Babies!

[MopC]

Hello out there,
Our bunny had her first litter. She's not quite one year old. Her mate is a male 6mo. They live in separate outdoor/protected hutches. We made a conscious decision as a family to allow them to mate and were ready to prepare to add hutches and/or if the litter was very large, we knew families that would adopt 1 or more babies if needed.
The happy day came about 12 days ago and our mommy bun had 4 little plump squiggly babies. I'd read to basically leave them alone and undisturbed but keeping Mommy with plenty of water, fresh food and fresh greens. The cage is covered in nesting hair that she plucked from herself and I noticed right away the 4 are never together in a nest, but kind of scattered - 2 together, and then maybe 1 in a corner and another 1 on the upper level. They all seemed to be getting fed and were moving and were covered in bedding/never really exposed. We checked on them often but didn't move or touch them. So, we found the first dead baby 2 days ago, and were utterly heartbroken. I removed it from the cage that evening. The next day I was looking for the others but only found one baby. I didn't want to dig too deep in the nesting so I came back the next day. Same thing. I see and hear only the one baby moving. I plan to clean put the cage in full tomorrow and move Mom and baby to a quiet place while I'm cleaning - and I'm assuming I'll find the other 2 bodies. I think I should leave as much of the hair/bedding in the cage as possible? Or should it just be fresh bedding and some clean new strips of a blanket? What did we do wrong? Are the babies too fragile with warm days/chilly nights, could they have had heart attacks from dog barking, or weekly gardeners with leaf blowers, etc. Is our bun just too young to have a healthy litter? Was I supposed to move Mom and litter into a quiet dark room inside for 3-4 weeks? I feel just awful that only one baby seemed to have survived due to our own inexperience - for our little bunny mom and for my own young daughter who fell in love with the baby buns. Thanks for reading through and I welcome any advice on how we could have prevented this. Thank you!

 

[Preitler]

You can touch them, no problem at all, that smell thing is a myth. Getting them used to it from the start on that makes everything easier. First thing to do is to put them all into one heap in the nest, clean soiled stuff from the nest and making sure they are well covered.

Noises are no problem. There aren't many animals that care less about noises that aren't danger than rabbits. Putting a rabbit in a different environment can cause stress.
That heart attack thing is an issue when a predator actually attacks and the rabbit just escapes, they don't care about barking dogs.

It sounds like you don't have a proper nestbox ( "upper level"?), where kit's can't escape easily or be dragged out on the teat (due to a low wall the doe has to step over), but can crawl back in easily (ramp outside, or putting the box sideways once they get mobile). The doe only cares about the nest, not kits outside - that yours got fed is not what happens normally. Kits in the nest are her kits, once outside they are on their own. If they can't get back in at their first attempts to venture out, well, bad luck, the doe isn't going to help, and they chill easily, they need the warmth of the nest. When they are chilled their digestion doesn't work, which starts a downward spiral. Put any kit you find outside the nestbox back in if you aren't sure they can get there on their own.

Make sure the remaining kit stays warm. Give it access to moms food, they start to eat solids now.

Your doe is not too young. What breed are your rabbits?

There's a steep learning curve with breeding rabbits, it's part of the game to sometimes lose kits, or with bad luck or even the doe, the risk is not big but something to reckon with.

 

[JBun]

Pull everything apart, find those two babies in case they're still alive. Get a nesting box a little bigger than mom(big enough for her to turn around in but not so big the babies will separate) and high enough to contain the nest and babies so they can't crawl out, but low enough for mom to hop in easily. Fill with soft hay or use one of the nests mom has already made if it's still clean and dry. Make a hollow down into the hay and line with the fur mom plucked, then put all babies together in the nest if either of the other two are still alive. Babies need to be kept together to stay warm by sharing body heat, and covered in a good layer of fur so they can burrow down into it to stay warm when they get cold.

If they are wrinkly and haven't been fed, you will need to intervene by first carefully warming them up(they won't eat when hypothermic), and once warm, carefully holding mom and bringing each baby to her belly to nurse. If they're too weak, they may need an electrolyte solution first to restore their blood sugar, done extremely carefully to avoid possible aspiration.

Pick them up, touch them, ,hold them, check them every day, twice a day, to make sure mom is feeding and taking care of them.

https://flashsplace.webs.com/accidentallitters.htm
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Baby_rabbits_(domestic)

 

[MopC]

Thank you so much. Wow, it sounds right that the nest was the problem. I didn't know she was pregnant until she started pulling out her fur. When I saw that, I put a cardboard box in her cage about the size you described so she could have the babies there. I cut a U shape in front of the box so that she could hop in but nothing could fall out. I lined it with a baby blanket cut into large squares. She liked the blanket and birthed the babies on it, but never liked the box other than chewing it. She batted it all over the cage. It was usually turned over upside down. She never got inside it once that I saw. Her cage has a lower level and a ramp up to an a second level same size but not fully exposed.The babies were constantly being moved between the levels, and it appeared she had an area on each floor that 'appeared' nest-like, with babies in both areas (in a hole or little divet in the bedding/fur). But what the heck do I know. At this point she has the one baby left, getting bigger and plumper. I will clean everything out today and see what I find. Thanks for the insight on the other parts (noise, young bunny, etc). I truly appreciate your response.