Baby Rabbits 3 week pic!!

[CrazyChickieMama]

Here's the backstory:

We rescued a rabbit about a month ago.
The former owner was a hoarder whose house burned down. She had about 40 rabbits in her backyard that needed to be rehomed.
When I went to pick out a couple, the lady who was taking care of them discovered one of the rabbits in the "female" pen was actually a male. So I only got one.

Now here's the problem:

Night before last, my rabbit had 5 babies.
What do I do now?!!?
Does she need any supplements?
She gets half a cup of pellets a day and about 2 cups of fresh veggies.
Does she need anything else?
I haven't told the kids because I'm afraid the babies won't make it. But they are very active and move around a lot.
"Bun-bun", their mom, is very protective and won't allow me near them. So there might be more than 5.
Any help would be appreciated!!!


So here's the little dears...with mom getting in the way. I'll try to take a better picture later. I actually got to watch her nurse today!!

Here's the latest pictures of Bun-bun and her babies...I think I might need a bigger cage before these guys are ready for their new homes!!!!

Thank you to everyone for your help! The kits are big and healthy and getting well loved on by my DD and DS.

 

[la dee da]

Wow, I'm suprised no one has responded yet. I'm sorry I can't help you, but here's a sister site of BYC that may help.
http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=60

 

[bobwhitelover]

Quote:
Hi,
I own a small rabbitry. I have had alot of litters and all you have to do is make sure to keep things quiet because rabbits get stressed out easily and could end up ignoring their babies or even killing them.

Health check all the babies feel their stomachs and feel if they have a fatter stomach because that means their mom feeds them also put extra hay and bedding in her cage. Don't move her cage around while the babies are still young because the mom will get stresses out. let me know how they do!

 

[Akane]

If the cage is a wire floor you will want to scoop the nest up and put it in a low sided cardboard box, cat litter box, etc... to keep them contained and warm but make sure it is open enough the doe can stand over the kits to feed them. Cold is the biggest enemy of kits and many litters on the wire die overnight. If they are on a solid floored cage just make sure there is enough hay and fur to surround them. So long as they stay warm enough the mother should take care of everything. I would give her unlimited pellets to help her keep on weight and produce milk. The kits will also need unlimited pellets when they start wandering around. Check them every day or 2 for dead, injured, or unfed kits. Does only feed their kits once or twice a day so if your timing is off you may not see them with fully round bellies but they should not look wrinkly. If after 48hrs they still look very wrinkly you will need to take steps to get them fed. Sometimes you can hold the doe over them or turn the doe upsidedown and put the kits on her a couple at a time. I had a doe who repeatedly had her kits in random locations in the cage instead of the nestbox so they frequently had to be moved to keep them warm and safe. I always had to hold her over the kits for the first feeding and then she'd realize where they were and what she was suppose to be doing. Some does though will not tolerate this and will become too tense to let the milk flow. If that happens you have to decide if you want to attempt to handfeed or not.

 

[Connorrm]

I never thought to check this forum. But, the above poster's thoughts were pretty spot on. Also, remember, the mom won't go back to the kits very often. Sometimes only once a day. This is totally normal. It also only takes about 45 seconds for a kit to feed to full.

You may never see it happening. But yes, I'd get them into a nest box. Tell me, did she pull any fur at all? Most does will pull out some fur to make the nest with. If you have anymore questions please PM me, it goes to my cell phone. I've been with the ARBA for 11 years and am an official rabbit registrar. I've been raising rabbits for about 15 years.

 

[Fawkes]

You didn't mention feeding her hay, hay should be 85% of a rabbit's diet. Its super important. They develop dental problems without hay/grass and their stomachs need it too. They only need a handful of pellets a day and veggies are good but I'd only give 1 cup of veggies and make sure they aren't sugary or mainly water content. I think herbs are better than veggies, and you can grow your own herbs easily and cheaply.

I wouldn't recommend wire bottoms, it hurts their feet. If it is wire put down newspaper. And I wouldn't feed unlimited pellets, like I said, hay/grass is very important for a rabbit's health and if you give the mom unlimited pellets she'll fill up on pellets and refuse hay. This could cause her to have excess caecotrophs too, which you really don't want. I've spent the last few months getting my rabbits back into being good hay eaters, and believe me, its very difficult and a rabbit can very easily get "hooked" on pellets and refuse hay/grass. Same goes for the kits when they start eating. You want to start them out having good hay eating habits or it will be that much harder to make them eat it when they're older. I made with mistake with my nethies, giving them unlimited pellets, and fully regret it now. Its setting them up for dental problems since the first few months of their life is probably the most important time to be feeding them correctly, and being nethies that was especially stupid...I got bad info from people on another forum.

Make sure you read up a lot on rabbit care. theres some good rabbit forums online. they aren't easy pets like people think. They're very very delicate and they need a lot of space because they're so active. If you're keeping them outdoors a pair needs 6x3 hutch with an attached 6x6 run. They must be kept with other rabbits and they must be neutered/spayed by a rabbit savvy vet in order to be kept with other rabbits as well as for health problems. Cancer is very common. 80% of female rabbits over the age of 3 die of uterine cancer if they are not spayed.

 

[CrazyChickieMama]

She does get free rein over the timothy hay. I put a whole bunch in there just the other day.
She did pull fur and has the babies in a nest she built of hay, pieces of cardboard from the box she destroyed and her fur.

She is VERY protective, so I'll have to wait to move the kits into a box when I have someone to hold her. She wasn't like that before, so I'm hoping she is just being a good mom.

Thank you everyone for your help!!!!!!

 

[dewey]

When you say she won't let you near the babies, do you mean she's trying to bite you or jumps on the babies to cover them from you? Can you use a piece of cardboard to herd her over to one side of the cage with one hand, and then put the babies in a nest box with the other hand? If the babies aren't in a nest box they can scatter all over and get cold and won't be fed.

All my rabbits are on wire and the nursing does get unlimited pellets -- pellets are mostly alfalfa hay. They don't ever get fat while nursing...if anything, it's a challenge to keep weight on them.

I wouldn't change her diet of pellets and hay right now, or add anything new right now, nor ever without a very gradual intro, but I would watch the amount of hay...to be sure she's eating enough pellets to maintain weight and milk. All mine get grass hay but I don't want them filling up on a diet food when they need rich nutrients for milk and condition.

Are the babies being fed? No wrinkly babies?

 

[CrazyChickieMama]

All babies are fat and happy.

She tries to go after your hand. Especially if you go near the nest. She wasn't super friendly when we got her due to her former situation. (she came from a hoarder)
But she has gotten more aggressive since the babies were born. It's definitely back to square one with the taming process. lol.

I have to go buy more pellets and veggies tomorrow since I will run out today.
It is wire, but is the 1/4 inch square wire.
The nest is on top of a piece of cardboard, then hay, pieces of cardboard and fur.
I'll try to take pics later this evening after it cools off.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Try giving her a special treat that she likes to distract her from what you are doing with her babies. Apple, banana, dandilions seem to work for this really well.