Rabbit kits - First time with them - Heating?

[rachki]

Hello,

The wife and I have a small farm/homestead (1000+ poultry, hogs and rabbits). We have 3 rabbits, 1 is a buck, 1 is a doe, 1 is unknown but I suspect female. The rabbits are in our uninsulated, unheated brooder building in a separate pen. We are at 3600ft in the Appalachian mountains and temps outside range between 20 degrees and 40 degrees.

The for-sure female gave birth today and made a nest out of pine shavings and fur. When I noticed the nest and babies I separated the buck immediately. Several of the kits were out of the nest and very cold to the touch so I have temporarily rigged a heat lamp up for the past 30 minutes to warm them up. The mother is in the 4ft x 8ft pen with her kits and with the unknown-but-probably-female rabbit. I've not seen the mother anywhere near the nest, she's always in the opposite corner.

I am going to take away the heat lamp now. Are bunny kits able to self-regulate their temps? With baby chicks we step down the temperature over weeks. Anything special I need to be doing for the mother?

 

[rachki]

Links to kits to see setup:

https://ibb.co/xjqGKVQ
https://ibb.co/wJWrG9j
https://ibb.co/2Y06GjQ

I checked on them. The concrete floor under the litter is cool and with the heat lamp being on it seems they can probably self-regulate their temp by burying themselves deeper against the concrete, or higher to get the heat lamp light. Opted to keep the light on tonight as they were still a bit cold to the touch.

 

[CloneFly]

I would keep the lamp on just to be safe. Mother rabbits tend to be more hands off when raising their litters

 

[NatJ]

Are bunny kits able to self-regulate their temps? With baby chicks we step down the temperature over weeks.

Chicks usually self-regulate temperature by walking into a warm area (heat lamp or under mother hen) or out of the warm area. If you have a large enough space, there is no need to step down the temperature for chicks. They will do it themselves, by spending more time where it is cool, and staying further from the warmth. When they no longer use the heat, it's time to remove it. But that only works in a large enough space. For small spaces, where the whole thing gets warm, yes it is important to step down the temperature gradually.

Bunnies usually self-regulate by snuggling deep in the nest under the fur (to get warmer) or to the top and throw off the fur (to cool off.) Considering that the concrete floor was cold, I can see why they had a problem.

Once the bunnies and their nest are thoroughly warm, it would probably be fine to just take the heat lamp away all at once, rather than adjusting it gradually. Warm bunnies in a warm nest tend to stay warm and do fine. But cold bunnies need to have heat added from somewhere (like your heat lamp) to get them warmed up.

Given the number of days since the first post, I'm guessing you already did take away the heat lamp.

For future, you might want to provide a wood box with nesting material. A wood floor on the box would provide a bit of insulation from the cold concrete.