Chicken farmer... The biggest suggestion I can give is be prepared for dead kits and culling for the good of the herd. Get ready for them now. They're gonna happen no matter how much work and love and effort you put in. Someday a rabbit won't be producing right, will get sick, will turn aggressive, will be injured, etc. and a litter will be on the wire all dead, a kit will freeze to death, fall out of the cage, get crushed... It WILL happen and it's part of raising animals. You WILL experience it, if you breed probably more often than you like, and if you don't learn to accept it you will just crumple under it. Just look at any rabbit breeder's posts... "We lost X many kits" "X kits, all on the wire", my own "mom chewed one in half"... This is life with rabbits sometimes and that's just how it is. Death happens, especially in livestock, there's just nothing you can do sometimes so you have to be ready for it when it does happen and be ready to take the next step forward for the good of your herd.
Well, update on my over-cleaned litter. They managed to get a meal it looks like but when the temps started falling outside so did theirs. I came out to find 5 chilly kits and one chilled to death. So I decided to do what some people do with their rabbit litters in the winter and I brought them inside for the night. I have a brooder for chicks due to hatch in 2-3 days set up in my basement... So I just put them under the big brooder lamp a little. The temps in the nest should shoot up to 70-85*F judging by where I put the nest. The far end under all the hay and fur should be in the 70's and the closer part out in the open directly under the light should be 85ish so they can pick their spot. This is kind of a last-ditch effort on my part. The kits were all small, skinny, weak and didn't get cleaned or warm or fed right away when born... I tried warming them up against my skin tonight and it just wasn't working. Their skin and some muscle were warming up but their insides weren't following suit. Interestingly Earless is the one who has been maintaining the best body temp.
If they are still around tomorrow (fingers crossed but no expectations of survival, TBH) I will take them out to try to get a morning snack. We'll see how that goes.
Incredibly, Earless is one of the intrepid survivors. Mom is not cleaning them much as they are pooing, but all over themselves. I ended up having to wash them off as one was gunked up so bad its legs were stuck together. They appear to be getting food when I take them out for their 1-3 hour time outdoors seeing as they are still alive and warm and not having sunken tummies or really bony like the unfed kits I have dealt with in the past.
