Which doe has had the litter? can u tell which given birth?

hi

i bought 2 does from a kids farm at easter. it did occur to me that they might be pregnant at the time but didn't mind. neither rabbit appeared to be pregnant and we found some babies this morning. what a lovely surprise.

so, i go out and buy a second hutch so mum can have some time to herself. i assumed the Shadow was the mum coz she was upstairs with the babies and has been nesting all week. I moved Misty to the new hutch.

then it occurred to me. maybe Misty is the mum and i had separated her. I did not observe Shadow feeding the litter or paying them any attention.

So i examined misty only to find swollen teats. Shadow has not got swollen teats. is it correct that teats swell just BEFORE giving birth in which case is misty about to have a litter too?

HELP i need to know which is the mother so i can move the other to her own hutch, possibly to give birth too!!

thanks for any advice
katy.

It's difficult, swollen teats are often a sign of babies, the problem is you will probably never catch them feeding as they will do it when you're not around. If one has plucked her underside, chances are it's her babies, but it's hard to say, if they're not fighting it might be best to leave them together until you know for sure.

a similar thing happened to me with some girls I got off the free ads. I ended up leaving both adults in (once sure they were both female :wink: )

It's not usually recommended as other adult may kill the babies, but i had no other choice really.

One of my 7 babies died, but all rest are fine & healthy

Are they both the same colour? If there is fur in the nest that might be a clue

ok, thanks for the suggestions. grey fur has been used to line the nest.
one rabbit is black (but is paler underneath) and one is grey long haired.
mostly grey hairs are in the nest but both rabbits are bald underneath is patches - so i reckon both of them have contributed. Black hair can look grey when plucked coz its the soft stuff they use.

i think both are going to have/have had babies. they were kept together at the farm with other rabbits so reasonable to assume so. I can leave them together, but i really want to give them both the comfort and space they deserve! Misty will end up having babies in the open pen section of the hutch otherwise.