Questions about 6 week old buns...

When I first got Harley, the woman who bred them said they were just over 6 weeks old. I know rabbits should be with their mothers for 8 weeks, but what are the main reasons for this?

Harley is now 2 years old, never had a problem healthwise and is quite large.

Young rabbits that are just weaned are at much higher risk of illness because their gut flora is not fully established and any stressful changes (e.g. being removed from mum, siblings, changing house, temperature, sounds, smells etc) are all very stressful events for a prey animal. It's not simply a case that as soon as they are not drinking milk from mum, they can be removed - they need to be left longer to allow their bodies to mature in a stable, change-free (and hence stress-free) environment.

Because they are so immature, at 6 weeks old it is possible, but harder for them to cope with this and the risk of them getting ill through stress is much higher. There is a very high incidence of coccidiosis in baby bunnies of this age as well, because their guts are not mature and unable to cope with the sudden changes. It's not uncommon for babies to die in the 6-10 week bracket because they don't cope so well with all the changes. Of course this isn't the case with yours, which is brilliant, but it's a much higher risk.

The longer they can be kept with mum (without becoming sexually mature and making her or their siblings pregnant), the more opportunity their little bodies have to get stronger and the lower the risk of them becoming poorly and stressed out.

So yes, they may be 'ok' but there's a higher risk that they won't be...and it's unkind to separate such young babies from their mum - just like it would be unkind for me to shut you outdoors in shorts and t-shirt at this time of year. It might not kill you but it certainly isn't very kind so shouldn't be encouraged.

Hope that helps

Wow, I guess Harleys done pretty well then! I feel awfull now, the poor bun has been moved around into numerous hutches and I've switched feed who knows how many times He copes amazingly well though, especially with stress

Babies don't need to be kept with Mum for the entire 8 weeks. If the babies naturally wean earlier than that (i.e. 6 or 7 weeks) then Mum can be removed from the hutch. It's very important to take Mum out of the hutch rather than taking the babies out because as Alison has said, sudden changes can cause stress and illness

When my bun had a litter (accidental, my little sister thought it would be nice for them all to play together...) I didnt rehome them untill they were 3 months, by then I had moved them into gender hutches, one for the girls and one for the boys, all away from mummy..... They were all well handled and had lots of interaction with other buns... (we used runs and let one lot lose around the garden and rotated it as it was a secure garden and always supervised)

By this time, they didnt quite still look like babies and were more the size they were going to grow too.... I wanted this to prevent people having them because they were cute babies or small..... because my outdoor buns WERE NOT small at all!! lol... more medium sized. I sent them off with food as well. I didnt really want my buns to have babies in the first place, but I admit it was fun Wouldnt do it again, my Tabby didnt carry well and lost a lot of weight when she gave birth, I was really worried about her. Thankfully (or not) both of the buns had babies so they shared the load and Tabby quickly gained weight.... otherwise I dont know what I would have done....

He was still with his mum and siblings when I took him
Luckily he acted normally with the big move