsure what to look for with the kits...they seem to be wriggling around a lot and i think there are about 4 or 5..im too scared to check..the nest looks fine and the mum is eating and drinking plenty..shes fairly friendly and didnt mind me looking in the cage..

i just need to know what to do..the sites ive looked on say different things...some say you should touch them to check for dead kits..others say dont touch...what do i do...

this has really thrown us..as we thought we were being responsible rabbit owners...we never kept them together and only last week had our male neutered..

any advice would be greatly appreciated :?
 
What a surprise! Afraid I've never had kits but am sure someone will be along with advice soon.

What a strange thing for your neighbour to do! :shock: Hope Mum & kits are all healthy.
 
StarlightsAnimalSanctuary said:
Heya, wow what a surprise!

Take out any dead kits.
Click to expand...

have checked the nest as best as we can..didnt want to do too much poking around...there seems to be 6 babies...they all seem lively..couldnt see any dead ones but will check again tomorrow...

have got over the shock now and am coming round to the idea of extra mouths to feed!!! starting to feel excitement building!!....hopefully clover will be a good mummy!!
 
aww leave them i have had a few litters just leave them if you fuss them the mother will reject them and they will most likly die just make sure to feed her lots!!! :wave: any more questions pm me :D
 
You can check the nest for dead kits.
I've never known any rabbit to reject her kits ONLY because a human touched them (and I've helped raise QUITE a few litters+I even asked some breeders on the subject and most if not all would occasionally pick up newborns to check them, not for cuddling 3 times a day but a more rare checkup now and then), but rub your hands into the mother's bedding if you are worried about human scent.
She'll need more food in this period (occasionally I just feed the doe just as much as I would for 7 rabbits, if she has 7 kits. But its easier to just fill the bowl upXD I did that with Aroma's litter, she had a lot of babies...12! so I filled up two bowls with pellets twice a day.. but we still lost some sadly:cry: There were just too many)

Apart from feeding and removing dead babies the mother will do most herself.
Don't be worried if she appears to be ignoring the kits, or you don't see her feed them. This is completely natural. Wild rabbits only see to their kits a couple of times a day, to distract predators from the nest. The babies should start moving about on their own in 2-3 weeks, and don't be surprised if you see her refusing to feed them a few times as they get older, they'll be gradually eating more and more pellets and hay by this time.
Greens are fine if the mother has been eating them before. I know some say don't feed them greens before they are 4 months but if they get used to it through mother's milk they should be fine. (I know mine were, they had LOTS of greens ever since the mother first got pregnant) Rabbits in the wild eat pretty much nothing but greens anyway:lol:
 
ZakuraRabbit said:
You can check the nest for dead kits.
I've never known any rabbit to reject her kits ONLY because a human touched them (and I've helped raise QUITE a few litters+I even asked some breeders on the subject and most if not all would occasionally pick up newborns to check them, not for cuddling 3 times a day but a more rare checkup now and then), but rub your hands into the mother's bedding if you are worried about human scent.
She'll need more food in this period (occasionally I just feed the doe just as much as I would for 7 rabbits, if she has 7 kits. But its easier to just fill the bowl upXD I did that with Aroma's litter, she had a lot of babies...12! so I filled up two bowls with pellets twice a day.. but we still lost some sadly:cry: There were just too many)

Apart from feeding and removing dead babies the mother will do most herself.
Don't be worried if she appears to be ignoring the kits, or you don't see her feed them. This is completely natural. Wild rabbits only see to their kits a couple of times a day, to distract predators from the nest. The babies should start moving about on their own in 2-3 weeks, and don't be surprised if you see her refusing to feed them a few times as they get older, they'll be gradually eating more and more pellets and hay by this time.
Greens are fine if the mother has been eating them before. I know some say don't feed them greens before they are 4 months but if they get used to it through mother's milk they should be fine. (I know mine were, they had LOTS of greens ever since the mother first got pregnant) Rabbits in the wild eat pretty much nothing but greens anyway:lol:
Click to expand...

thankyou for the replies...i will keep you all up to date...clover is eating tons more than normal...and is eating grass like crazy!
 
chloe27 said:
thankyou for the replies...i will keep you all up to date...clover is eating tons more than normal...and is eating grass like crazy!
Click to expand...

That sounds brill :) I usually pick some grass for my bunnies, it's their fave (just as well really) :D
 
OK, You can always touch the kits I play with mine from day 1 check them daily and make sure they all have round tummies, make sure the mother is eating well and drinking lots I am a breeder and know lots so pm me if you want,

Karlie X:wave:
 
:wave:are you going to keep all of them though?!:lol: imagine the tesco bill for greens:shock::lol: we have 3 guineas and 3 buns and our greens bill is over £7 a week just on that:lol:
i hope all the kits and mum are doing well.. congratulations granny:shock::lol:
 
i think its great that shes had babys!!! i wouldent touch them but if your close to the mother and have her sent on your hands it should be fine hope all goes well!!
 
rabbitmum said:
:wave:are you going to keep all of them though?!:lol: imagine the tesco bill for greens:shock::lol: we have 3 guineas and 3 buns and our greens bill is over £7 a week just on that:lol:
i hope all the kits and mum are doing well.. congratulations granny:shock::lol:
Click to expand...

lol granny!!!...my 21 year old son has just made me a granny...and im only 37 lol

my kids want to keep them...but im not sure...never planned for this lol...i already spend a small fortune on veg especially as clover is picky...she adores broccoli which costs a fair bit ,considering how much she eats!...but shes worth it...

am eager to see what colours they are...will keep you all updated :D
 
I can tell you the colors if you get a good pic of each of them like in the palm of your hand or on a cloth remain it's really easy to a trained eye and fun:D
 
I'm so glad that I have seen this thread. Our doe Millie also gave birth unexpectedly last weekend. We have been advised not to touch the kittens which we have not done although we do lift the fur on the nest every day to check that they are ok. They are squeaking a lot so I guess this is good!

There are four kittens in all and it's our intention to keep two and re-home the other two.

We saw our vet today as Max was neutered last week (a little too late!) and he went for his post op check. He is doing fine. The vet told us that we can move Max back in with Millie and the babies in about four weeks time which I'm pleased about because I don't want them to lose their bond.

I've asked the vet if we can take the kittens along to them to be sexed and he's said that's fine. I'm thinking that we would be best keeping two does because at least now that Max has been neutered he can't make any further litters with them. Do does get along together?
 
Aw that's adorable! :) Good luck with the babies!
That neighbour of yours sounds pretty much insane to me though :shock:
 
Oompa-Loompa said:
Aw that's adorable! :) Good luck with the babies!
That neighbour of yours sounds pretty much insane to me though :shock:
Click to expand...

she is crazy..a couple years ago she had 22 cats,4 dogs,2 birds,hamsters and chinchillas taken away by the rspca...and was told never to have animals again..but since then she has started getting loads more..there are dozens of kittens everywhere..and dogs that howl all night..yet you never see them...

she had two huge rabbits last year in a tiny cage..they were round the side of her house facing us...we watched the cage fill up more and more with rabbit droppings..she never cleaned them...my daughters used to sneak food and greens to them..we were always filling up the water bottle...but id finally had enough when during last summer we realised that the rabbits hadnt had water for 2 days..it was so hot and they looked so sad..my partner phoned the rspca and we told her what we did..within the week the rabbits had gone...we were later told they died :(..

since then she has had a vendetta against us...or more like a vendetta against our rabbits...when our rabbits have been in the run we have gone to check on them only to find the grass in the run covered in paint and the rabbits paws and fur covered too...it looked like someone had been squirting it everywhere...but we have no proof...her kids throw stones at the cages...

thats why we believe she put our rabbits together to let them mate..as she knew we were being responsible...ive recently heard she did a similar thing to the previous owners of our house...

well...shes not going to be able to do anything again...right now my partner is outside putting up a 6 foot fence...
 
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