Rescued, possibly pregnant doe

I just "rescued" a few rabbits today ... among them is a smallish (maybe 3 pound) mixed breed female rabbit who I think is pregnant.

I carefully palpated her and couldn't feel anything definite (but I have only had one pregnant rabbit), but I know her belly is a bit more firm. At this time, she seems to be a sweet rabbit who is easily picked up ... which is one reason why I got her. On the other hand, I took her in because I did feel she may be pregnant. If she is pregnant, how can I tell when she may be due?

I named her Allie (my neighbor has a rabbit who's name is Alfie and he looks like her). She is a black tort, about the size of a large dwarf rabbit, but with bigger ears.

Anyway, any advice would be appreciated.

A couple of pictures of Allie. She can hold both ears up but also one has flopped down ... her fur is so soft I'm not sure she's an adult rabbit.

It's hard to tell how old the bunny is, but there's no way to know for sure how far along she is, assuming she's pregnant. When it gets close she should start nesting. You can keep hay in her cage and watch for her to start using it to make a nest. Then provide a nestbox with hay in it, and wait.

Allie is definitely pregnant. She is digging in her litterbox and I think I may have felt slight movement in her belly from a baby. I just weighed her, and she weighed in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces. She's shy, but has yet to show any aggression. But she is getting bigger quickly.

Now, my issue is housing. I have her in out in a screened in patio in a nice large cage (30 x 36) with a litterbox (which she is using as a litterbox). I actually originally bought this cage to put Berry (my very active male) in for the summer so I could give him more out of cage time with no or little potential of him getting into "trouble" (visiting girls, humping things he shouldn't hump, etc). Regardless, the cage is wire, with 1 x 2 inch spacing. I know that baby bunnies could easily fall out if they either are born on the wire, or someone get out of the nestbox. I could fix it with putting some coated hardware cloth on the outside around the cage, but it will be kind of hard to do.

The second option and my first intention was to put her in a solid bottomed cage, either a 18 x 40 (inches) Marchioro brand cage, or Berry's indoor cage which is 2 feet by 5 feet BUT the walls are made out of grid panels with roughly 1 1/2 inch square openings ... again, not good for babies and dangerous for mobile babies who may be able to get out.

The issue with the Marchioro cage is that there really isn't enough room for a litterbox and a nestbox, and leaving enough room for a bunny to move around. Therefore, I guess I could use bedding and just clean it out as necessary.

Any thoughts about which housing I should go with? My best guess is she may be due maybe within a week or a little more. One of my main concerns is the potential of her getting territorial/cage aggressive on me, but I guess I will deal with that if it comes. The previous rabbit who I bred and had babies (a purebred, show quality Holland Lop) showed NO aggression whatsoever during pregnancy and lactation, but I think I may have just gotten lucky.

I'm thinking the 18x40 for the near term and move everyone to a larger cage once the kits are mobile...just my thoughts. I assume she's a first timer and moving a pregnant doe is best done at least a few days before she's expected to kindle. Kits can be escape artists, I know, so it's best not to have wire with larger spacing until they're a couple weeks old...even the 1x2 spacing is pretty big so you'll just have to make a judgment on when they would be old enough to use that cage without squeezing out.

Well, I ended up using the cage she is in now, and putting coroplast around the sides, 7 - 8 inches up, on the outside of the back and sides, but still have to do something with the rest. But most of it is done. Then I made her a nest box out of a cardboard box ... first thought it was too big, now am thinking it is too small. It's wide enough, but maybe not long enough. It is not much longer than her, maybe an inch if that. She's been in there, digging a little, then pushed some of the hay/bedding mix that I put in there out of the front.

Here's a couple of pictures I took today. I can see the babies kicking now, so it won't be too much longer now, although could still be several days.

The cardboard box didn't last long, LOL. She quickly chewed a hole at the bottom. I made another, bigger one, then put a small plastic litter box in there so she can't chew at the bottom. May have to put plastic around the litter box all the way up to the top to stop her from chewing anything inside. She IS doing some nest building now, though, with her new box, rearranging hay and pushing stuff around.

Well, I'm not too sure what to think. Below is what I found this morning. She seems to just want to dig in there, eat the hay in there (and she has a hay holder full of hay), and it looks like she's urinating/pooping some in there as well (she urinated in the other one too).

As I think I've mentioned before, I have had only one other pregnant rabbit. She was about 7 months old and it was her first litter. I gave her a cardboard box nest box similar to what is in the posting above (no plastic pan in there). She clearly went in there at night, dug around a bit, but left most of the hay/bedding material in there ... and didn't even chew the box. On her due date, I woke up to pulled fur in the nestbox and 3 babies in the nestbox.

If anyone has any advice/comments, please give them. Regardless, I guess time will tell on how this works out.

The hazards of using cardboard...If you can't get a wood nestbox then replace with another cardboard box or a plastic one. First timers can be frustrating because they aren't always sure what to do. Clean it and put fresh hay in it, and wait.

Well, this is the fourth day of having to clean out whatever is left in the box and refill it (LOL). The exposed cardboard was covered with coroplast. Today, after putting the box back in, she jumped back in, poked around a bit, turned around, peed in the hay, and jumped back out.

She remains sweet natured, and has really seemed to settle in, and isn't near as shy, and even has solicited a little petting (well, after I pet her and then stopped).

Edit: Just after I posted this, I went back to check on her, and can you guess what I found? Most of the hay and bedding all thrown out of the box.

After checking my notes on the previous litter I had, it was 6 days after I saw babies kicking/moving that she had her babies. That would make these babies due around 5/27. I'm guessing Thursday, 5/26, plus or minus a day or two. Hopefully, she'll decide to actually use the nestbox.

Well, after going through several evenings of the same scenario (Allie kicking out the litter/nesting material), I finally got to find out exactly what would happen. Last night, I refilled the nestbox once again, then padded the area in front of the nestbox and a little to the side of it with some bedding and hay, because I felt that was where she would end up having them. But ... take a look of what I found this morning. 7 babies, but one DOA (pic taken a little bit ago, at least 12 hours old).

Glad she finally did it right!

Aww, congrats on the new arrivals!

Congratulations! What colorful babies!

Thanks for the comments/compliments. I hope these babies make it. I'm a little surprised with their coloring. All seem to be harlequins (maybe some "magpies" in there too). Mom seems to be feeding them, but all do not appear to get full tummies. I've tried to give a couple babies separate sessions with mom but all they seem to do is go from teat to teat with only getting a little milk.

When I got her, the people had a couple different harlequin-colored holland lops that weren't magpies, but very light cream with the black/dark colored brindling. It is possible that one or those is the father. The people were rehoming rabbits from a "breeder who decided to go out of the rabbit raising business" and they didn't know ages or much about the rabbits.

At any rate, I've attached a picture of the babies I took this morning. I may "move" the "rest of the story" to a blog, but for now, am posting here.

aww the babies look so nice! i love the colors coming in!
will you keep the babies?

Kudos for rescuing them Those babies are so adorable and beautiful too!

BlackMiniRex said:

aww the babies look so nice! i love the colors coming in!
will you keep the babies?

Click to expand...

Most likely, all will be placed, probably including the mom, once (and if) all babies are fully weaned and doing well. If I keep any, it will probably be just one.