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Hi I'm New to this - Advice needed

JanetR

New Kit
Hi I'm used to posting on Heartline forum as my daughter has a heart condition so as that was a great help I thought I would appraoch this one with a view to some advice ref my gorgeous rabbits.

I got them at 6 weeks back in Dec 2009 should have both been female, I checked as well, should have known better I suppose.

They both got on really well until a couple of weeks agao when the smaller one kept making really odd noises and the bigger one kept spraying.

To cut a long story very short Sunday morning I noticed blood so looked into the sleeping area when I fed them to discover that it was moving. Help we had Kits, 4 of them I could make out. Managed to separate mum and dad by way of putting some wood over the ramp so one was upsatairs and the other below.

Unfortunately things took a turn for the worse on Tuesday am when I went to feed them that the sleeping area that i ould view from outside the hutch was still, upon looking all 4 Kits has passed away. I removed them and took my Doe to the vet for a check up she was ok but was we thought too young to have had a litter only being born Oct 2009.

Need some advice as both seem very unhappy and lonely and not sure where to go next. Would like to have a litter but not sure the best way to go about it from here.

Would love some help please as my (Heart) daughter is devastated as she was going to look after them and she feels that she has killed the Kits.

Sorley to be a pain but sorely need some advice.

Janet & Gemma
Buns are Harry and Midnight:(
 
Please don't blame yourself for the loss of the litter. Your doe was too young to breed. She may be pregnant again, if she was with the buck when the kits were born. :(

Why do you want another litter? There are already 33,000 unwanted rabbits in rescues.:( If your doe has a litter, have you got the funds, time and space to look after them all? Do you know the background of your bunnies? Are they related? Do they have any hereditary diseases that they may pass on to the kits?

Have your rabbits been vaccinated? The best thing to do is to get them both neutered, as this will not only prevent them from having any more accidents, but it will also ensure that your doe doesn't get uterine cancer.

Welcome to RU!:wave:
 
Aaaw so young :(
My advice would be to get them both neutered and your little girl can spend the time with them both and watch them grow up...she's getting experience if you got the buns at 6wk old.
So much can go wrong with kits and parents, it isn't fair on them.

Welcome to RU :D
 
Hello & welcome :)

How sad about your poor bunny and her babies :( So sorry.

There are lots of people on here who will be able to help & advise so please ask lots of questions and you'll learn a lot :) You'll also get a lot of support which can be a great comfort when things go wrong. Talk to your vet about getting both buns neutered. The sooner you can get this done the happier your buns will be. You'll obviously need to keep them separate until then and for a while afterwards (6-8 weeks post op for male rabbits). They may need some help re-bonding after the ops but it's definitely worth doing for lots of reasons.

Best of luck :)
 
I would say get them both neutered when the vet feels they are big enough, give it at least a month after neutering (so they can both heal and to ensure the male isn't still fertile as some sperm can still be in his 'tubes' and pregnate her within the first 4 weeks after being neutered plus their hormones take a little time to completely subside), then reintroduce them so they can rebond and live together again without the worry of babies. You def need to get them both neutered though to minimise hormonal arguments and diseases later on in life. :wave:

You will need to have 2 big hutches and runs until they can go back together and im sure nearer the time to bonding them together again, you will get plenty of help from members here on the best way to go about it!

:wave:
 
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HI I'm new to this - need advice

hello and welcome to RU:wave:so sorry to hear what has happened to your little family:cry:Agree with what has been said so far but if the buck (male bun) was still in with the dow (female) she could be pregnant again:shock:rabbits will mate again almost as soon as they have given birth:shock:so i would get your doe neutered ASAP or you may have another litter:cry:
 
I would say get them both neutered when the vet feels they are big enough, give it at least a month after neutering (so they can both heal and to ensure the male isn't still fertile as some sperm can still be in his 'tubes' and pregnate her within the first 4 weeks after being neutered plus their hormones take a little time to completely subside), then reintroduce them so they can rebond and live together again without the worry of babies. You def need to get them both neutered though to minimise hormonal arguments and diseases later on in life. :wave:

You will need to have 2 big hutches and runs until they can go back together and im sure nearer the time to bonding them together again, you will get plenty of help from members here on the best way to go about it!

:wave:

Exactly what i was going to say.

Your female may actually be already pregnant, especially if the male was there when she gave birth. You can have an emergency spay carried out, but this can only be done early on and of course it depends how you feel. If you wish for her to have the litter, i would keep the male separate and carry out some research for when the litter arrives. Once the babies have been weaned you could then have the female spayed, the male could be done now and then 6-8weeks down the line you could attempt to bond them and i am sure they will be much happier with each other :D

All the best in what ever you decide :wave:
 
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Welcome to RU.
I agree with the earlier posters who have suggested desexing for both the buns & then rebonding when they are all recovered & their hormone levels have settled.
This option would definitely improve their chances of having long, happy & healthy lives & being there to be the companions your daughter loves.
I would suggest finding a vet who knows buns - ask on RU for help finding one near you.
Get the buns vaccinated & also consider pet insurance for them to help deal with any unexpected veterinary costs.
This is a link to a great website which has been a great help to me, along with RU of course :)

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/index.php?section=leaflets.html
 
Hi there,

I have kits with me at the moment from another persons unplanned litter so I can very much sympathise with your and your daughters loss. The one thing I will say is.

Your doe will be pregnant again. She is fertile as soon as she has had the babies and if she was in with the buck still then they almost certainly mated.

If your buck & doe are related there may be genetic problems that caused the kits death & that is likely to happen to the next litter too. If it wasn't genetic and she rejected them for some reason then again she might do this again. At 6 months this would be about normal for most breeders to start so I don't think it was her age that caused the babies to die. It is almost impossible to handrear baby bunnies which you might be face with doing. When we have tried at Fatfluffs the sucess rate is about 1 per litter and it is heartbreaking.

Given all of this I think you should get your girl booked in for an emergency spay. If you get the boy done at the same time you will be able to put them back together very quickly. Spaying her will also protect her from uterine cancer which is very common in unspayed does over the age of 2.
 
Thanks for that so far. Both are having vaccinations starting on Tuesday and I will be looking at getting them both neutered I think but unfortunately not sure what cost I am looking at so it may take a while.

Any help and info would be greatly received on bonding them once the above has been carried out.

Janet, Gemma
Harry and Midnight:wave:
 
neutering will normally be in the £40-£60 region and believe me will be probably cheaper than trying to feed 7 babies until they are old enough to leave mum at 8 weeks and buying another hutch to house the boys in if you can't rehome them by 10 weeks at which point they could get mum pregnant :D:D:D:D

Fat Fluffs have just taken in 10 does, many pregnant from a home where 2 unneutered buns became 42 in a very short space of time and it got completely out of control. In this case I think the woman tried to take advantage over what was initially a mistake to try and raise some cash but found that the demand was a lot less for baby bunnies than she originally thought so as a result I now have 2 mums & six babies in my shed and another 2 litters on the way. Our original 10 mums have become about 20 bunnies and might possibly go up to about 30..... just warning you because they do say "at it like bunnies" for a reason. Also unless you know the genetic history of the buns you risk genetic problems like bad teeth, splay legs, heart defects etc, especially if she was mated to her brother.
 
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