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rabbit labour

Just checking in. *sticks mod hat on*

Farrah, I appreciate you're probably feeling very emotional right now, with another litter of rabbits and then feeling as though you aren't getting the replies you were hoping for.

I don't want to have to close this so can I please ask that we put what's been said behind us and, going forward, can we keep replies to advice.

These babies are here now so there is little to gain from making the OP feel bad about it and farrah could use some help & support with raising them.

Please feel free to report or PM me with any further issues.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
 
Just checking in. *sticks mod hat on*

Farrah, I appreciate you're probably feeling very emotional right now, with another litter of rabbits and then feeling as though you aren't getting the replies you were hoping for.

I don't want to have to close this so can I please ask that we put what's been said behind us and, going forward, can we keep replies to advice.

These babies are here now so there is little to gain from making the OP feel bad about it and farrah could use some help & support with raising them.

Please feel free to report or PM me with any further issues.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

thankyou 😁😆
 
well 2 off the 5wk have eye problems which i’ve known about for a week one has an eye ulsar causing conjunctivitis which o am treating amd the other is partially blind so i’m paying to be trained how to care for him
 
Hi Farrah, my local rescue had a pregnant doe in with a litter already. Her first set of babies were 5 weeks old and were eating well. She took the first litter out into a separate cage as they were being bullied by the doe. If your vet agrees, is this an option? Do you have a spare cage?
What are your plans for the babies? At 8 weeks, you need to separate the boys from the girls. What area are you in? Perhaps someone local can help with lending you a cage as a stop gap? I for one have a large spare that I could lend you if you happen to be near Nottingham where I live. I adopted a doe once who had 8 babies a week later so iv had kits and it is nerve racking, but you seem to be handling it well and getting the vet in.
Do you know if the vet is an exotics specialist? A lot of vets aren’t trained in rabbits so it’s worth checking the links that have been posted to see, especially if there are issues with the second litter. Let us know how things are today?
 
Also, rabbits have 2 uterus so can actually get pregnant again whilst giving birth. Most people don’t realise this and this does catch a lot of people out, so don’t feel like you’re the only one. This happened to my neighbour who took the male out as soon as she realised there were babies being born, but it was already too late and more arrived a few weeks later. Just thought I’d add that as it may explain the two pregnancies.
Anyway your male is neutered now so this shouldn’t keep happening. Just make sure any male babies are away from any females after 8 weeks.
If you join Facebook Rabbits UK site, there’s a woman on there who’s had an oops litter and one of her babies has an eye ulcer. Perhaps she can offer advice on care? She’s called Sarah. That’s also a pro rescue group so if you join, explain your situation and that you’re not a breeder. Hope that helps.
 
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Also, rabbits have 2 uterus so can actually get pregnant again whilst giving birth. Most people don’t realise this and this does catch a lot of people out, so don’t feel like you’re the only one. This happened to my neighbour who took the male out as soon as she realised there were babies being born, but it was already too late and more arrived a few weeks later. Just thought I’d add that as it may explain the two pregnancies.
Anyway your male is neutered now so this shouldn’t keep happening. Just make sure any male babies are away from any females after 8 weeks.
If you join Facebook Rabbits UK site, there’s a woman on there who’s had an oops litter and one of her babies has an eye ulcer. Perhaps she can offer advice on care? She’s called Sarah. That’s also a pro rescue group so if you join, explain your situation and that you’re not a breeder. Hope that helps.

thankyou so much xxxx
 
Hi Farrah, my local rescue had a pregnant
doe in with a litter already. Her first set of babies were 5 weeks old and were eating well. She took the first litter out into a separate cage as they were being bullied by the doe. If your vet agrees, is this an option? Do you have a spare cage?
What are your plans for the babies? At 8 weeks, you need to separate the boys from the girls. What area are you in? Perhaps someone local can help with lending you a cage as a stop gap? I for one have a large spare that I could lend you if you happen to be near Nottingham where I live. I adopted a doe once who had 8 babies a week later so iv had kits and it is nerve racking, but you seem to be handling it well and getting the vet in.
Do you know if the vet is an exotics specialist? A lot of vets aren’t trained in rabbits so it’s worth checking the links that have been posted to see, especially if there are issues with the second litter. Let us know how things are today?

i have a cage which they’ve been in for a couple days but i have to baracade it because they for through through the bars! my vet is trained and mainly deals with rabbits! thanks for everything! xxxxxx.
 
i have a cage which they’ve been in for a couple days but i have to baracade it because they for through through the bars! my vet is trained and mainly deals with rabbits! thanks for everything! xxxxxx.
I’m glad your vet is rabbit savvy, that will definitely help :thumb: you might be able to attach mesh to any bars that the babies are able to slip through. I’ve used cable ties to attach mesh to bars before:thumb: topping up the vibes for the bunnies :thumb:
 
I don't have any experience with one litter right after another, but if you are worried about mum hurting the older babies (or the older babies hurting the younger) then I would move older babies in to a different cage. It's not ideal but as Jack's-Jane said, at 5 weeks they should be okay without mums milk but they are still very delicate so please keep them on the same dry food and hay that was in mums cage or they could become very unwell. On here you might see that it's recommended that adult rabbits only have an egg cup of dry food (or less) each day. Your female has given birth twice in just over a month and has been using a lot of her energy to make milk, I personally would be giving her as much dry food as she wants and some vegetables (not carrots) every day, but only the dry food and veg that she's currently used to, anything else should be introduced very very slowly like with the babies.

Something else that is very important and i'm going to put this in bold so it isn't missed: Rabbits can squeeze through spaces that look way too narrow for them. I put some 8 week old rabbits in a dog crate, the rabbits were at least double the width of the space in between the bars but they could squeeze through easily. So please bear that in mind, you don't want any of them slipping through the bars and ending up somewhere dangerous or back in to dads/their siblings of the opposite sex cage

I'm not sure how old you are, but when I was about 13/14 I got a female rabbit who was already pregnant. I absolutely did not want to sell the babies to strangers where they'd probably be stuck in a 3ft cage by themselves and forgotten about a month or two later or worse, used as dog bait. I made a form for potential new owners and I wanted to know how much they knew about rabbits, pictures of where they would be kept etc and only sell the babies to the most suitable people. My step-mum promised two of them to friends of hers that I've never met and I was absolutely heartbroken, almost 10 years later I still resent my step-mum for what she did and wonder what kind of life those babies had. Anyway I know it's really tough, sometimes young people have better (and more up to date) knowledge about a certain topic but parents just don't want to listen. Many people have grown up thinking that keeping a single rabbit in a tiny cage with no hay etc is normal, and usually haven't spent enough time with those rabbits to know that they have as much personality as a cat or dog but are much more neglected, so when someone younger tries to say 'actually this isn't right' or 'please can we spend money on a larger cage/vet bills' they're called ridiculous and told it's just a rabbit. I really hope you can convince your parents to either let you choose the new owners carefully or give them to a rescue. Rescues are very full but if your parents seem insistent on selling the babies off to the first few people that show up then I honestly think rescue would be a better idea, perhaps you could sell the idea to your parents by saying they can all be moved at once, guaranteed to be very well looked after until they find a new home (and rescues normally do house visits to new owners to really ensure they're going somewhere good), they can stay with siblings for longer (male/female separated of course) and you won't have to deal with strangers coming to your house to look at the rabbits. If you find a rescue nearby with space then maybe you could offer to volunteer there and give something back.
 
i know the babies have to be baracaded in and the selling part my mums doing the same and i want what you wanted im 13
 
the vet said layla was fine yesterday but today she keeps curling over onto her back her ears are back and she’s acting weird, Should I be concerned?
 
the vet said layla was fine yesterday but today she keeps curling over onto her back her ears are back and she’s acting weird, Should I be concerned?

I think if your instincts are telling you something is wrong then it would be a good idea to get your vet to re-examine Layla asap. Rabbits health can go downhill very quickly. How long has she been acting weird? Does her breathing seem normal, is she eating & pooing?
 
i know the babies have to be baracaded in and the selling part my mums doing the same and i want what you wanted im 13

Right now selling the rabbits probably sounds (to your mum) the quickest and easiest way to get rid of the babies, you've gone from two (i think) bunnies to a very large group that are costing a lot in vet bills and I can imagine she just wants to get rid of them and back down to a more manageable number. Maybe you contact some rescues yourself, explain the situation, and IF they have space and can help then you can take that information to your mum, and rather than it being some unrealistic dream or something that would be a lot of hassle to arrange (which she might currently think about trying to take them to a rescue), she can see that it's an actual option and somewhere is willing to take them and ensure they go to only the best new homes. If she did really want the 'income' from selling the babies to cover vet bills etc. then perhaps you could offer to pay her back by earning/saving some money or doing a lot more housework. I really hope she changes her mind

the vet said layla was fine yesterday but today she keeps curling over onto her back her ears are back and she’s acting weird, Should I be concerned?

I don't suppose you have any pictures? I feel like you might be talking about something we call 'dead bunny flop', where they dramatically roll on to their side, if it is that then that's usually a sign of a very relaxed rabbit, go on google images or youtube and type in 'dead bunny flop' and let us know if that's what she's doing :) When she does it will she jump up if you disturb her with a loud noise/touch? Does she seem to be breathing at her normal rate (bear in mind a rabbits breathing rate is much higher than ours so even a relaxed rabbit can look like it's breathing a lot, it's better to compare to what she usually does)? Is she eating and drinking normally?

This is a useful guide:
behaviour_illness_shrunk.png
 
thought i’d let you know one off the babies was put to sleep today there kidney and bladder didn’t develop properly so they were weeing on itself burning it’s skin, in heartbroken i didn’t get to say goodbye on the way there she looked like she was dying and i was crying then when they said it i was sick and freaked out in hysterics so my dad told me to wait in the car
 
thought i’d let you know one off the babies was put to sleep today there kidney and bladder didn’t develop properly so they were weeing on itself burning it’s skin, in heartbroken i didn’t get to say goodbye on the way there she looked like she was dying and i was crying then when they said it i was sick and freaked out in hysterics so my dad told me to wait in the car

I am sorry for your loss. Baby bunnies, especially those who are of the age of your first litter, can go downhill very quickly so there is not time to say goodbye. I know this firsthand. You were with the baby on the way to the vets and I am sure she knew you loved her.
 
thought i’d let you know one off the babies was put to sleep today there kidney and bladder didn’t develop properly so they were weeing on itself burning it’s skin, in heartbroken i didn’t get to say goodbye on the way there she looked like she was dying and i was crying then when they said it i was sick and freaked out in hysterics so my dad told me to wait in the car

I’m so sorry :cry: thinking of you xx
 
i’ve been doing chores since the second litter so i can spoil layla and blue when there all gone but now that one has been taken to heaven from that litter i’m working even harder, i want to buy loads please can people leave things thag i could get xx
 
thought i’d let you know one off the babies was put to sleep today there kidney and bladder didn’t develop properly so they were weeing on itself burning it’s skin, in heartbroken i didn’t get to say goodbye on the way there she looked like she was dying and i was crying then when they said it i was sick and freaked out in hysterics so my dad told me to wait in the car


I'm so very sorry to read this :(
 
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