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Advice re our new arrivals

J

JGT

Young Bun
Hi all,

My little dutch bunny, Holly has just presented me with a litter of 5 new kits.

They are all fit healthy and certainly very wriggly. Hol is being a good mum and they are all well fed and were feeling hopeful about this litter.

Unfortunately two of the youngsters have lost ears in the birth, i guess she had to help them out. Other than this they are fine and we are not even considering enuthanising them and intend to keep them ourselves.

The wife is a vet so the medical side is covered but im curious as to whether anyone else has had this kind of experience before? How did it work out? did you have any special considerations? Do you have any advice? How did the ear develop? did it grow back?

Although these kits are only 3 days old we dont think its too early to start planning for potentially special needs bunnies and any observations/advice greatfully accepted.
 
Hiya congrats on new arrivals was it a supprise?

What I know about babies can be written on the back of stamp, but I know you're not suppose to ouch the nest at all, so leave them to it. If a baby falls from the nest wear a rubber glove and put your hands in the mothers litter before picing up the baby to put it back in. Lots of bunnies have damaged ears at birth, my two rews have parts of their ears missing and no unfortunetly they don't grow back.

Good luck with the buns :D
 
This is actually her second litter in 5 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both were totally unexpected, the first one was a complete shock as we thought she was too young. Unfortunately that went the way a lot of first prgegnancies do with a lot of damage caused in Holly helping the kits out during childbirth. We lost all 4 in the first few hours.

I can understand how that happened as the male was still in there at birth and wasnt removed until we discovered the litter.

Apparently that wasnt soon enough and unless Holly has suffered the rabit equivalent of an immaculate conception he got to her in the hours/minutes between birth and removal (we can say this as the dates work, they havent been together since except thru the cage wire and all the others are neutered).

So far so good however, 3 days in, not fatalities and all appears to be going well...
 
Please emove your buck straight away as a bunny can get pregnant straight after she's given birth. You may need some addtional supplements being as she has had two litters in a short space of time. It may be time for your little bloke to have the chop, should be easy if your wife is a vet, but he remans fertile up to six weeks after his bits have gone.
 
awwww! I'm sorry to hear that you lost the first litter :cry: I hope these babies will be OK. unfortunatly I don't have any experiance of newborn rabbits, but someone will be able to give you good advice soon.
 
.

how old is she?
Are you now considering getting the male neutered? It will help prevent anymore unplanned babies. Would be a good idea as it seems the mum has had a bit of a stressful time.
Best now to make sure she has plenty to eat and drink and leave her undisturbed with her babies...follow Soad's advice if you find any out of the nest.....fingers crossed for the little ones
 
I've sent you a private message with a link to a previous thread on this very issue so you can have a read of the advice there. (Didn't want to post the link here just to keep the tangent debates from it out of the spotlight)

Now is probably a good time to be getting the male neutered, as he will be ready to go back with mum by the time the babies are old enough to be away from her.
 
HoneyBunny:

Thanks for that advice, you can bet his bits are going! and PDQ as well...
Holly is 7 months, fortunately she is a very fit and healthy as well as laid back bun, she has taken all this in her stride well and when we jail the big buns to let her have a run around at night she goes mad racing every where! Needless to say she is eating like a horse

SOAD:

How do your earless ones cope? did you have any problems? do you have any pictures so i can get an idea of how they are going to develop?
 
It's not uncommon for females (Particularly young/inexperienced) to do damage to their litter sometimes to the point of killing them. Missing ears and tails are quite common. They should be safe now though and just keep an eye they heal up fine.

Other than looking funny they shouldn't have any special needs :)
 
I have no actually piccies, but if you give me untill the morning I will take some picces and put them on for you :D
 
Must be something about bunnies named Holly!! :roll:

My Holly also produced an unexpected litter of 4 back in early Feb. Sadly 2 died within the first few days but happily 2 survived.

I just left mum to it really, just fed her extra and made sure she had plenty of greens. I was very careful when I did touch the babies and did the 'bag on the hand and hand in the poop' trick!!

Not sure about the earless ones though but I would have thought they will be ok.... saw a pic of one on the rehoming section the other day and it looked very cute if a bit odd.
 
There have been a few recent topics on here but as it hasnt been mentioned on your one: When you need to clean the hutch take Mum out and clean all the areas around the nest. Be sure to leave the area around the nest alone, if it is a corner with an 'entrance' leave that alone as Mums leave their scent around the opening and will check that it hasnt been touched. Try not to touch the kits too much! As long as you can see they are all still alive they can be left.
Do you think Mum would start to use a litter tray if she doesnt already? It is worth a try if she toilets in one area.
Greens are good for milk production but only if Mum is used to having them. Dandelions from the garden go down a treat but best to wash them first.
Good luck
Louisa
 
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