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How to view down a rabbit hole (possible babies!)

Natty123

Warren Scout
Hi everyone,
So my rabbits have started burrowing around the garden (I put mesh a few feet down then covered it back up with soil so it's completely safe!) but unfortunately they did manange to get out a few times before i secured it all and now 3 out of the 7 have started making a nest! :O I can't remember how long ago it was that they got out though, but it would be quite a small possibility that they have found a male wild bunny and mated with him I should think?

Luckily I managed to get them all back in and it is very safe around my drive as there really are no foxes (I know everyone will disagree about this but there really is nowhere they can come from!) so they are all okay :)

What I'm wanting to do is find a way to see down the burrows and have a look if there are actually babies there. I have bred my bunnies before so I know how they act whilst pregnant / looking after a litter and one is unfortunately acting the same :/ it could just be a phantom pregnancy but it's a little odd that this is happening to 3 of them and they have all made a nest in separate burrows

I don't really know what to do now if there are babies, but what I really do want to do is have a look down the burrow! I wanted to do that anyway, but now there is the posibility of babies I really want to try and get something sorted :) does anyone have any suggestions? I am willing to spend about £20-£30 on something but I'm not very handy with DIY things so I doubt I will be able to make anything!

Sorry it's a bit of an essay!
 
How deep are the burrows ?

Your only option is to try to open up the burrows I think. If there are kits down there and the Does are now being denied access the kits will starve to death.

Getting your Does spayed would prevent this scenario happening again.
 
I agree with Jane about digging out the burrows and having your does spayed, both because it would prevent this happening again and because such a high percentage of unspayed females develop uterine cancer.
 
How to view down a rabbit hole (possible babies)

If you think that there may be babies down the holes then make sure that you cover the holes up at night with something heavy and fox proof:(even if you are sure that you do not have foxes around they may still smell rabbits and hunt around for the babies:(covering the holes will also stop the babies from being able to crawl out (which they may do if they are hungry) open the holes in the morning so that th does can go and feed the babies:)
Do you know about how old they may be? When they get to about 3/4 weeks old they will start to come out on their own so you will have to be vigilant and catch them when this happens:) covering the holes will keep them safe:)
I don't think you will be able to see down the burrows unless you try digging them out which may cause injury/fright to babies:(
 
I read that as the burrows are with the females in the secured area?

You can USB (plug into a laptop) snake cameras which might work, for around the £30 mark. You'd have to do it when the doe wasn't it there or they'd eat the end.

Natural behaviour would be once the babies are born, they'd fill in the entrance and then uncover it just at feed times ie once or twice a day probably after dark.

You could check for milk.

They only nest just prior to giving birth so from when they started nesting to when you should see first signs of babies poping out to look around would be about 3 weeks.
 
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