My Rabbits died

[skprincess]

i have 5 rabbits. they were living in soil as most wild rabbits live before i bought them. when i kept them in my home, i kept them in a small cage in which i layered a soiled ground. they were happy in winter. but now in summer their condition seems very worried. they did not breed any baby during winter. and now in summer they started to breed one by one. i have two bucks and three does. in summer i have kept them in an empty room upstairs away from sunlight. and have made a small corner in the room that is filled with soil for their babies. when they give brith i kept their 4 babies in the soil so that they were away from other rabbits. i seated their mother so that she may know where are her children. but on the day second, i felt that their mother is totaly ignoring them and not feeding them. as the condition of adult rabbits is also too bad due to sever summer. the babies become so weak. i was too worried. their belly were shrunken. i feed them with a dropper the milk of buffalo on the third day. and on the 4th day they were dead.
i dont know why the mother was not feeding and why they died.
plese do help me. adn guide me. because i am sure that my another doe is also expecting. what should i do now? to save the babies?

 

[skprincess]

these are my rabbits

 

[whitelop]

Where are you located?
That might help other people find products that could help you feed the next round of babies, if the doe doesn't feed them on her own.
What are the adult rabbits eating?
Is it really hot in the room they're in? Do they have proper ventilation?

 

[majorv]

Has this doe had litters before? What are you feeding your rabbits? Do all the rabbits have free run of the room or do you have cages for them?

First the males need to be separated or you are going to continue to have this problem. It really sounds like a bad situation for bringing babies into. People have successfully had colonies but these were rabbits that were too young to breed or altered. Other does have been noted to take care of another does nest. Honestly I would house all of these rabbits separately until you can get the breeding under control. Just allowing this to go on isn't going to be good for either party.

 

[minmelethuireb]

I agree with the above ^

The expecting doe NEEDS to be separated from the other rabbits and given her own space. You should also provide her with a box about twice as big as her along with some hay and other bedding to make a nest. (http://www.raising-rabbits.com/rabbit-nest-box.html)

It would be better if each of the rabbits had it's own living space - at the minimum the females and males should be separated so you can control breeding if you want to breed them.

I'm also wondering - Are these rabbits siblings? You would want to be sure they are not because breeding siblings can cause a lot of birth defects and unhealthy litters.

 

[skprincess]

i live in pakistan
it is too hot now a days here.
it is about 108 degree F here.
they were died. but now my sweetest doe has first time given babies today.
they were in the cage along with the other rabbits.
i took them in the bowl full of cool soil and bring them down stairs in my garage.
here in my home downstairs it is not so hot. they are 5 in number and i will keep them in their cage again with the mother doe at night. so that she may feed them.
any ideas how to handle now?

 

[skprincess]

will she feed them at night or not?
if i change the loaction of babies after some time of birth, then will the doe feed them properly?

 

[JBun]

Rabbits are very susceptible to hot temperatures. If it is above 80 degrees F, they need help being able to cool down. Cold floors, like cement or tiles where they can lay down, helps. Also bottles of ice they can lay near, or ice cubes in their water will help too. I think it's a good idea to keep your rabbits in your garage since it is cooler down there. Just make sure it is safe and there isn't anything dangerous that they can get hurt with or eat in there.

First time mother rabbits, often aren't very good about taking care of their babies, and sometimes the babies will die. Rabbits don't spend time with their babies when they are born. They pretty much ignore the babies until it is time to feed. They only feed them 1 or 2 times, usually in the morning and/or evening, or at night. So you may not see her nursing them. But you can tell if they have been fed by looking at their bellies. They should have nice round bellies at some part of the day. Usually you can check them in the morning or evening and if the belly is round then she is feeding them. Sometimes you can even see a lighter patch on the skin, that is the milk in their belly. If after 24 hours she still hasn't fed them, you may need to help her. You can hold her sitting on your lap and have someone help you put the babies up under the momma rabbit to nurse while you are holding her. You can do this 2x a day until you start to see she is nursing them on her own. I wouldn't suggest hand feeding the babies if the mom isn't feeding them, as it is very hard to keep them from breathing in the milk from hand feeding. It would be better to help them nurse from the mom.

You want to have some sort of nest box for the babies to stay in. It can be an open topped box big enough for the mom to hop in and nurse the babies without stepping on them. You want the sides low enough that the mom can get in, but high enough to keep the babies from crawling out. The nest should have nesting material like grass hay, with some fur that the mom should have pulled, for the babies to nestle in. You also want to make sure the babies stay nestled together in the nest, and that they stay warm but also don't get too hot in your hot temperatures. If they are hot and there is a lot of fur in the nest, you can pull some of it out so they don't get to hot in there. But if it gets cold at night, you may need to put some of the fur back in at night, so they stay warm. At about 2 weeks old, when their eyes are open and they start getting out of the nest box, you can then take the nest box away, but if they are on a wire bottom cage, they will still need a solid floor surface that they can stand and cuddle up on for another week or two. A box turned on it's side, with a little hay on the floor of it, serves as a good cubby hole for the babies to snuggle in.

 

[Elliot]

Have you considered the soil could contain parasites?{think roundworms,nematodes, etc}
Soil can also harbor aspergillosis, bacteria, and even contaminants such as pesticides. The common denominator seems to be the soil.
I am sorry for your loss.

 

[Elliot]

Some common parasites in soil
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2365/