why have my male rabbits changed towards female after she has had a litter?

[rory chestnut]

I have 4 rabbits, three males in one hutch and female in a hutch on her own. thumper and fluffy neutered in the summer but 3rd male sparky had to wait till december as he is a dwarf cross and had to be right weight. All rabbits bonded well and have the run of the backyard in the day time before they are locked up of a night. Sparky and the female rory chestnut have mated and a litter of 4 was born 3 nights ago only 3 survived. Rory is doing well and looking after her babies as the good rabbit books state ( nest etc ). Unfortunatly when let out of a morning thumper who is leader rabbit and fluffy have become aggressive towards her, attacking her and urinating all around her hutch. Obviously this must be because of some smell of birth I presume, but I am now lost what to do as I don't want their lovely bond broken. I have sprayed 2 aggressors with water and put them in their hutch when rory is out but I am looking for some advice as to why they have turned like this and what can I do to repair bond and introduce the new bunnies help!

 

[LoopyLouie]

I don't know much about this and I'm sure someone knowledgable will come along but I would suggest you don't allow your males anywhere near your doe and her litter. If something stresses her out she may kill the kits. You need to ensure her hutch is calm, quiet and warm and she does not mix with the males at all during this time.

Has she had run time with the unneutered male? If so it is highly likely you will have more kits in 28 days time.

Further down the line I would suggest getting your doe spayed too so this does not happen again and will give you a better chance of bonding them again.

 

[Stator]

Generally it doesn't work when you keep rabbits apart and only let them with each other some of the time. Every time they meet they will have little fights over who is in charge. Usually you would expact that a mother who has just given birth would be a lot more aggressive.

I think they just need to be kept apart permanently, perhaps you can divide up your garden with a small fence. Once the baby is old enough you could consider what you are going to do with them all and if you are going to try and rebond them all together, or keep them in pairs etc. When this time comes you need to bond bunnies on totally neutral ground and watch them very closely.

For now just keep them apart and get the female spayed once the baby is independent.

 

[rory chestnut]

castrated male

hi thanks for that,

all males have been castrated sparky ( the dad ) was done 21st december, obviously managed some fun before then! all 3 males can't get to the babies as the hutch has been put in the shed out of the way, rory still wants to come out and play with her 3 companions as they had a lovely fantastic bond even though she had her own hutch of a night, more worried about her bond with 3 boys being broken.
:wave::wave:

I don't know much about this and I'm sure someone knowledgable will come along but I would suggest you don't allow your males anywhere near your doe and her litter. If something stresses her out she may kill the kits. You need to ensure her hutch is calm, quiet and warm and she does not mix with the males at all during this time.

Has she had run time with the unneutered male? If so it is highly likely you will have more kits in 28 days time.

Further down the line I would suggest getting your doe spayed too so this does not happen again and will give you a better chance of bonding them again.

 

[LoopyLouie]

hi thanks for that,

all males have been castrated sparky ( the dad ) was done 21st december, obviously managed some fun before then! all 3 males can't get to the babies as the hutch has been put in the shed out of the way, rory still wants to come out and play with her 3 companions as they had a lovely fantastic bond even though she had her own hutch of a night, more worried about her bond with 3 boys being broken.
:wave::wave:

Males can stay fertile up to 6 weeks AFTER being castrated so if your doe has had any contact with Sparky since the birth you may be faced with this again in a month I'm afraid.

Male bunny bonds can be very fragile and you may find that you cannot rebond them in the future. If you are successful it will likely be very difficult and you will need to monitor them closely to ensure there is no fighting as males can and will fight to the death on occasion if they do fall out.