Babies!

[sarahsop]

Hello

I've posted our story in introductions, basically my pet rabbit has had a litter of kittens.

My questions for you are;

1. Lola (mummy) is getting incresingly anoyed with me when I feed her or check on the babies, this is normal behaviour but how the heck do I avoid a rabbit bite!

2. I am planning on cleaning out the hutch later, should I remove some of the dirty hey/straw from the nest.

3. What should I replace the nest with hay or straw



Thanks!



sarah x

 

[sarahsop]

Oh and the smallest kitten apear to have a sore patch on his paw?

 

[Flashy]

1, Maybe if someone could help you, and stroke the doe and feed her some treats, then she will be kept occupied whilst you quickly check the kits. Some mums are very territorial and also nervous, and given she is a first time mum, it's not surprising that she is a bit unsettled. I guess just sort of follow her lead and go by how she is.

2, I gave you my answer before

3, I would replace the dirty stuff with whatever she is used to. Mine got hay when I needed to change it, but I saved as much of the nest as I could, so there was only really a little bit of new hay in there and predominantly it was the old nest.

As for the bunny with the sore paw, it might be that mum over groomed when he was born. you might find at a later date that he is missing a toe or something. I would keep and eye on it for signs of infection, like red, pussy, weeping, anything like that, and then take it to the vets if necessary.

The scab on the tummy is probably the umbilical cord. If it looks ok, i.e. like a healthy scab, then that's probably a good sign.

Given that this bunny is smaller, it might be that it is the runt, but hopefully that should not mean anything negative, just that it is smaller at the moment.

 

[Raspberry82]

I can't help myself from adding this:

Awwwww! Cute! Cute! :biggrin2:

 

[aurora369]

Can you let her out of the cage for a run around? Set up a pen in the back yard or something?

Removing her so she can't see you cleaning the cage would probably be better than her getting all worked up about you moving everything around.

You can always wear leather work gloves around mom if you are really concerned about being bitten.

--Dawn

 

[Flashy]

The bunnies must be nearing about ten days old now. From then until about 12 days old, they should start opening their eyes.

You will need to make sure you check them regularly because they are prone to eye infections. So once their eyes are open you will need to look for signs of crustiness, and/or the eye closing again. If that happens you probably need to bathe the eye, and I think someone suggested to me to put some ointment on it. I think I remember the name, but I'm not going to say it incase it's wrong.

If the eyes don't open by 14 dys old, then you need to do a warm compress on them, but don't pull the eyelids apart (that's pretty common sense though, so I wouldn't expect you to do it anyway).


Also, when the babies start opening their eyes, mum might get a bit more stressed as they will be moving about more and possibly investigating, so expect that from her.

Hope everything is all well and good for them all