Need a little bit of bunny advice

[sommrluv]

Did you put the nest into the nest box? The only reason why I asked is I didn't see it initially in the pictures.

Sometimes new mothers fail once or twice. Don't give up.

 

[stone_family3]

Quote:
Yes in the first picture the blue and gray box is the nesting box, I have had other rabbits raise kits successfully in there. The second picture is the same box but I took the lid off so I could snap a quick pic.

Initially the nest was very warm, but the kits were killed. Then this morning the rabbit had removed all the hay from the box leaving the kits to freeze to death. I tried to warm the kits, but it didn't help.

 

[sommrluv]

She might have been using it as a place to sleep, or where she ate, or a toilet until the kits came along, and just kept with those behaviors. She looks nice & large and healthy..you can breed her back right away. It's not the pregnancy that wears them down but the nursing of the kids. Mark on the calendar when you bred her, and keep the box out, or put a second box in around day 26 or 27.

You had mentioned a couple of your does didn't take. I've been having a lot of success with taking the doe to the buck twice in a 24 hour period.

Good luck with your meat project.

 

[egghead@1265]

We have a litter of 5

bunnies, less than a week old and are concerned on the low temperatures tonight/ single digit and/or below zero... The mother is fine, and we do have an overhead light over where the bunnies have nested, which has seemed to work well so far.. However, the shed the rabbits are in is not insulated, and we have lost other litters in the shed previously. Not all of them, but those we did we felt could have been because of temperature?! Also, we felt they may have been trampled/smothered, due to the fact that we were unable to isolate some of the previous litters due to not knowing which one was the mother! (we had a few 4 females and 2 males that seemed to be able to escape too easily from the male cages!)

Has any of you ever used the hand warmers that are used in mittens for hunting and/or outdoor sports? If so, not sure how to keep the warmers from being chewed on by the mother.. Any suggestions, we have a about 8 hours before temperatures dip into the single digits!

 

[stone_family3]

Quote:
Thanks, I'm going to try again.

would you breed all the girls at the same time in case some kits need to be fostered or would you space it out about.

 

[stone_family3]

egghead@1265 :

We have a litter of 5

bunnies, less than a week old and are concerned on the low temperatures tonight/ single digit and/or below zero... The mother is fine, and we do have an overhead light over where the bunnies have nested, which has seemed to work well so far.. However, the shed the rabbits are in is not insulated, and we have lost other litters in the shed previously. Not all of them, but those we did we felt could have been because of temperature?! Also, we felt they may have been trampled/smothered, due to the fact that we were unable to isolate some of the previous litters due to not knowing which one was the mother! (we had a few 4 females and 2 males that seemed to be able to escape too easily from the male cages!)

Has any of you ever used the hand warmers that are used in mittens for hunting and/or outdoor sports? If so, not sure how to keep the warmers from being chewed on by the mother.. Any suggestions, we have a about 8 hours before temperatures dip into the single digits!

Wrap in a towel or pillow case. I read somewhere you can use heated up rice in a sock and it will stay warm for a few hours.​

 

[sommrluv]

Quote:
I would. It helps if you have a bunch of first time moms, sometimes they just are clueless starting out. I had the worst doe that just REFUSED to nurse the kits. And you never know..rabbits get sick, have birth complications...it stinks to take all that time & energy and extra food to raise them for the kits to just die. If you have another doe most rabbits will foster quite well without any added tricks or effort.

 

[Czech's_chicks]

I had 2 sisters that I used to breed together. They would each have their own nest box would always go in and out of the other. They took care of each others kits.

You can only do this with does that are always together, because they will just fight. I like to keep them together because it tends to make them calmer, too. But it's not always possible unless you have siblings.

We are supposed to get some meaties here soon and start again. I miss having rabbits.