killing young

[rabbitfarmer]

I'm not sure if this is a behaviour problem or where to post it. But what causes a doe to kill/eat her young? My daughter went to check on a litter of kits this morning and found a bloody mess. One of the babies head was almost completely decapitated. The other babies had no bodily harm but were dead. Not sure if this makes a difference but here's what i've observed. Mama did not make a good nest. Just a couple tuffs of fur. Compared to our gray rabbit who filled her entire nesting box with fur. It looked like the first 2 days she fed her babies (warm, round bellied) but yesterday they didn't look to have been fed (skinny looking). The gray bunnies babies are all warm and round bellied (despite not being a people person rabbit, she's a really good mama). because the mama did not make a good nest, the babies were getting cold. I puts some soft towels and a hot water bottle in the nest (would this have upset her enough to kill the babies?) Also i've heard/read different things. Some say domestic rabbits don't care about foreign scent in the nest box, and others say that if there is a foreign scent on their babies they'll kill them. What is accurate? I had just picked up each of the babies and weighed them the morning before they were killed

 

[LakeCondo]

I think it's more a temperament thing than anything else, as even wild rabbits will return & take care of babies when their nest has been disturbed. She just didn't have much of a mothering instinct. It doesn't sound like there are any left, but if there are, can you give them to the other mother?

 

[rabbitfarmer]

no there are none left . I got to thinking, this is her 2nd litter but we don't know if she took care of her first. Because she used the gray mama's nesting box to birth her baies. So it could be that the gray mama fed both her babies and the reddish rabbit's babies.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

I wouldn't breed her anymore.

 

[LakeCondo]

Larry, the family got them, then found the females were pregnant.

 

[majorv]

Sometimes you just don't know what causes a doe to stop feeding her kits, or even to turn on them. We had one doe who got easily stressed around kindling time. We lost that litter because she trampled them during birthing. We had a Brit doe who took care of her 3 kits for about 1 1/2 weeks and then suddenly stopped feeding them...she just ignored them. The first doe I mentioned went on to have a couple of litters without problem. We gave away the Brit and the new owner told me that she was a great mother to her second litter. You never know. :?