emergency regarding my mama rabbit and dead babies!

[agnes_day]

this is terrible..i knew she was going to have babies soon, and i guess she had them yesterday..but today i went out there and there were 2 babies dead under some straw, and one baby wriggling on its back in a separate area! i have read that they feed them at night and dont really sit with them but with the dead babies i am afraid shes just abandoned them!

hes the cutest little lop eared baby too!

 

[DiVon80]

Hi! New to the site. Not new to rabbits and chickens. Is this her first litter? Do you have a nest box for her? Also is she the only(adult) in her cage? Sorry about your loses but this happens with 1st time mothers.

 

[TC]

Even if the other two died, get the baby in a nest box filled with a little straw and pull some fur from her belly. No, if you touch it she will not eat it, and no pulling fur won't hurt her. Hopefully you have a blizzard of belly fur already. If so this is a good sign, I find that does will usually take care of babies if they pull fur but kindle on the hutch floor. If she didn't pull fur she may not take care of the baby, but you can try anyway. Just put the baby in the nest box, cover him with fur and check on the baby mid morning. If you look at his belly in the morning you will LITERALLY see his belly full of milk by seeing a white spot through the skin. Good luck with your baby.

 

[agnes_day]

shes pulled fur out and she had them in a nest...they have a huge rabbit pen filled with hay and straw that they like to tunnel in..i put in 2 boxes with straw in them but i guess she wanted to use her nest...he wasnt just lying exposed, he was in a little hollow of sorts.. thanks for the advice everyone, i hope it will live! i do think this is her first litter, and she had another female in with her until i found the babies this morning.

 

[TC]

OH! Okay.. thats exactlly why they were making a little burrow. She was gonna kindle! If hes in there, I wouldn't worry about him then. Leave him in there, but I would still pull him out mid morning (about 9am) and check to see that he ate. He should be gettig real big real quick being the only baby. May I ask the breed? Kinda rare to only have 3 bunnies on a NZ or a Cali. That seems more like a mini rex or a holland to me. Not impossible, just not usual

 

[agnes_day]

american lop bunnies..but it died!
i wonder what i did wrong??? i feel like i shouldve done something different but i thought i had it all covered.

 

[cutiepieacres]

You didnt do anything wrong. If its her first litter they often "get it wrong" and lose the litter, there is nothing you can do. Breed her again and see if she can figure it out the second time around if not she may just not be cut out for motherhood, some bunnies just arent. I always let my bunnies try 3 times and after that they are culled out pets. The fact that she did pull hair and didnt eat them or get aggressive with them is a good sign. My Flemish giants fist litter she pulled some hair and even had them in the box but forgot to cover them over with hair and lost all 7 the first night. The second and third time she raise perfect litters of 3 and 6.

 

[agnes_day]

yeah..you are probably right. she even cleaned its little bottom too..but then ignored it.
these were some really large size babies though..i have had rabbits before and even though they were bigger than this girl was, their babies were so tiny! these almost looked like baby kittens.

 

[coffeemama]

Did you say the other female was in with her until she had the babies? This could have been an issue as well. Mama bunnies should really have their own time to gestate and nest. I would leave the does separate the next time you breed. Good luck and keep us posted with the next breeding.

 

[imtc]

that actually sounds normal for a first litter...sometime they just don't know what to do yet. If you have a smaller breed rabbit the litters are smaller too so I wouldn't worry about the number. You also will rarely see them feed their young or spend a lot of time tending to them....that's totally normal. Rabbits are not like dogs or cats that just lay with their babies all the time and let them feed. She will actually just stand over them (not lay down) for a minute or two and be done. As long as baby's belly looks full everything should be fine. Good luck.