- Apr 22, 2014
- 3
- 0
- 7
We started our meat rabbit adventure a couple months ago with a proven new Zealand buck and 2 young Florida white does. The first mating didn't seem to take as we had no nesting, hair pulling or babies so we bred again. 31 days later we had 6 babies from one doe and 8 from the other!
Everything seemed to be going well until one morning (4 days old) we went out and all 8 in one box and 2 from the other were dead. It had gotten colder that night (from 50s down to about 38) so we assumed they got to cold. Nothing seemed outwardly wrong. So we divided the remaining babies between the 2 moms. We also put more straw in the nest boxes and started putting a blanket over the cages at night.
Then this morning (babies are 1 week old) another was dead.
I'm so upset. Did we do something wrong? Is it just because the moms haven't had a litter before? Should we bring the kits in at night? Can the one baby survive by itself with out a litter mate to keep warm?
Ugh. I didn't think it would be this hard! Thanks for your input in advance!
Everything seemed to be going well until one morning (4 days old) we went out and all 8 in one box and 2 from the other were dead. It had gotten colder that night (from 50s down to about 38) so we assumed they got to cold. Nothing seemed outwardly wrong. So we divided the remaining babies between the 2 moms. We also put more straw in the nest boxes and started putting a blanket over the cages at night.
Then this morning (babies are 1 week old) another was dead.
I'm so upset. Did we do something wrong? Is it just because the moms haven't had a litter before? Should we bring the kits in at night? Can the one baby survive by itself with out a litter mate to keep warm?
Ugh. I didn't think it would be this hard! Thanks for your input in advance!