Bunnylady, Gypsy, Chinbunny...Need rabbit help quick!!

This is the stage I'm at now....I warmed all the kits up by floating them...didn't want to get them wet.... I pulled hair from mama...filled a nesting box up with shavings, hay on top. Made a depression...added some fur...heated up underheat lamp in brooder...added kits who were staying warm in my incubator....covered with fur. At this point when I reached my hand in there they feel quite warm and wiggly.

Some appear weaker than others and possibly dehydrated(shrivelled looking and lethargic). Mom is so freaked out right now, I had her in here to pull fur and she was literally shaking...poor girl
 
Where there's life there's hope. Newborns can take a lot of chilling, every experienced rabbit breeder has had at least a few "Lazarus babies!" Warm them up gently. Sometimes, trying to get them too warm too soon can cause them to seem to revive and then crash, but it sounds like you are doing the right things. I have a friend who has been known to tuck chilly buns in her bra to warm them up!
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Newborn kits are amazingly mobile, so that they were everywhere is not surprising. If they didn't get stepped on or otherwise injured, they have a good chance of making it, once they get warmed up.

I like ack123"s advice, but if this had happened in my rabbitry, this is what I would do:
Pack a nestbox with hay (or whatever your does get for nesting material) Make a tunnel to the back, just like the doe would. If the doe has pulled any fur, collect it and put it in the back. Pull fur from the doe if you have to, I have used fur from other rabbits in a pinch (they were shedding; my does don't seem to care whose fur it is.) Put the babies in the box, and put a soda bottle full of very warm water in the box, pushed to one side. If the babies need the warmth, they will snuggle up to the bottle, when they don't, they will move away. Keep checking, don't let the bottle cool down enough to chill the bunnies (make sure you got the cap on tight, too!). Check the corners of the box, make sure that none of the babies have crawled so far away from the others as to get chilled again. Within a couple of hours, if there are enough buns (at least 4) they should be able to keep each other warm, if you have them in the house.

I have had a few does that I had to teach to nurse their litters. Usually, I just put the box in the cage, and go about my rabbitry chores, watching to see if the doe gets in the box. If she doesn't get in there within a few minutes, I will put the nestbox into a carrier that is no bigger than the box, and put Momma in the box, and close the carrier lid. The babies usually find her, and she usually will stand and let them nurse. I have only had one doe that absolutely refused to let the babies nurse, her litter was farmed out on someone else and she was sold as a pet. Some does have had to be locked in like this for several days before they "get it," but all the others did catch on and nursed the babies like pros from then on!

I also wouldn't leave the box with the doe. Her nesting instincts may kick in late, and she may dig in the box, or she may eat the nesting material (including the fur!!) Many of my does will continue to pull fur every once in a while for several days after their litters are born (particularly in cold weather), I just collect it and add it to what is already there. Kits can get out of the box in a number of ways, it would be exasperating to lose one later, after you tried so hard to give them a chance in the beginning.


As to where this litter came from? Yes, it is entirely possible that she was bred through the wire by the mini lop. I've never seen how they do it, but I have had a couple "mystery litters" myself that can only have happened that way. Some of my cages have solid dividers, some don't, if I have to house a doe next to a buck with only wire in between, I make sure that they are both the same breed (that way, any surprises will at least be purebreds!)

Good Luck!
 
Ok, you've done really well! Good instincts to not wet them!
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The best thing you can do now is to get Mom into a cage in a nice quiet area alone if you can, once the kits are real nice and toasty, then move them into a proper nestbox and leave them with Mom. She needs to nurse them. Usually the does nurse the kits right after bith, from the sounds of your does fast paced crazy delivery all over the place she most likely did not nurse them. She needs to be alone to do so, they need her milk ASAP.

Give Mom some rich food, her normal pellet with some oats on top, some calf manna (if you have it, it's WONDERFUL magical stuff for rabbits and boosts Mom's supply and makes the milk richer), maybe a little BOSS.
Give her a large bottle of fresh water.

Once she eats and drinks and calms down her milk supply is going to kick in and the pressure in her nipples is going to make her want to nurse those kits. Once she nurses, the let down hormones will calm her down further.
 
Once you know she has nursed them I would then remove them from her and bring them to her twice a day for nursing for the first week, once per day thereafter until the kits eyes open and they are nice and mobile. Then I leave them with Mom.

At this point MO is that forcing the doe to nurse them right now is going to further stress her out. She sounds pretty shaken up. Give her some time to chill out from all the activity.
 
Thanks! I think we are on the road to recovery...to me their little lives are precious but I was really looking forward to a pure flemish litter. The funny thing is, the reason she was housed next to the mini lop was because we were adding a double wall of wire between each cage with an inch and a half gap....so at least I assume this will never happen again.

The kits appear warm and comfortable at this point.....shall I leave everybody be until evening?...or would it be imperative to bring mom in to nurse now? My instincts tell me to give mom time to settle...I have never seen a bunny with an actual panicked look on her face..but her face was so expressive...she is terrified and doesn't know whats happening.

Oh what a strange mix this will be.
 
LOL, you guys are good.....answering my question WHILE I'm typing them!

Thanks
 
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Sounds good! It's kind of funny, "warm and wigglies" is what I call the newborns!

Some appear weaker than others and possibly dehydrated(shrivelled looking and lethargic). Mom is so freaked out right now, I had her in here to pull fur and she was literally shaking...poor girl

Does usually don't take to having their fur pulled very well. The whole family has had quite a bit of trauma, I'd let them all settle down a bit before I tried to do anything more. The babies need to get their temperature stabilized before they have to divert energy to digestion, so I wouldn't try to feed them just yet.​
 
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I have done this! But only a couple will fit in there!!!
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Must be a womanly instinct! I noticed one kit first and grabbed it out of the cage and immediately shoved it in my bra!! Being blessed in that way (on my fathers side
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I could have fit quite a few in there....but not the 14 that she had. 1 was dead when I found it...I still attempted to warm it up but no luck.

So now she has 13 "warm and wigglies" for a first litter. Can she feed that many???
 

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