Another Litter !!!

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rohitkalra

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Hi, I had introduced myself 2 days ago to all of you. I am Rohit from India. The temperature is 45 deg cent. I will be telling you about my rabbits (two pairs) and the huge outdoor home I have built for them. But in a day or two since I am in a crisis situation and need help. One of the mothers had given babies one week ago in a nice dark corner of her home. Today, I find 4 new kits on top of the earlier 6 kits. Now there are 4 rabbits originally. Two males / Two females. One of the males is already been separated since he was bullied by the other 3 for about 2 weeks now. He stays in my room with me. Now that leaves one male and 2 females in the habitat. One of the two females is already the mom to 6 kits (one week old)

My dilemma is:

6 plus new 4 kits are on top of each other which means that either mother has given birth in the exactly same spot.
Can it be the mother of 6 giving birth again to 4 in a span of 7 to 10 days.
If it is the same mother I can leave them as is but I guess if its the other one, I think I will have to separate the kids and moms and also isolate the male dad from the babies and the mothers.

Please advise
 
Welcome to the forume ☺
You will need to seperate the dad from the moms otherwise you will have new kits in 4 weeks again, bunnies breed fast and can become many in a short time. Let the doe live together specially when you don't know who the mom to the kits are. It can be the other doe kits or the same doe, depends on how old the other kits are.

When the kits are 8 weeks you will need to separate the bucks from the doe otherwise they can start breed when they hit 12 weeks with the moms and their sisters.

I know a few breeders that let the doe still live together with other doe and it work well, it all depend on how the other female react to the kits and the harmoney.
 
The 2nd litter was born 2 hours ago. The new 4 kits are with the 6 elder ones. Shud i separate the two litters with a small makeshift brick fence?? The bigger kits might trample and suffocate the day old ones. Pls advise
 

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2 litters. Four today and 6 one week ago.

Okay, seem like the other doe have given birth. I would separate the 4 youngest if they don’t manage to get milk but if they get milk it will be okay. The trouble is that the older can take the milk away from the smaller kits but you can always see how they eat and act.

Otherwise you can split them up and lay fur around them in a nest box and hope the other doe will feed them.
 
Why would the other doe give birth to her kits on top of the previous kits in exactly the same spot? Will a doe give milk to foster kits?

For the moment, as you have advised, I will leave the 10 together and watch the cam to see if all are being properly fed. Will update and seek advise from you again in some time. I hope I'm not being a bother. Thanks a lot for your help.
 
Why would the other doe give birth to her kits on top of the previous kits in exactly the same spot? Will a doe give milk to foster kits?

For the moment, as you have advised, I will leave the 10 together and watch the cam to see if all are being properly fed. Will update and seek advise from you again in some time. I hope I'm not being a bother. Thanks a lot for your help.

It’s quite common for foster females but you can always see if they get fed. Why she put them over the others can just be that she also have been taking care of the kits.

The trouble with handling and disturbing the nest is that the doe can stop feeding. If all get properly fed by the females it will be okay. They are just a few days older than the newborns.

I hope both your litters will be okay and will survive, but theirs a chance you will have a new litter in 4 weeks. If that happens you will need to separate the older kits from the young.
 
I really hope that the chances are not high that the doe will stop feeding since I've had to pick up 4 new ones to just move them about 2 feet away from the old ones initially. Even though all are cuddled up together again a few moments ago
 
You can expect 4-14 more babies around 21st June and next 4-14 babies around 28th of June.

You should separate males from females immediately, and males should be also kept separately from each other otherwise they will fight for dominance and can kill each other.

This situation is not good for your rabbits especially females it is very unhealthy to have babies every months, they need to produce milk so need very good food, lots of food, high on protein and calcium, they also are pregnant same time so they need to build bones inside of them so they need really a plenty of good food to be able to do that.

Be prepared that next babies might be born with defects or stillborn because of that.

If your females don't show aggression towards each other there's no need to separate them completely, however you can move older litter to another corner with hay and some fur, so new babies can get enough milk and older babies cant damage them accidentally.
Show their mother new nest and maybe hold her gently over the kits so they can get milk.

I don't know your plans but if you are not a breeder you shouldn't keep 2 males and 2 females 7 months old together, even breeders wouldn't do that, they usually have one male and a few females and keep male separately from females all the time just put them together for 10 minutes and that is enough time to get females pregnant. They breed them only every 3-4 months to get healthy litters.

So if you carry about wellness of your animals you should rehome your males because you won't have room for keeping so many rabbits. You already have 14 rabbits today, babies will grow fast and will be able to produce new babies in 3-4 months. You will need to keep babies with their mothers until they are 6-8 weeks because they only can eat milk until they are at least 6 weeks, then they will start eating hay and solid food, drink water at about 4 -5 weeks.
When babies are 10 weeks you need to sex them and separate girls from boys to avoid early pregnancies. Boys will need to be separated and housed individually from 4-6 months that's when they will start fighting for dominance. So you will need to find new homes for them. Hopefully you are not going to eat them.

Your situation is really messy since you will have another two litters in 3-4 weeks and babies you have now will not be ready to be weaned from mothers milk but they will have to be weaned and separated when new babies will born because mothers will need to save milk for new babies.

Honestly I don't know what you were thinking keeping two males and two females together if you didn't have intention to breed them.

What food you feed them? Do you feed them hay?
 
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Hopefully Moderators will move your thread to Rabbitry forum since this is not health issue but irresponsible breeding
 
I am really sorry that I was not aware of this. I have moved my males separately to independent enclosures. The two females are together and are behaving nicely. I have read the above carefully and fully understand the situation. I will set it right I'm sure. And no, I don't eat rabbits or for that matter any living thing, big or small, ever. In his part of the world, we have an abundance of mint, green veggies, coriander, and lots of green home grass - without herbage, fed to them handpicked and not using the lawnmower. I feed them capsicum, tomatoes, carrots (treats).

Please help me with the following:

Any other green vegetables which are best for the females at this time for milk for kits:
What types of hay are good for them - I have alfalfa hay, Bermuda hay (equivalent of timothy hay)
Can I feed them spinach leaves and fenugreek

Thanks
 
Hi, I understand you haven't planned it I am sorry that happened but now you just have to deal with what you have.

Normally they should eat Bermuda but now they need high protein food so alfalfa is good, I would offer both so them and babies can have enough. Males can stay on Bermuda only, alfalfa would be too rich for adults.
 
Hi everyone. The 10 kits were fed by one of the does for about 12 minutes just now. Fingers crossed. A pic of the enclosure
 

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