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Surprise babies - Help!

Hi I'm not sure if this is the right place :s

Today I have gone to sort my rabbits out today and have found 6 surprise babies, all alive thankfully. But 1 was in the bedding area and the other 5 was on the bottom, which is hot concrete due to weather! In a panic I made a quick nest box as she had not made one, and then put all 6 in the box before putting the box and her into our indoor cage. I did this because my male rabbit was trying to hump her and its very cool in my dinning room so they be cooler and I can keep an eye on all of them, she has free roam of the dinning room too. I know I shouldn't have touched them but I didn't want them to die from burning on concrete! They all seem in good condition, rolling themselves round and don't look wrinkly (was told a sign of not eating?). They are already black colored instead of pink, could they have been born yesterday? I wasn't home and I def know they weren't here at weekend even tho i didn't check their bedding box so :s

So I have some questions as I have no idea what to do and look out for;
- Now mum has calmed down, Iv picked up her and cant c any teats or c any fur pulled out. Is this a bad sign? Could she be feeding but hiding?
- She has bleed, can c on the saw-dust, only a little spots. Is that ok or should i watch her?
- She doesn't seem interested at all, even when in big cage, when she panicked she ran into their nest box and was on top of them. I moved her out but worried she might not want them and might squash them.
- I know I shouldn't handle them anymore and if do to hold her 1st due to smell, should i check on them 1-2 times a day? I can spy through the backdoor but cant c into the nest box.

Other than that, what else should i do or watch? tips?

My mums friend is a vet nurse so have contacted her, hopefully she will come have a look and just make sure that she is feeding them and she handles her better than me as i dont want to hurt her. I am in a panic as I don't really want to lose them (i know 1st litter usually dont survive) but Id be really upset obv. I knew she looked a little fat other day and obv knew she would get preg, just not that quick as they only been together a month! Will be taking male to vets next week if can get an appointment and then I will get her done in a few weeks after babies are on normal food.

Thank you stef x
 
Hi I'm not sure if this is the right place :s

Today I have gone to sort my rabbits out today and have found 6 surprise babies, all alive thankfully. But 1 was in the bedding area and the other 5 was on the bottom, which is hot concrete due to weather! In a panic I made a quick nest box as she had not made one, and then put all 6 in the box before putting the box and her into our indoor cage. I did this because my male rabbit was trying to hump her and its very cool in my dinning room so they be cooler and I can keep an eye on all of them, she has free roam of the dinning room too. I know I shouldn't have touched them but I didn't want them to die from burning on concrete! They all seem in good condition, rolling themselves round and don't look wrinkly (was told a sign of not eating?). They are already black colored instead of pink, could they have been born yesterday? I wasn't home and I def know they weren't here at weekend even tho i didn't check their bedding box so :s

So I have some questions as I have no idea what to do and look out for;
- Now mum has calmed down, Iv picked up her and cant c any teats or c any fur pulled out. Is this a bad sign? Could she be feeding but hiding?
- She has bleed, can c on the saw-dust, only a little spots. Is that ok or should i watch her?
- She doesn't seem interested at all, even when in big cage, when she panicked she ran into their nest box and was on top of them. I moved her out but worried she might not want them and might squash them.
- I know I shouldn't handle them anymore and if do to hold her 1st due to smell, should i check on them 1-2 times a day? I can spy through the backdoor but cant c into the nest box.

Other than that, what else should i do or watch? tips?

My mums friend is a vet nurse so have contacted her, hopefully she will come have a look and just make sure that she is feeding them and she handles her better than me as i dont want to hurt her. I am in a panic as I don't really want to lose them (i know 1st litter usually dont survive) but Id be really upset obv. I knew she looked a little fat other day and obv knew she would get preg, just not that quick as they only been together a month! Will be taking male to vets next week if can get an appointment and then I will get her done in a few weeks after babies are on normal food.

Thank you stef x

If the male was with her when she gave birth she is probably already pregnant again :cry:

This thread will be informative

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?327923-Accidental-Litters-and-Taking-on-Babies
 
No they have been separated, god i hope she not pregnant again the poor thing! I will get him done in the next few weeks as they are apart and then will get her done when the babies are weaned and if she not pregnant.

Thanks for the links x
 
If he was with her even a couple of hours after giving birth, it's extremely likely she will be pregnant :( How come you had an un-neutered male and female together? Males can mature and reproduce at 3 months old so really must to be kept apart until neutered :wave:
 
I was told by a friend that its good to have litter before getting them done, and to be honest i wasn't against her having a litter.
 
that is actually a myth however just enjoy them for now and i hope everything goes well :wave:
 
I dont think its going well, I been stroking her and 1 of the babies was by her but she just kicked it, ran away and tipped up her food bowl and then their nest box :s

I dont know what to do now as Im scared she dont want them :?
 
I was told by a friend that its good to have litter before getting them done, and to be honest i wasn't against her having a litter.

I'm not being mean or trying to be horrible but you really should have researched this before letting it happen as you would have realised its not right and puts the mothers life at risk amongst other things

But you know now and are asking for Help so you obviously care :)
 
Having the male in the hutch after birth and humping her has prob stressed mum out unfortunately, which might make her reject the kits :cry:
 
I dont think its going well, I been stroking her and 1 of the babies was by her but she just kicked it, ran away and tipped up her food bowl and then their nest box :s

I dont know what to do now as Im scared she dont want them :?

You need to leave her and the kits alone after making sure all kits are in the nest

She will only feed them once a day, usually during the night.

Have a read of the link we have posted which contains a lot of useful advice
 
Not being rude, but you need to leave them alone, she will (hopefully) know what to do and will feed them most probably at night! :)
 
I have read through this entire thread and everywhere I have looked I keep finding false info, false info, dangerously false info.... As a breeder with experience it is my duty to educate, even if you don't read it at least I tried. If the buck was on her moments after birth, it is HIGHLY likely she has already conceived again. In the breeding world this is called back breeding and is done be irresponsible breeders to churn out litter after litter for sale. Rabbits ovulation is stimulated by breeding, that is a fact. If she did conceive then you will have another litter just as the others are just beginning to wean.
Next item, It is perfectly fine to touch baby bunnies... it is soo very false that a mother will reject the babies if they are touched :roll: When my litters are born, from their first moments they are handled. I handle them to check that mom has not chewed off a limb over cleaning, I handle them to make sure they are getting plenty of milk, every day for five minutes *with the amount of time going up as they get bigger* I hold babies to check them, and by handling them this way they are calmer, and easier to handle as adults. Make sure the doe is separated from all males... to make a nest box please don't use hay, when baby bunny eyes open the pointy sticks can get jabbed into wobbly first step baby bunny eyes...and blindness and injury result... I go to the dollar store and buy cotton balls if mama hasn't made her own nest. I line the box with the cotton balls and it works great. safe for bunnies, absorbent and warm. change the nest weekly. because it gets dirty. Rabbits don't just feed their babies at night... mama rabbits hop into the nest box several times a day, every few hours to feed babies.
 
But people HAVE been saying that the buck may have made her pregnant again. and the link explains about the feeding etc.

Handling is one of those things that people are divided about but generally advice on here is that they should be checked over once or twice a day but not handled too often and I think people are concerned the OP is handling too much.


My experience has been that the mothers feed only once or twice a day but maybe this differs in different set ups? My vet suggested that leaving the mother in a very large area so that she can get away from the kits when not feeding is more natural as that is how they would be in the wild - leaving the kits camouflaged in the nest and the mother sleeping elsewhere. If the area is too small then she will be forced to be with them rather than just ging back to feed - but I suspect that is not an option for the OP.
 
But people HAVE been saying that the buck may have made her pregnant again. and the link explains about the feeding etc.

Handling is one of those things that people are divided about but generally advice on here is that they should be checked over once or twice a day but not handled too often and I think people are concerned the OP is handling too much.


My experience has been that the mothers feed only once or twice a day but maybe this differs in different set ups? My vet suggested that leaving the mother in a very large area so that she can get away from the kits when not feeding is more natural as that is how they would be in the wild - leaving the kits camouflaged in the nest and the mother sleeping elsewhere. If the area is too small then she will be forced to be with them rather than just ging back to feed - but I suspect that is not an option for the OP.

Oh? that wasn't what I was getting at all from the OP, the OP seemed to have in mind that she did something wrong by touching the kits "I had to pick them up off the hot concrete, I know I shouldn't touch them" *just the jist of what she said* And then I read post after post about not handling them. They should be handled, for about five minutes*the entire litter, not one at a time* at this age, once or twice a day. After 10 days of age they should be handled more. Every Doe I have ever bred nurses about four times a day. I keep a baby nursery camera set up and trained on my nursery cage when I have a litter *that way if i'm inside and a baby accidentally falls or gets out of the nest box I can respond immediately before they get chilled* and after watching those cams, I see around four feeds a day. Yes a bigger area is a must for mama bunny, my nursery cage is 6' wide, 6' deep, and five foot tall with a second story half shelf area so mama can get away from babies.
 
Oh dear, it's good your asking for advice now, but how on earth can you say they are 'surprise babies' when you have deliberately kept an un-neutered doe and buck together, with the full intention of letting them breed. My advise to others that may be considering such action (please don't :cry:) but if you must, at least have yourself a good understanding BEFOREHAND of all that you need to know, so as to keep mum and babies safe and well. Still, on a positive note at least you will know for when the next litter arrives in about 4 weeks.

I really hope that this does not happen, but maybe you need to prepare yourself for some pretty horrific findings, especially as mum is not sounding a happy bunny at all, and you don't sound as though you have got an appropriate set up prepared, even though this was obviously going to and what you wanted to happen, but I think I am right in saying that mum may kill and or eat the babies, and I really don't know how she is going to cope with another litter so soon after such a traumatic experience, and there could be a possibility that she will never recover from the trauma of all this. I definitely know of a friend (not any more!!), whose bunny went through the same thing, and the poor bun was never actually the same or as happy ever again, and the doe killed all of the kits and ate 2 of them.
 
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Oh dear, it's good your asking for advice now, but how on earth can you say they are 'surprise babies' when you have deliberately kept an un-neutered doe and buck together, with the full intention of letting them breed. My advise to others that may be considering such action (please don't :cry:) but if you must, at least have yourself a good understanding BEFOREHAND of all that you need to know, so as to keep mum and babies safe and well. Still, on a positive note at least you will know for when the next litter arrives in about 4 weeks.

I really hope that this does not happen, but maybe you need to prepare yourself for some pretty horrific findings, especially as mum is not sounding a happy bunny at all, and you don't sound as though you have got an appropriate set up prepared, even though this was obviously going to and what you wanted to happen, but I think I am right in saying that mum may kill and or eat the babies, and I really don't know how she is going to cope with another litter so soon after such a traumatic experience, and there could be a possibility that she will never recover from the trauma of all this. I definitely know of a friend (not any more!!), whose bunny went through the same thing, and the poor bun was never actually the same or as happy ever again, and the doe killed all of the kits and ate 2 of them.

I agree, there is hardly a person in the world that has not heard the saying "Breed like rabbits" and that saying is so very very true, rabbits are some of the most fertile little critters in existence, and one of the few animals in which almost ever breeding is successful. To keep a male and female together is asking for a litter *I never let even neutered males around my females until six months post op just to be sure.* Because of the male being on her, spend the time learning all you can from this litter, and read read read... suck up bunny birth knowledge like a sponge. Mama bunny may not be traumatized for life *pregnant mothers of all species of mammal produce a hormone called oxytocin, a feel good chemical to the brain that fools mothers brains into forgetting the pain and trauma of birth, so she will repeat the act of reproduction again.* But keep it from happening again... Pragnancy weakens a mothers bones from the calcium taken to build babies, nutrients, etc.
 
I didn't mean surprise as I knew she would, I meant it as I was expecting them suddenly this week.

Thank u for advice and comments. I'm glad iv not caused harm by touching them, I do stroke Mum before. My vet friend is coming round later to check and vets appointment to check her and them are booked for this wk. Also will get Mr appointment booked while there.

Iv checked them this morning all is fine, they are all alive and look fed. Mum has pulled her fur and built a nest in corner, so I think she didn't want them in box. So they been moved into the new nest and she seems much happier today and with them. She is in a indoors hutch but its open so she has free roam of out dinning room and boxes (just moved) to run in. Mr is in the outdoor hutch and will be in there until they can be back together and no more babies.
 
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It sounds as though you intended to breed, then? I hope you have good homes lined up for the kits.
 
I didn't mean surprise as I knew she would, I meant it as I was expecting them suddenly this week.

Thank u for advice and comments. I'm glad iv not caused harm by touching them, I do stroke Mum before. My vet friend is coming round later to check and vets appointment to check her and them are booked for this wk. Also will get Mr appointment booked while there.

Iv checked them this morning all is fine, they are all alive and look fed. Mum has pulled her fur and built a nest in corner, so I think she didn't want them in box. So they been moved into the new nest and she seems much happier today and with them. She is in a indoors hutch but its open so she has free roam of out dinning room and boxes (just moved) to run in. Mr is in the outdoor hutch and will be in there until they can be back together and no more babies.

im glad she seems better this morning :)

i dont think anyone should have a go at you as you clearly love them and my aunty thought the same thing with her rabbits when she first got them. so dont be frightened off by any seemingly stern comments as people are very passionate on hear but mean no harm. :wave:

the important thing is that you know the facts now and have a plan in place which you do. i hope the vet visit goes well and all the best. dont be affraid to come back for more advice as time goes on.:wave:
 
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