Mother killer her 4wk old baby!

[Ashley Poulter]

Hey there, eversince my doe became pregnant she has been aggressive towards me but never her babies. The babies are now 4 weeks old and when I checked on them this morning the doe has attacked and killed one of them.

Any ideas on why this might be? They are all seperated from her now until I get her spaded and she calms down.

 

[Preitler]

How is your setup? Has the doe places where the kits can't follow?
Are you sure it was the doe? Neighbour of mine claims his does kill their young too (old guy, he too believes rabbits can pregnant from rats, hard to talk to this guy), but we do have rats here, and it does happen that they kill kits. It would also explain if your doe was pretty much out of her mind.

 

[JBun]

Is it possible a weasel, rat, or other small predator could have gotten in and killed the kit, or did you actually see her do it? If you didn't see her do it, if she is outdoors, and if there is any sort of small gap in your enclosure, then it's more likely a small predator did it. Unless there were no marks on the baby, then it could be possible the mom accidentally stomped the baby, which would just be a fluke accident.

If you think it was a predator, I would look for where it got in and fix that so it no longer could. Maybe also try and catch it. Remember that these small creatures can squeeze through extremely small spaces. If the mom didn't cause the death or it was an accident, I would put the babies back in with her, though if they have been separated a while you will need to carefully monitor her response to the babies being back, as she may react negatively if they have been separated too long.