Is my rabbit pregnant and if so when should i expect babies? please help

Hi all,

I got 2 rabbits back in january, a mother (around a year and a half old) and one of her babies. The baby is now 4 months old and I had him neutered around 2 weeks ago, all went well and he's microchipped now too.

Now, i was told at the time, advice from my local vets and from people i spoke to for advice that he was too young to have gotten his mother pregnant and even now after the op he still is very unlikely to be fertile/mature enough to get her pregnant so i was told i could keep them together as I got him neutered soon as i was able to.

However... she normally eats like a gannet, her pellets anyway, and last 2 days i've noticed the food bowls arent being emptied as they normally are, maybe a quarter of the food is left now however every bit of hay i put in seems to be being eaten (they also have straw for bedding aswell as hay) AND i went into the shed yesterday to check them and feed them, fill their water bottles up etc and as i opened the door to the top floor small room (meant as a bedding area, but they sleep downstairs so i use this as they food area) and i found mum has been pulling her hair and made a nest in there in the corner and moved some hay into there too.

I gently picked her up and after some advice tried to gently feel for any kitts but im inexperienced and dont think i could feel anything, however she made some groany noises at me for it then when i had her she was more cwtchy than normal and just cwtched into my arm and led down, normally she wants to run around off my lap.

Would you say she may be pregnant...is it possible and if so how long might she have please?? I've never owned bunnies before, only guineas, and had pregnant guineas so know the signs for them but not rabbits. read up on all the care etc just not sure if shes actually pregnant or not.

Advice muchly appreciated,

Thanks muchly!

I am presuming the female is not neutered? In which case she may be having a pregnancy or a phantom pregnancy or some other womb based issues - cancer is a very high risk with unneutered female rabbits.

It is possible for the 4 months old to get the doe pregnant - but the symptoms you suggest are of advanced pregnancy (if not phantom) and that would mean he would have had to be fertile and randy enough to mount the mother when he was 3 months if I read your post right. Was there any sign of that?

It is true males remain fertile afterwards but this does drop off quite rapidly - although the hormonal behaviour remains for a couple of months. (which is why people get a bit confused about the longevity of the fertility) and the timing of castration etc suggests this was before that if she is building a nest now.

Females are pregnant for c30-32 days.

I am not sure what to recommend - any stopping of eating or groaning when picked up would usually be a clear indication to take her to the vets, but if she is about to give birth then I would not disturb her.

If it is a phantom pregnancy then she should recover in a day or so.

PS Neutering of females is very important because of the cancer risk - so once this is sortedit would be great for her if you could find a rabbit savy vet and have this done. All good vets recommend it.

Were you sure of his age when you got the rabbits? He could have been older. Otherwise I doubt she iss pregnant although you never know.

Im positive the boy was born on 29th November 2013. Mum is about a year to a year and a half old from what im told.

I was told by a vet that he probably couldnt get her pregnant but other people i got advice from said he could, i trusted the vet and may now it seems have been daft to do so :/

His testicles had started dropping a few weeks before his op and he was trying to mount mum, just didnt seem to know what to do so i thought he would be fine and as was told he wouldnt be fertile anyway left them together until just before the op and for a few days afterwards.

i've no idea when she could have caught though so no idea when she could be due as i didnt think i needed to note it from info i was given unfortunately.

as for having mum spayed, i do plan on doing that as i do understand the health benefits to her, i read up on this, however i was advised to get the male done to start with as his hormones would be more of a problem first, and coulnt afford to have both done at the same time, but will be doing so in next weeks or months depending on whether shes pregnant now i guess.

The groaning, wasnt a get off me groan and she wasnt nasty towards me and didnt fight meoff any more than she always has and wasnt something that worried me hugely, more seemed that as she was sat on the nest, maybe she was warning me of it and possible pregnancy but im not sure.

With her eating, its not that shes stopped eating... shes just not wolfing down the full bowl of food, more leaving a 1/4 of iot and instead replacing it with lots of extra hay.

thanks all, any further help would be much appreciated

What date was your boy neutered?

tonibun said:

What date was your boy neutered?

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Hi. He was neutered on the 26th March.

so if she is pregnant she is over 16 days. you have 16 more days to wait . . . though if she is they dont usually start with the nest building until the last few days (unless its a phantom)

So you won't really know if she isn't pregnant until around the 22nd-24th April.

How much food are you giving them? A full bowl is far too much..normally an adult rabbit would get no more than an eggcupful per day of pellets.

When they have phantom pregnancies it can be stressful for them and I have heard of does going off their food a bit. Is she pooing, do you know? It might be worth separating the male until she is spayed just in case she is pregnant.

Personally I would pop her to the vets if she hasn't had any babies by the weekend, providing she is not acting as though she is about to give birth still or has stopped eating/pooing altogether.

Vegan_Bunny said:

How much food are you giving them? A full bowl is far too much..normally an adult rabbit would get no more than an eggcupful per day of pellets.

When they have phantom pregnancies it can be stressful for them and I have heard of does going off their food a bit. Is she pooing, do you know? It might be worth separating the male until she is spayed just in case she is pregnant.

Personally I would pop her to the vets if she hasn't had any babies by the weekend, providing she is not acting as though she is about to give birth still or has stopped eating/pooing altogether.

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Okay a bowl full was a figure of speech. But i measure out the food as per the food make guidelines for them and they get that amount. No idea how many grammes as its habit now to reach the set line and thats it.

Yep shes definitely pooing fine and eating any veggies i give them too.

And okay, i'll separate them tomorrow then.

Thanks muchly

RabbitNewbie said:

Okay a bowl full was a figure of speech. But i measure out the food as per the food make guidelines for them and they get that amount. No idea how many grammes as its habit now to reach the set line and thats it.

Yep shes definitely pooing fine and eating any veggies i give them too.

And okay, i'll separate them tomorrow then.

Thanks muchly

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Ah okies. If you separate them, make sure they can still see/sniff/touch each other through the bars so their bond doesn't break completely. This way (hopefully) you should have an easy time rebonding them.

Vegan_Bunny said:

Ah okies. If you separate them, make sure they can still see/sniff/touch each other through the bars so their bond doesn't break completely. This way (hopefully) you should have an easy time rebonding them.

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The only way i can separate them is by putting one each in each layer of the hutch, its a two tier that has a hatch that i can close, i dont have any other hutches i can put them in. Would this be ok?

If you keep them together your boy might kill the babies, if she is pregnant. When, and if, she has babies, you would have to close the upstairs off in case babies fell down the ramp. You could ask your Vet about an emergency spay which in the circumstances would be the most sensible answer. It's a difficult situation as even if you kept them together and she has babies, the nest upstairs would have to be shut off, unless you just let her up there twice a day

Just on the off chance she is pregnant, it might be worh reading this.

I also agree you need to separate them because she can actually still get pregnant from him. Alternatively, you could get a vet check with a view to getting her spayed ASAP if she isn't in the late or early stages of pregnancy.