Rabbit pulling fur... how much longer?

[dirt4life]

So about a month ago, i don't have the paper in front of me to no the actual date. we bred our little dwarf rabbit. she began pulling fur and made a huge nest a couple days ago. Any idea how much longer it could be? I am going crazy waiting.

 

[Bunnylady]

31 days is the average gestation for a rabbit, though they can go a few days either way. Most does don't do the nest building and fur pulling thing until right before they kindle, though even that isn't a "given". I had a Jersey Woolly doe that started fur pulling a week before her kits were due, by the time they arrived, she was nearly bald!

Once the doe goes into labor, the process of delivery usually goes pretty quickly - the whole litter arrives in 30 minutes or less (that's a big litter, dwarfs have such small litters it takes a lot less time, of course).

Are you seeing any sign of blood, or a bloody discharge? That could indicate that she has a kit stuck in transit. Sometimes, does experience a false pregnancy, and will go through the whole performance of nest making, etc, and produce nothing. If you don't see babies within a week of this nest making episode, my guess would be that this is what she's done.

 

[dirt4life]

No blood or nothing. We did have to move all our rabbits inside this weekend. After losing two of them for unknown reasons we moved them into the garage to ensure warmth for them all. we babied her cage when we brought her in to make sure nothing was disturbed. She seems to be her happy self, been checking on her daily. They are out at my boyfriends home so I go check during the day and his family checks during the night since he is on the road.

 

[emvickrey]

We just had a surprise so I need to know of a good place to read up on rabbits. We bought 2 lionhead rabbits and the owner said that they both must be girls because he's seen no hanky panky. We hadn't seen any either but there where 6 dead mutilated bunnies in the cage. I didn't even suspect she was pregnant since they are both suppose to be girls. We've had them since about june so the black one has to be a boy since it was the fur from the grey one that was all over the place.

How long will it be before she's ready again or how long should we wait? Should we remove the buck for a while till she gets over giving birth? I'll go see if I can find a website to read up about it but if I need to remove the male now would somebody please let me know. There are no more babies and she appears to be done.

 

[Bunnylady]

6 is a reasonable sized litter for a Lionhead, so I wouldn't expect any more. But here's the kicker - a doe can get pregnant immediately after kindling; if the buck was with her when she kindled, odds are that she's already pregnant.

I have occasionally set up colonies of a few does and a buck. Typically, these will be older animals whose fertility is doubtful, so I can't be sure about due dates or anything else. Sometimes the first sign I have gotten of a doe being pregnant is seeing one pulling fur off of another rabbit's back. Just because the fur in the nest is gray, it doesn't necessarily follow that the gray rabbit is the doe. Flip 'em over and check! A mature buck has visible testicles - one on either side. Sexing young rabbits can be a bit tricky, but one that is old enough to sire litters is pretty hard to miss!

 

[emvickrey]

When the grey one raised her foot to scratch behind her ear I could see her "stuff" and it appeared as if she just gave birth all red looking. When I went to touch her the other one I'm saying is the buck charged after me. My first reaction was to pull back my hand which I of course did. It appears the black one is protecting the grey one. Since she is probably pregnant again I need to take the buck out. They've lived in the same pen since we got them. Of course thinking they where both females and we didn't bother to check.