Waiting on three births this week!!!!! Major Bunny alert

[aceschix]

Very cute pics!

I have to ask the poster with Holland Lop babies a question. I had my first litter today. She had at least 2 in the fur and one out side that was cold when i found it...did not make it. I just put my hand on the fur pile in the nest box at 11 this morning. It was warmish and there was movement. It is cold tonight here in sunny NH. Should i do something to be sure they are all set? The fur pile does not look moved. How do I know she has been in to feed them? Do I leave it up to mom nature as DH says?

 

[bargain]

Wow pretties, Vicki, what are the parents of those pretties????

I' still waiting to photograph because of the cold.....I' m wondering now if my mamma rex had a "fake" pregnancy as no babies..... I may have her one day off in my calendar..... No babies today from her.....mmmmm....Maybe tomorrow.

It's late and I ust say good night and have a blessed day tomorrow!

 

[bargain]

aceschix, if the remaining babies don't appear skinny, then they are okay....Momas know best....I'm assuming you've given o soe hay for the building the nest. Hope all goes well for you!

Have a blessed one.

 

[aceschix]

Oh yes. Lots of hay in her cage which she used to make her nest in the nest box. She franticly pulled the fur this morning to fluff it all up. How often do you check them? By check them...what does that look like for each of you? Do you take them out or just eyeball them? At what age and how often?

 

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
The mother will move the fur to nurse the babys and put it back as though it was never distured.

I check babys once a night, just after feeding, you can do this by simply putting your hand in the fur, warm badies = live babys, you can also go by the feel of a baby, you will know just touching them if they have been fed, the belly will feel like thereis a ping pong ball .

as for rubing your hands in the poop under the cage , not only is that gross but a perfect way to spread bacteria and cocci. coccidiosis lives int he ground and can occur at any point.

question is would you run your hands through your poop and then go handle your child? same basic bio matter, same sanitation practices.

 

[vicki2x2]

Aceschix, Most likely, if your babies are warm and have round bellies, Mommy is feeding them. They will cover them back up and you will never know. They only feed twice a day usually, so you will rarely catch them at it.

As a reply to Gypsy, I am not going to argue, you have your opinion, I have mine. I rarely have to do it anyway, since my rabbits are all used to being handled and have no problems. However, I have done it with no problems. I would, however, not say it is the same as my children, since we are not rabbits who, for instance, produce two types of droppings and regular eat the second type, called cecotrophy, and it is healthy for them. Humans never do this, so BIG difference.

 

[gypsy2621]

Quote:
I realize this the cecal matter is totally different,
and no when spreading diseases its no different but hey who am I to say anything.
you want to make your animals sick so be it , just dont tell people its something they should do, poop is poop no matter how you look at it.
I have raised rabbits for 20 years and never once have I read to play in the fecal matter before handling a litter of kits. thats just disgusting,

 

[Wynette]

Let's stay civil, folks - drop the discussion about fecal matter, or this thread may end up locked. Thanks!

 

[aceschix]

Well, I do thank you all for the advice parts of your messages.

I am home for lunch and checked...still warm in the puff ball of fur and still wiggling. Not sure if there are 2, 3, or 4. Mom does not seem to mind. I give her a baby carrot or small slice of apple and she just munches and watches me. I just do not want to mess anything up.

I heard a little "mewling" sound. Do they make noise this early?

 

[firedove]

As a total alternative to making yourself smell like the doe, there is a simple way to safeguard kits you handle. Pet your doe as close to her nose as you can after you handle the kits and before she checks them. That puts your scent on her and is far more effective since you can't completely mask your scent with hers.

Opening up the nest, even in bitter cold is OK as long as you don't keep it open for more than 4 minutes. Most of the heat will stay in the nest. You really need to count your babies every day so you will know if one is missing. Also if you check your nest just by touching it you can't tell if there are dead ones underneath the live ones. One rotting baby in a nest of live babies can kill the whole bunch of them in a matter of days.

When I was still raising rabbits I had a shoebox that I would use with a layer of straw in the bottom. I would take the nestbox out of the cage and place it on my grooming table with the box next to it. I would very quickly pull out each baby as I counted and place it in the shoebox. As soon as I was done counting I would quickly check the whole nesting materials for dead kits, remove any bloodied nesting material, and pop the live ones back in the nest and cover them up. Took about 1 minute on average. The kits were fine, even when it was in the single digits. They stayed quite warm to the touch and any chill they felt from being out for that short period of time was quickly warmed back up by being together and under the fur again. Then I knew exactly how many kits I should have and that the nest was clean.

Every day after that, if it was a small litter I could just count by feeling them, also checking for full bellies at the same time. If it was a large litter I would just repeat with the shoe box, quick count and back in. It didn't happen a lot but sometimes I would count sometime in the first week and find one missing. I would find it buried somewhere in the nest dead and be able to take it out. If I didn't know how many were supposed to be there I wouldn't have known to find the dead one and get it out of the nest.

I learned all of this very quickly shortly after starting to raise rabbits because I had a litter that one died and got buried under the main nest by the others. The rotting baby poisoned all the rest of the litter and by the next day they were dying off. I didn't know what was going on so I took them out of the nest and cleaned out the nestbox only to find the rotted baby under where the other kits had been laying. This was late spring so decomp was faster than it would be this time of year, but keeping dead babies out of the nest is very important and it is very easy for them to get buried in the nest somewhere. After that incident I always thoroughly counted and checked my nests and it never went down like that again.

Bloody nest material can be just as bad. Some does are good and will eat every bit of bloody material that happens during the birthing but sometimes you will find uneaten placentas or bloodied straw and fur in the nest with the babies. They are bacteria breeding grounds.

Always, always thoroughly check your nests, it will save you a lot of heartache and it only takes a minute. If you are nervous about them being chilly you can take some of the top nest fur and put it in the shoebox first then pile the babies on top and as you count they will burrow under and cuddle together, then when you are done just pop the babies into the nest and put the fur back on top. I would do it sometimes on the coldest days.