Nursing Doe eat all the fur in its nest, babies are healthy so far

[cookiesncream]

My doe recently gave birth to 5 kits (only 4 survived so far RIP). Yesterday I noticed that all the fur in her nest box are gone. It was full before and the kits were buried underneath.i looked and looked everywhere and underneath her nest box, cage, and there's none left!

I suspect that she might have eaten the furs since there are some hay stuck in it, being hungry due to increasing appetite. She's very gluttonous before being pregnant and I'm worried right now.

Is this normal behavior for nursing does? Will the fur cause some blockage later? What to do? So far she's still her gluttonous self and eating well

 

[JBun]

Is she being fed enough food? Nursing does need a lot of food to support nursing kits. She should always have food and hay available for her to eat anytime, and some of that needs to be higher protein food. Ingesting fur can happen if they aren't getting enough food, or sometimes if they aren't getting enough protein from their food.

If she actually ate the fur, yes that could risk a gut blockage occurring. Is there any chance mice or some critter, could have gotten in there and taken the fur?

 

[cookiesncream]

Is she being fed enough food? Nursing does need a lot of food to support nursing kits. She should always have food and hay available for her to eat anytime, and some of that needs to be higher protein food. Ingesting fur can happen if they aren't getting enough food, or sometimes if they aren't getting enough protein from their food.

If she actually ate the fur, yes that could risk a gut blockage occurring. Is there any chance mice or some critter, could have gotten in there and taken the fur?

I think she ate the fur since she's in a cage with zero chance of other critter getting in... She's her usual greedy self for now and eating well. I've add more hay to her hay rack and it's gone in an hour or so and add more to it

 

[JBun]

Do you feed her pelleted rabbit food at all, and if so, what protein percentage does it contain? Also, are you limiting the amount of pellets she gets each day, or do you free feed it(unlimited)?

 

[cookiesncream]

Do you feed her pelleted rabbit food at all, and if so, what protein percentage does it contain? Also, are you limiting the amount of pellets she gets each day, or do you free feed it(unlimited)?

I fed her two times a day around 10-15 grams each serving. Her pellets contain 18% protein and 18% crude fiber vs the rest

I usually give her hay around her body size per day, give or take. Don't really measure them... She's really full of appetite but I try to limit her pellets sometimes since he produce a lot, like a lot lot of cecotropes if given too much protein

 

[Preitler]

That isn't much. When not nursing it's ok, but things are different now.

Hay should never run out, and dependeing on her size I think you can easily tripple her pellet ration. It's not one rabbit eating now, but 5, and 4 of them need a lot of energy and stuff for growing. Hay can be pretty lean.

 

[JBun]

Yes, your rabbit is nursing now. She needs at least 3-4 times the usual amount of food. Like Preitler said, the hay should never run out. She should always be able to eat hay whenever she wants, and she needs a minimum of 3-4 times the usual amount of pellets, but possibly even more. She should have enough pellets to last almost all day long, as well as all night long. This is why your rabbit ate her own fur. She is not getting enough protein and nutrition in her diet to support nursing her kits, so she ate her fur to try and get the nutrition she needs.

If you don't increase her food, this will affect her health and the kits. She will likely start losing weight, continue trying to eat her own fur, and have health problems because of it. The kits will also suffer if their mom becomes unhealthy and sick due to malnutrition. Please feed your rabbit a lot more pellets and free fed the hay so it never runs out. If she does start having too many excess cecotropes from having too much pellets, you can reduce the amount of pellets some until she no longer produces excess cecotropes but don't decrease the amount too much, and you still need to always have hay in there for her to eat.

 

[cookiesncream]

Yes, your rabbit is nursing now. She needs at least 3-4 times the usual amount of food. Like Preitler said, the hay should never run out. She should always be able to eat hay whenever she wants, and she needs a minimum of 3-4 times the usual amount of pellets, but possibly even more. She should have enough pellets to last almost all day long, as well as all night long. This is why your rabbit ate her own fur. She is not getting enough protein and nutrition in her diet to support nursing her kits, so she ate her fur to try and get the nutrition she needs.

If you don't increase her food, this will affect her health and the kits. She will likely start losing weight, continue trying to eat her own fur, and have health problems because of it. The kits will also suffer if their mom becomes unhealthy and sick due to malnutrition. Please feed your rabbit a lot more pellets and free fed the hay so it never runs out. If she does start having too many excess cecotropes from having too much pellets, you can reduce the amount of pellets some until she no longer produces excess cecotropes but don't decrease the amount too much, and you still need to always have hay in there for her to eat.

Thanks JBun! The doe and her kits are doing fine now.

I've decided to clean the nest box and substitute the lost fur with tissues for now and they're snuggled up all warm. The doe seem to be doing fine surprisingly after eating a whole lot of her fur, gave her papaya and some anti hairball supplements just in case... And she's eating a lot and I've made sure to have her hay rack supplied all day.

Should I still be worried about the potential hariball blockage in the near future?

 

[JBun]

It's been a few days, so hopefully the fur has already passed through her digestive tract. Eating lots of hay will help, hopefully, to prevent any blockages occurring. I'm glad mom and babies are doing fine.