My baby had babies

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Slight01

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So a month ago my daughter looked in the upper level of our rabbit hutch and noticed that there were babies. We were supposed to have 2 male rabbits bought separately. Our older rabbit was actually a girl. She had a kindling of 6 kits we lost one. We did not separate mom and dad in time (I assume the babies we found were 2 days old) once we found babies we separated them and hoped she wasn’t pregnant again. Well here we are 31 days after her giving birth by estimate she had another kindling of 8 babies. My biggest concern is I’m noticing things I didn’t notice before and I wonder if it’s because I didn’t know he was a she before or placement of the first babies but tonight I noticed her nesting with the babies. She doesn’t seem to be hurting the babies but she’s nesting around them. Is this ok???
 
I should also mention first kindling are doing very well and have been separated from mom and in their own space!
 

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You mean like hanging out, sleeping in the nest box with them? Or are they not in a nest box?
 
Nesting around the kits is ok, I've seen that on occasion. Fluffing up the fur, or adding nesting material. Just let her do her thing, too much meddling often causes more problems than it solves.
Make sure she gets enough calories, you can give her unlimited food while nursing.
The older kits are ok by their own now, and would trample the nest and raid the milk buffet if they were allowed to the doe or her space, the'll do just fine. You could see how well the buck gets along with them, mine all were very friendly to kits, but it would be temporary since you would have to seperate him again when it's time to seperate bucklings and doelings. Or you get him fixed, so he can go back to the doe 4-8 weeks after neutering.

Good luck with finding homes for all of the kits :), here that's pretty difficult.
 
Hi all 😊
New member here, after some advice.
I think my rabbit may be pregnant (not 100% sure!)
Both me and my daughter have female indoor rabbits that have spent a lot of time around each other and get on well. My daughter left hers for 3 days for me to rabbit sit while she went away. We noticed her rabbit was mounting my girls face a lot. But never the other end!
however, my girl Delilah has now built a nest in her indoor cage. And we have found out my daughters rabbit is in fact a boy! He was sexed by a vet initially.
Delilah started pulling her fur out for the nest last Saturday.. if she is pregnant I have worked the dates to be around this weekend for the birth. This would coincide with the 4 weeks since we looked after my daughters rabbit.. Most websites I read say they pull fur out hours before birth not a week.. could she be pregnant still or having a false pregnancy? How will I know she has given birth? Can the nest be checked safely? Is it ok to clean out the rest of her cage and allow her to come out for her excersise?
please note this was totally a accident! We thought we were safe and introduced them correctly! Also sorry for all the questions, I just want to do the right thing if she is pregnant.
 
Hi all 😊
New member here, after some advice.
I think my rabbit may be pregnant (not 100% sure!)
Both me and my daughter have female indoor rabbits that have spent a lot of time around each other and get on well. My daughter left hers for 3 days for me to rabbit sit while she went away. We noticed her rabbit was mounting my girls face a lot. But never the other end!
however, my girl Delilah has now built a nest in her indoor cage. And we have found out my daughters rabbit is in fact a boy! He was sexed by a vet initially.
Delilah started pulling her fur out for the nest last Saturday.. if she is pregnant I have worked the dates to be around this weekend for the birth. This would coincide with the 4 weeks since we looked after my daughters rabbit.. Most websites I read say they pull fur out hours before birth not a week.. could she be pregnant still or having a false pregnancy? How will I know she has given birth? Can the nest be checked safely? Is it ok to clean out the rest of her cage and allow her to come out for her excersise?
please note this was totally a accident! We thought we were safe and introduced them correctly! Also sorry for all the questions, I just want to do the right thing if she is pregnant.

It would be best if you start your own thread, to keep this thread on topic for the OP.
 
You mean like hanging out, sleeping in the nest box with them? Or are they not in a nest box?
They aren’t in a nesting box. By the time I realized she was in fact pregnant it was to late. I didn’t want to disturb the nest she already made. I just noticed last night that she was still pulling fur and building around the nest. I’m not sure if she did this with the first babies because we didn’t know he was a she until a couple days after they were born. I’m trying not to handle them to much. She’s a good mom.
Nesting around the kits is ok, I've seen that on occasion. Fluffing up the fur, or adding nesting material. Just let her do her thing, too much meddling often causes more problems than it solves.
Make sure she gets enough calories, you can give her unlimited food while nursing.
The older kits are ok by their own now, and would trample the nest and raid the milk buffet if they were allowed to the doe or her space, the'll do just fine. You could see how well the buck gets along with them, mine all were very friendly to kits, but it would be temporary since you would have to seperate him again when it's time to seperate bucklings and doelings. Or you get him fixed, so he can go back to the doe 4-8 weeks after neutering.

Good luck with finding homes for all of the kits :), here that's pretty difficult.
Thank you!!! Everyone is fine this morning. It’s all new to me even though we have a set of babies. We missed the first couple days. Dad is fine with in fact he checks on them when he is out and generally won’t leave the area where mom is. He’s a Flemish giant and much bigger then they are! We are in the process of putting money aside for his neutering. That’s a heavy cost but needs to be done.
 
Pulling more fur, she's just being a good mom and making sure they stay warm enough. Or you have more on the way(rabbits have two uterine horns) :p As long as she isn't hurting them or laying on them, and they stay snuggled in their nest or with each other right around the nest(don't get separated too far), and don't pester her for milk constantly, I can't see it being a problem.

There may be a few possible issues to watch out for with not having a nesting box. The babies could wander out of the nest, get separated, and get chilled. Also there won't be a barrier to stop the babies from constantly going after mom for milk. But as long as she uses that shelf to get away from the babies if they try and bug her for milk before it's nursing time, that solves that.

So there's just watching for babies getting separated from the nest and not being able to get back. If it keeps happening, then you may need to consider adding a nesting box or some sort of barrier to keep the kits in the nest spot, so none get separated and chilled. Or you can just check on them several times a day and return any that do get separated, back to the nest.

There's also keeping the nesting area relatively clean. If the nest area gets soiled, clean out the soiled part and replace with clean bedding/hay. This will also help prevent nest box eye when the babies eyes start to open. But if mom is using the nest area for a toilet, you may need to consider making more changes.

You do want to check the babies, both new and older ones, every day, a couple of times a day. The new kits you want to check for full bellies or if they appear dehydrated and wrinkly(not fed). Also ones with bellies that might be abnormally distended if mom isn't stimulating to urinate. And check and remove any that might have passed, as a dead kit in the nest will chill the other babies and attract disease. The older kits need to be checked for body condition(feeling too boney, possible health issue) and their bums need to be checked for mushy poop stuck over their anal opening, which is especially a risk with babies that had to be weaned early.

https://flashsplace.webs.com/accidentallitters.htm
With the babies that are weaned early, biggest thing for them is having a sensitive digestive tract, particularly to carbs and sugars, and the risk of weaning enteritis. So limiting or not feeding sugary/high carb foods, and always providing free fed grass hay. Good quality grass hay(no mold, no noxious weeds) is the best thing for a rabbits digestive tracts microflora to stay in balance.

And monitor for mushy poop(cecotropes, not the fecal poop) in any of them. If any have it, it means there is a potential diet and health issue that needs correcting right away. Mushy cecals is different than diarrhea. Mushy cecals can usually be corrected with diet changes to a higher fiber diet. True diarrhea of the fecal poop, is an emergency.

Medirabbit: detailed explanation of the importance of mother rabbits milk


(WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC NECROPSY PHOTOS, but good explanation of how weaning diarrhea can occur in baby rabbits, so if you view, view with caution)

Medirabbit: weaning diarrhea

(note: home remedies for diarrhea are not a replacement for the proper and immediate, veterinary treatment)
 
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