OMG!!! found well-developed "newborns". Can't explain it.

I just found two little rabbits running around a sealed large rabbit pen --, eyes open, ears unfurled, with fur and quite healthy looking. Thing is, they were not there yesterday.

I can't Imagine they could have come in from outside (its sealed off so the rabbits don't get out and ruin the garden. This is kinda my overflow pen, I'm in there every day giving food/water. I check every morning for surprise-litters, its not plausible that I'd missed two normal babies for as long as it would have normally taken for this level of development, less plausible that they'd survived for this long -- it gets cold here.

Any ideas for an explanation? Could they have been born that big last night?

I'll try and put pix up later. I'm happy the little ones are in there, I just can't explain it.

How big are the holes in the pen?
Are they wild looking?
Bunnys develop fast...

Oh no, they couldn't have been born last night. Not from the way your describing them. Is it possible that they dug a burrow that you don't know about? That wouldve kept the babies hidden until they were old enough to come out on their own.

Sophie's Humble Servant said:

Oh no, they couldn't have been born last night. Not from the way your describing them. Is it possible that they dug a burrow that you don't know about? That wouldve kept the babies hidden until they were old enough to come out on their own.

Click to expand...

They do have a dirt box of a bit over 3x5 ft x 2ft deep in their pen. (that's what the open-faced brick wall is for in the pics). I put the dirt box in roughly about a month ago. There was considerable digging activity a few weeks ago. Those tunnels ran deep, I'd seen up to five rabbits come out of the single hole at a time. However, they collapsed the tunnel entrance a couple weeks ago and I haven't seen them re-open it. I just poked around where the tunnel entrance used to be and there is what appears to be a small hole (like a vent hole?) but nothing so large as to accommodate a doe entering to feed her young. Its kinda hard to see, as I just put a bunch of greens atop the dirt, but its pretty packed and undisturbed from digging. As you can see in the pix the exterior walls are all solid brick/cement, and the entire floor, including under the dirt box is concrete (the structure was originally designed for fattening pigs -- it was never used for such)

I've attached pictures of their enclosure.

Watermelons said:

How big are the holes in the pen?
Are they wild looking?
Bunnys develop fast...

Click to expand...

The holes in the door mesh are .5x.75 inches. The door itself is 3ft tall and is the lowest point to jump over. I've never had a jumper. See pics below for a better understanding of their environment.

They do not look wild. We're calling them the miracle twins.

I can kind of see one in the first photo on the right side and it is definitely a domestic rabbit. Also looks to be about 10 days old. Who knows how they came to be about

Congrats on the new additions

There is likely a nest in a burrow that was covered over. Mother rabbits will do this in between feedings to protect her babies from predators, then dig away the dirt covering the opening to feed the babies and recover when done. It would be good to have a look around for it just in case there are more babies in there.

hmmm... a couple of weeks ago lots of digging, collapsed tunnel entrance... sounds like a momma rabbit at work to me.. and sounds like in four weeks you'll have more. Does are VERY skilled at hiding the entrance to where their kits are... so hide away mommas.

Find the intact males and remove them now.

looking at your pen I have one concern, I know some animals have been known to breed through fences, is this possible with rabbits? If so that mesh looks big enough