My wife and I, being fairly new to keeping rabbits, were sold two female bunnies (Bella and Charlie) by our local pet shop. Unfortunately Charlie turned out to be a boy, and even though we got him castrated as soon as we found out, on Christmas eve my wife discovered a litter of gorgeous kittens!
We telephoned our vet who gave us advice on how to care for them etc, but we now have a few question we'd like help with.
Bella and Charlie share a garage, where they had a two storey hutch. During the day they had access to a rabbit proof garden. When Bella gave birth she attacked Charlie, so we bought him his own hutch and separated them. Since then we've allowed them to exercise in the garage separately for two hour intervals, locking them both in at night.
Today, we reintroduced them together in the garden and they bonded again immeadiately!
We've tried to disturb the babies as little as possible, we think there are between 6 and 8. One died on Christmas day, we think Bella took him from the nest because he was either sick or she had too many to care for.
Our long term plan is to let them go homes that can provide better care for them than we can, or if we can't find enough homes, we will keep them (yes, we've considered the cost of neutering/feeding/vacinations etc - scarey, but we'll manage).
It's been a hard and worrying week, but today the kittens are a week old and all look healthy. Our main worry has been keeping them warm. They've been in the garage, in the upstairs bedroom of their hutch, three duvets over the hutch and a hot water bottle between the roof and the duvets. Bella, dispite being only 5 months old has taken to motherhood really well.
So to any of you who have been in this position before, we'd love advice on the following....
-What's the earliest Bella can be neutered - we don't want any insestuous relationships between mother and sons.
-The kittens are seven days old. Their bedding is currently moist (not damp or wet) but the kittens are warm. We've carefully changed some of the hay surrounding their nest, but when can we replace the majority of the hay in the nest?
-Should we move them - they are in an upstairs bedroom and when they do venture out, we don't want them to fall down the stairs and not be able to get back up? If we should move them, should this be either downstairs (no bedroom area) or to our other single storey hutch and if so at what age?
-Are the kittens at risk from their father. So far today, he's stood at the bottom of the stairs peering up, so he obviously knows they're there. This didn't seem to bother Bella. If we did allow him contact, obviously for the first few times this would be supervised. Should we just trust Bella to protect her babies?
Sorry there's so many questions but we're new to all this and would hate to make a mistake which harmed these beautiful kits!
thanks
We telephoned our vet who gave us advice on how to care for them etc, but we now have a few question we'd like help with.
Bella and Charlie share a garage, where they had a two storey hutch. During the day they had access to a rabbit proof garden. When Bella gave birth she attacked Charlie, so we bought him his own hutch and separated them. Since then we've allowed them to exercise in the garage separately for two hour intervals, locking them both in at night.
Today, we reintroduced them together in the garden and they bonded again immeadiately!
We've tried to disturb the babies as little as possible, we think there are between 6 and 8. One died on Christmas day, we think Bella took him from the nest because he was either sick or she had too many to care for.
Our long term plan is to let them go homes that can provide better care for them than we can, or if we can't find enough homes, we will keep them (yes, we've considered the cost of neutering/feeding/vacinations etc - scarey, but we'll manage).
It's been a hard and worrying week, but today the kittens are a week old and all look healthy. Our main worry has been keeping them warm. They've been in the garage, in the upstairs bedroom of their hutch, three duvets over the hutch and a hot water bottle between the roof and the duvets. Bella, dispite being only 5 months old has taken to motherhood really well.
So to any of you who have been in this position before, we'd love advice on the following....
-What's the earliest Bella can be neutered - we don't want any insestuous relationships between mother and sons.
-The kittens are seven days old. Their bedding is currently moist (not damp or wet) but the kittens are warm. We've carefully changed some of the hay surrounding their nest, but when can we replace the majority of the hay in the nest?
-Should we move them - they are in an upstairs bedroom and when they do venture out, we don't want them to fall down the stairs and not be able to get back up? If we should move them, should this be either downstairs (no bedroom area) or to our other single storey hutch and if so at what age?
-Are the kittens at risk from their father. So far today, he's stood at the bottom of the stairs peering up, so he obviously knows they're there. This didn't seem to bother Bella. If we did allow him contact, obviously for the first few times this would be supervised. Should we just trust Bella to protect her babies?
Sorry there's so many questions but we're new to all this and would hate to make a mistake which harmed these beautiful kits!
thanks
