I might have pregnant rabbits . . .

I had to move some of my rabbits around temporarily recently, because I had to put a guinea pig in their cage, so two of my girls were in a double hutch, that my boy normally lives in. There's a run attached to the front of the hutch, so I just put him in the run (with a little hut to sleep in) and closed the hutch.

But then the other morning I hear a banging noise when I wake up, and go outside, and the boy had opened the hutch and was chasing the girls, who were stamping their feet. Of course I got him out of there, and I hadn't thought he would have been able to get in there. Now maybe they weren't ready to mate, or maybe they already had mated and wanted him to go away . . . because they seemed to not want him there at all!

The girls are 5 months old roughly, there's about two weeks between them, and aren't spayed. So I might well be looking at two unexpected pregnancies. At least they are old enough to delivery babies safely hopefully, since they're a smallish breed rabbit. One is almost as big as my adult ones, but one is still small, though she was always small.

But at least the plus side is, I live in the south of Ireland and there aren't many rabbits in rescue at all or advertised for sale, etc. and they are all the same breed, lionhead, which are quite popular, so it should be ok to find homes for all the babies . . . and I do know how to care for pregnant rabbits and the babies, we've had an unexpected litter before. It seems like it's becoming a theme, what with my last rabbit I bought, and the pregnant guinea pig I bought back in December!

So now just to wait . . . the suspense will kill me!

I'm doing research into keeping females together during pregnancy and raising the kits, since I've heard some people do that, in a big enough cage. My girls are closely bonded so I would hate to seperate them, I've heard stories of rabbits never being friends again after being seperated.

Anyway, wish Lily and Lila luck if they are pregnant, and me luck so I don't go crazy with caring for 10+ baby rabbits! :shock:

(Oh and btw, I know about neutering rabbits and all, but my girls are only 5 months, and I don't like the idea of spaying pregnant animals personally . . . )

Morgana said:

I had to move some of my rabbits around temporarily recently, because I had to put a guinea pig in their cage, so two of my girls were in a double hutch, that my boy normally lives in. There's a run attached to the front of the hutch, so I just put him in the run (with a little hut to sleep in) and closed the hutch.

But then the other morning I hear a banging noise when I wake up, and go outside, and the boy had opened the hutch and was chasing the girls, who were stamping their feet. Of course I got him out of there, and I hadn't thought he would have been able to get in there. Now maybe they weren't ready to mate, or maybe they already had mated and wanted him to go away . . . because they seemed to not want him there at all!

The girls are 5 months old roughly, there's about two weeks between them, and aren't spayed. So I might well be looking at two unexpected pregnancies. At least they are old enough to delivery babies safely hopefully, since they're a smallish breed rabbit. One is almost as big as my adult ones, but one is still small, though she was always small.

But at least the plus side is, I live in the south of Ireland and there aren't many rabbits in rescue at all or advertised for sale, etc. and they are all the same breed, lionhead, which are quite popular, so it should be ok to find homes for all the babies . . . and I do know how to care for pregnant rabbits and the babies, we've had an unexpected litter before. It seems like it's becoming a theme, what with my last rabbit I bought, and the pregnant guinea pig I bought back in December!

So now just to wait . . . the suspense will kill me!

I'm doing research into keeping females together during pregnancy and raising the kits, since I've heard some people do that, in a big enough cage. My girls are closely bonded so I would hate to seperate them, I've heard stories of rabbits never being friends again after being seperated.

Anyway, wish Lily and Lila luck if they are pregnant, and me luck so I don't go crazy with caring for 10+ baby rabbits! :shock:

(Oh and btw, I know about neutering rabbits and all, but my girls are only 5 months, and I don't like the idea of spaying pregnant animals personally . . . )

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You're lucky that the two does still get on at the age they are considering they're not neutered.

The girls, providing the vet is happy with their size etc can be neutered at 5months. Personally I would have them emergency spayed. If you don't agree with this, when able to I would get them spayed so there are no more 'accidents'.

Accidents happen I guess.

You say the does are small breeds, what size is the buck? If he's much bigger than the does, then with them being small and with it being their first litter, they might have difficulties giving birth.

I think I'd get them to the vets for emergency spays too. If it only happened 'the other morning' then if they have mated, they will only be in the very early stages of pregnancy. The babies will just be a bunch of connected cells.

If you decide to let them have the babies, then get the buck neutered in the meantime just in case it happens again.

Personally I would get them spayed.

Spaying is a smaller risk than the chance of their being problems in pregnancy/giving birth.

We had two rescue rabbits here. One had one kit and then her contractions stopped. We had to rush her down to be induced and if she had not had them an hour after the injection, she was going to have had to have a caesarian section. at £450.

Her sister, also pregnant to the same male, had 11 kits.

It will be cheaper and kinder to spay them.

Can you afford to feed/vaccinate 12+ buns up until rehoming? (If both are pregnant)

Do you have the facilities to seperate both litters into same sex groups at 8 weeks? (so 4 extra hutches) and then facilities to keep them all should they not find homes?

I understand why people would want to get them spayed, but I don't know, it just feels wrong to me. I know the embryos would just be a bunch of cells right now . . . but I'd be scared I'd feel really guilty, I can't get over if any of my animals dies and feel awful. That sounds quite selfish.

A lot of people said to wait until rabbits are 6 months to be spayed, I thought that was the normal age to wait to. They get on incredibly well, they groom each other all the time!

The male is only small thankfully, 3.25lbs, the females are only ever so slightly smaller, almost fully grown.

I know you'll think I'm very irresponsible, but it was a complete accident. I don't have the male neutered because I don't know what age he is, I got him when he was quite old, and was always very scared about that. I know you can neuter them when they are older too, and there are vets around here that will neuter rabbits but they're not experts at all, I live in the countryside and even the veterinary hospitals are not used to treating rabbits.

Luckily I will have space for seperating them if needs be and will be able to care for them.

Morgana said:

I understand why people would want to get them spayed, but I don't know, it just feels wrong to me. I know the embryos would just be a bunch of cells right now . . . but I'd be scared I'd feel really guilty, I can't get over if any of my animals dies and feel awful. That sounds quite selfish.

A lot of people said to wait until rabbits are 6 months to be spayed, I thought that was the normal age to wait to. They get on incredibly well, they groom each other all the time!

The male is only small thankfully, 3.25lbs, the females are only ever so slightly smaller, almost fully grown.

I know you'll think I'm very irresponsible, but it was a complete accident. I don't have the male neutered because I don't know what age he is, I got him when he was quite old, and was always very scared about that. I know you can neuter them when they are older too, and there are vets around here that will neuter rabbits but they're not experts at all, I live in the countryside and even the veterinary hospitals are not used to treating rabbits.

Luckily I will have space for seperating them if needs be and will be able to care for them.

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If their pregnant, the 'babies' honestly won't be anything more than cells yet. If you let them carry on with the pregnancy, you run the risk of loosing both mother rabbits from complications. And it's likely there will be runts or still born babies to deal with too.

I understand what you're saying about getting upset if a pet dies but you will not be killing the babies as they won't be developing into foetuses yet. If you get it done soon, you won't be killing anything. Spaying the does will take away the risk of pregnancy/birth complications and will also take away the risk of them getting uterine cancer.

I'm sure you've read this a million time on RU - Also bare in mind that every baby they have will effect a rabbit in rescue. In fact, each baby will effect several rabbits in rescue as no doubt they'll be rehomed unneutered and then there's every chance they will be bred from in the future too.

Are you also sure that you will be able to home the babies with people that will keep them correctly? Can you afford to do the responsible thing and get them all vaccinated before rehoming?

As for your buck, take him to the vets, get him health checked and get him neutered. If he's fit and healthy then there's no reason why he can't be neutered - a castration is a relitively un-invasive operation so provided he's in good health, he'll be fine. I had a seven year old doe spayed recently. If you get all three done, you could bond them into a trio. It's lovely watching a group of happy, non-hormonal bunnies playing and grooming each other.

Well he got in to them saturday morning so by the time I got them to the vet say Monday if they could, then they'd be about a week and a half pregnant, which is over a quarter of the way through pregnancy. I understand what everyone is saying, I really do, and I accept that rescues often have to spay pregnant animals and that there is an overpopulation of too many animals. Like I know a lot of rescues here would spay pregnant cats, because there are so many kittens around. But it's not something I really would do myself, if I had the choice. And I do have the choice with these rabbits.

And my teacher in college (a vet nurse) has said a few times, how she thinks it's slightly riskier spaying a pregnant animal (and I don't want to increase the risks with a rabbit, especially if I don't trust the vet 100% for a rabbit spay). And she says she'd prefer if people would actually let the animal (say for a cat) give birth and then get the kittens put down. Which I couldn't do either, but understand why people would need to. I always heard it was pretty risky spaying a rabbit, compared to a cat or dog. Though worth the risk to avoid uterine cancer . . . I just don't want to increase the risks.

But yeah, I will take full responsibility for all the babies if they are pregnant. I'm prepared that there will probably be 12 babies, maybe more. I've raised lots of baby animals in my time.

If there was small animal hospital around that was more specialised in rabbits, I'd feel better too. The vet hospitals here, while they do treat small animals, are still very much focused on farm animals. I was thinking of getting a guinea pig castrated but just didn't want to risk it either, and decided to keep him with another male instead. I'd love all my rabbits to be bonded one day, though I'd need more space for them But my plan once I have my own place is to have a huuuuge enclosure with a group of rabbits.

Maybe I would feel completely differently if I lived in England or the US, because I am always hearing that there are thousands of rabbits in rescues there. But here there aren't (well not in the south of the country anyway), I've known a few people looking for rabbits from rescues but just can't find any, guinea pigs too. So I don't feel too guilty about that.

I'd feel extremely guilty if anything happened one of my girls, especially since they seem a bit young to me, but I talked to a couple of breeders and they assured me they are big enough/old enough, and that rabbits are usually fine giving birth. I guess that makes sense since their babies are tiny. I was thinking of guinea pigs who often have birth problems, but their babies are a lot bigger.

Its great that there are hardly any rabbits in rescues in Ireland...however.....if you rehome these (lets say) 18 buns & some of them have 'accidents', the problem could get a little out of hand resulting in buns in rescues.

I dont doubt for a minute that you dont care for your rabbits & obviously give them the best life but please consider neutering your male to prevent this happening again.

I wish you the best with what ever you choose. xxxx

Well whatever I do, I will be keeping the male where there's no way he can accidentally get into the females. Now I look back I should have known he'd be determined, but I couldn't really have predicted he could open the door like that.

Anyway, I've thought about it, and it's my belief that I should let them have the litters. Afterall, people would go buy rabbits in pet shops anyway, but these ones will probably be healthier and friendlier. And I'll let everyone know if there are babies.

Morgana said:

Well whatever I do, I will be keeping the male where there's no way he can accidentally get into the females. Now I look back I should have known he'd be determined, but I couldn't really have predicted he could open the door like that.

Anyway, I've thought about it, and it's my belief that I should let them have the litters. Afterall, people would go buy rabbits in pet shops anyway, but these ones will probably be healthier and friendlier. And I'll let everyone know if there are babies.

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Hi Morgana,

I have had this happen to me so i can completely sympathize with your situation. My buck bred with 3 of my does. Two litters survived. One died. One died because i had two females together and i didn't know who's litter it was. They started fighting when the babies were born, even though they were bonded mother and daughter and i am not sure to this day if i took away the wrong rabbit, it's quite possible. Have you considered what you would do if your two started fighting unexpectedly- are you ready with everything on hand to hand rear- I wasn't and the kits died. It was quite upsetting and i wouldn't want you to be in the same position. Personally i'd seperate them now so you know who's kits are who's.

I am now in the process of spaying my animals as i don't want them having any more babies. I have 14 rabbits at the moment. I've also spayed all of my cats even though i did want to have a litter of kittens with one of my female cats. I decided to go through with it even though it was difficult as i realised it would be in the interest of there health. I do have does that are unneutered that have lived together harmoniously, but i think spaying calms an animal down and helps them. I hate the idea of it too, but in a world with so many abandoned and unloved pets, i couldn't contribute to an increase in those statitics.

Now don't get me wrong- - like to do things my own way. However, if you got chance to watch panorama the other night about all the dogs being putting to sleep in rescues, being an animal lover as i can tell you are, you may realize that sometimes it's kinder to take on rescues if we have room for more animals, rather than breed.

Don't get me wrong the experience of having baby animals is magical and of course there is the argument that if there were no rabbits being born- it would put the rescues out of business. Having an excess of unwanted animals in society creates jobs for rescues where they wouldn't have them otherwise and to as someone who wants to run a large rescue someday, even though i would love everyone to be responsible about there animals, if they were i wouldn't be in the rescue business for example.

So many philosophys and perspectives to choose from- We don't spay humans , we let humans breed - unless you are in china i believe. So why wouldn't we do the same with our pets. Why would we deny them that right. I guess there are lots of arguments for and against spaying. It is a personal choice your right. It all depends on perspective. However i believe rabbits are prone to getting cancer more frequently if they are unspayed.

All 7 of my spays have gone fine so far, no complications- i think the problems are a minority, i'm sure your animals would be fine if you could afford it. I would have a think about it. I would also consider that the people you rehome to may end up abandoning or neglecting the little ones- one of the reasons i couldn't rehome mine. If your anything like me, you may end up with a massive workload of rabbits to care for that you initially didn't intend for. It is easy when they are tiny, but as they grow and need more space- 6 x2 x2 hutches and 6x4 min runs- it gets extremely costly. I think rabbits may rehome, but they can often end up at rehoming centres when the owners get bored etc or doing have time for them.

Atleast spaying the male may be a good idea as then you won't have any more unexpected litters. It is easy on a male, unlike the female which is more invasive. Mind you i'm going through with my 6 as it's in thier best interest health wise, despite me only just deciding to do this after 4 years for my oldest doe, or five. I can't remember how old she is now.

Hope you get things sorted and the babies are all healthy and well, any advice pm me

Ambience xx

Hi thanks. Well I have no problem with spaying rabbits, but I don't want to spay them when pregnant. That's just my belief.

I have my dogs and cats spayed, and personally wouldn't breed them, because there are a lot of dogs and cats unwanted in Ireland, but not really with rabbits.

I do want to keep them together, as the majority or people say that they should hopefully be ok together, and if I seperate them they might never bond again. But if they do fight, I'll obviously seperate them. I think I'll know which babies are which because the male is black, one female is black and one female is white (frosty point possibly), so I think the babies will be very different, but who knows. Anyway, I'm going to try my best for them, and hopefully it all works out well.

Morgana said:

Hi thanks. Well I have no problem with spaying rabbits, but I don't want to spay them when pregnant. That's just my belief.

I have my dogs and cats spayed, and personally wouldn't breed them, because there are a lot of dogs and cats unwanted in Ireland, but not really with rabbits.

I do want to keep them together, as the majority or people say that they should hopefully be ok together, and if I seperate them they might never bond again. But if they do fight, I'll obviously seperate them. I think I'll know which babies are which because the male is black, one female is black and one female is white (frosty point possibly), so I think the babies will be very different, but who knows. Anyway, I'm going to try my best for them, and hopefully it all works out well.

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Oh ditto- i wouldn't do it whilst pregnant either. Didn't realise that's what you meant When the babies are born they have no fur, so you wont be able to tell which is which rabbits litter. Just thought i'd let you know, just incase you need to prepare to hand rear

Ambience x

Hmmm, it's a very hard decision. I, personally would get them spayed, but obviously that's my opinion. I think first off you should get any male rabbits you own neutered as a precaution. I hope everything works out okay. I guess in the wild females have babies together... I would make sure that their hutch (or wherever they live) has two separate sleeping areas so that they can make two separate nests if they want. Give them the option to get their own space. I think that would work the best.

Oh yeah, I wasn't thinking of them having no hair, good point. Hmm, well I will be prepared to handrear anyway. I'll do research into it.

And yeah Jenova, I will definitely make sure they have two different sleeping area. I imagine they'd build two different nests. They will have a very big space in the shed, that I can divide in two if I need to seperate them. They should be able to have 6ft X 5.5ft I think, if I make some modifications before then.

Am sorry you find yourself in this situation with your buns.
I accept were you are coming from with your does but do suggest the advice breeders have given you down plays the risks of pregnancy/delivery/postpartum issues somewhat.

Ambience provides you with the the possibilities as to how this situation can play out & her suggestion of at least getting your buck neutered is a good one. And certainly a step in the right direction.

I realise that rabbit savvy vets are not always easy to find - there are pretty much only two practices in the city I live in that are reliable for buns. However I'm sure there must be someone relatively nearby that could safely neuter your buck. Maybe your tutor could suggest someone?

Fingers crossed your does are not pregnant but if they are it will become a difficult, expensive & ongoing management issue to prevent further pregnancies. You will need to reliably sex all surviving kits or else the problem will snow ball & you'll end up with a colony. Have seen this frequently here as people have simply not get with the program when it comes to desexing their rabbits. It really only takes one overbreeding situation to completely fill a rescue for months.
I'm not trying to be horrible here but have been involved at the rescue end for too long to not see the worst possible case scenario playing itself out, which you have to think through.
Anyway sending lots of no pregnancies vibes!

Oh yeah, well my buck will be either neutered or kept extremely securely away from the others! That's not really a problem to do that anyway.

And luckily I can tell the sex of baby rabbits, so that shouldn't be a problem either, if I have to keep some for a longer time or anything. I'm hoping it'll be easy enough to find homes, but I guess there will be a lot of them. I can start working on it once they're born and then I have two months to find homes and can keep them longer if I need to of course. I'll try my best to find good homes.

Morgana said:

Oh yeah, I wasn't thinking of them having no hair, good point. Hmm, well I will be prepared to handrear anyway. I'll do research into it.

And yeah Jenova, I will definitely make sure they have two different sleeping area. I imagine they'd build two different nests. They will have a very big space in the shed, that I can divide in two if I need to seperate them. They should be able to have 6ft X 5.5ft I think, if I make some modifications before then.

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Ah one more thing- the other reason i took out the wrong mum from the hutch was because i couldn't see any of them feeding- they only feed about once daily and at night i believe, so i couldn't really tell who's litter it was. I think if you have two nests and the one mother smells the other mothers scent on the nest, any of the mothers could abandon or kill there own or the others litters. Rabbits get extremely touchy and jealous during pregnancy and upon giving birth. They may not only attack each other but each others kits. If you can work out the dates the kits are likely to be born- i'd seperate them a week prior so that you will not have multiple scents on the kits. This applys to familiar scents also , not just unknown ones. I learnt it first hand and it was a painful lesson to pick up the dead babies out of the nest.

Hope any of this helps,
Love Ambience x