Our new bunny had babies this morning

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ranedrops

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Hello. We are new to this forum and looking forward to all we can learn. I am hoping thisquestion is in the right section.

My daughter adopted her female dwarf bunny Zoey about 3-4 weeks ago. Everything has been great. However, this morning we were surprised with a litter of babies.

She had the babies in her litter box that had hay as bedding. One baby is no under the fur and may be dead. Should we check and see? Should we wait a while and see if it moves? If it is passed should we remove it immediately?

This is totally new to us. Any advice on how to care for mom and babies?



Thank you for any help!


 
Hi what a shame you get one rabbit and end up with a few more!! not unusual mind you ;)

You are best to go in and check them be a bit careful though sometimes the mama bun can be very territorial so if she grunts at you then I would lift her away from teh babies and give her a treat while you check them. Remove any dead babies check the others are ok then let mama back to them.

Most of teh time you will think that mama is not taking after them but as they only feed them once or twice a day they are unlikely to spend much time around them.

You can give mum more food than normal unlimited really while she is feeding as she will be using her energy to produce the milk for the babies. You can tell if they have been fed as they wil have little ping pong bellies. Other than that leave her be she should know what to do :)

By the way I will move this to the rabbitry for you that way you will get more help from breeders who will keep you on teh right track and don't forget we love to see piccies ;)
 
Like Polly said, you really need to remove any dead babies immedialty, it could cause health issues for the live ones if you don't. The mom won't abandon the babies or anything like that if you touch them. I usually try to hold each one for a minute or two every day from birth on, so that they learn to like human touch.

You probably won't see the momma feed them, they do like to have privacy for that. Even if she lets you watch, it will only take about 3-5 minutes, and she will stand with her legs kinda spraddled over the nest, and the kits will reach upwards to feed. You will know they have been fed because their bellies will look fat and round, and they will be fairly quiet. If they have not been fed, they will look sort of "deflated" and wrinkly, and they will cry.
 
You have gotten excellent advice. I have one more suggestion. Make up a nestbox, even a shoe box with a side cut down a bit, will do. You don't want the babies staying in her Litter box. If she starts peeing or pooping on them, they will develop infections and health issues.

Put a 2" layer of shavings or litter in the nest box, cover with hay. Make a hole in the middle of the hay. (Now I'd take momma out of her cage for this part. Put her some place safe and give her a treat.) Lift out the babies from the litter box. Put them on a warm towel in a basket or small box. Remove all the clean nesting fur and hay from the litter box and put it in the hole you made in the nestbox. Put the babies in the nestbox and cover with the fur.

Leave the litterbox where it is and put the nestbox in a close corner. Put momma back. Momma will find them and will not abandon them. (Keep in mind, her instinct to care for the babies is stronger than any smell from your hands.)
 


I emailed the lady we adopted her from just to let her knowshe might want to make a note that herother female rabbit she had is not a female! lol

Thank you so much for all your help. :biggrin2:


We will be following your advice immediately & let you know how we make out.:D






 
Keep us updated!

Becca
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Here is our update. As advised, we gave Zoey some treats to gain access to her box. She has a bunny condo and was on the 2nd floorwatching us very closely as we accessed her nest on the ground floor.

We removed the dead baby from the nest and checked on the rest. She has 3 live babies. They all looked very pink and squirmed around alot when we moved the fur off of them. We took a quick picture and then covered them back up with her fur, like she had it.

Her box was very clean, no feces or urine in it. My daughter had cleaned it out yesterday and had commented on how she didn't use her litter box yesterday... guess this answers why. We put in another litter box for her use.

Zoey seems happy, she eating alotand acting like a good mom right now.

This morning she had dripped a few drops of bloody tinged liquid. I am hoping that this was normal due to the birth. We are keeping an eye out for anymore. Would this be normal?

Thank you all again for your help. We are quite nervous and appreciate the guidance.
 
A few drops of blood is perfectly acceptable. But it should be gone within 24 hours of kindling (giving birth). (If you see more by tomorrow, I'd have her checked for a retained fetus. )
 
How is it going?

If mama is feeding the babies - they should have ping pong ball type tummies...of course...the later it gets from her feeding them - the more the tummies go down.

But if they look wrinkled and shrunken in - mama isn't feeding them and we can help you with suggestions.

I sure hope babies and mama are all doing fine.


 
Wednesday Morning Update:

We checked on the babies this morning. All three are pink, squirmy and have the ping pong bellies.

It looks like Zoey pulled more fur from herself and added it to her nest. She is very active and eating alot. We have not seen anymore bloody drops from her since yesterday morning. She is using the additional litter box for herself.

Are there any specific foods, vitamins, etcthat mom should or should not have while nursing or is her regular diet sufficient?

I am trying to do research on line. I have found different sites that contradict each other as to the age the babies need to be before leaving mom. Is it 6, 8, 10, 12 weeks?

Thanks so much for the help.

Keeping our fingers crossed...
 
For a dwarf, any time after 6 weeks is fine. Momma's milk will probably start drying up around then and she will be getting tired of them.

I seperate my litters from momma, but keep the kits together for two weeks. Less traumatic on them and you can make sure they are eating (and peeing and pooping!) the way they should be. Not sure where you live but around here (New York) it's illegal to sell or give away a baby rabbit less than 8 weeks old. At 8 weeks, they can start going to new homes.
 
Thursday Update:

All is well today. Checked in on the babies and they seem healthy & fed and very active when we move the fur to check them.

Mom is doing great too. :D


 
That's terrific! Sounds like she is being a great momma!
 
Monday Update: They are 6 days old today!

All had been going very well with the babies & mom but we had an emergency situation this morning (more on this in a second).

First, the babieshave been fed regulary, are growing in gorgeous white fur and Zoey has been a great mom. She nurses them at about 11:00 PM every night, my daughter has watched her.

Friday night we went out with friends and received a phone call from my daughter that one of the youngseters had escaped from the nest and was crawling around the cage. We talked my daughter through returning the baby to the nest with his siblings. I was very proud of her. :biggrin2:

Now for our emergency -

My daughter told me this morning that one of the babies was crying. So my husband and I went in to check. When Zoey made her nest she had shredded a mat that was in her cage that was made of hay and is edible. Well, when she shredded it, part of the hay that came apart was very stringy and quite strong, kind of like a frayed nylon rope. One of the babies had it wrapped around his/her neck and was crying. It was strangling him! :shock:

We tried to get it off but couldn't. Anytime we touched it he cried, so we grabbed the entire nest and rushed to the emergency vet clinic that is about 2 miles up the road. The vet tech couldn't get it off so he took the baby to the vet who cut it off. Luckily, it had not cut into the baby's skin but the vet said it was extremely tight and that he has edema (swelling)in his head from the circulation slowly being cut off.

They shaved a little hair on his back so we can tell him aprt from the others & told us to keep an eye on him and that the swelling should go down within a day or so. The good news is the vet thinks he will be okay.

PHEW!

What a close call! I am very proud of my daughter for being so attentive & listening for the bunnies (they live in her room). I am so grateful we got to him in time.

We had no idea those hay mats could be so dangerous. Please take this as a warning if you have one in your babies cage & remove it.

As an added note - the vet says all 3 are of the same sex but wasn't sure if they are boys or girls.


 
Baby Juliet wrote:
I might be wrong but I think all baby rabbits look the same down there so they may be different sexes.
Click to expand...
Does anyone know if this is true? At what age can you safely tell the sex with accuracy?
 
its very hard if impossible to tell at that age we usually can tell from about 2 weeks onwards but yes other than how they wee (supposedly a boy sprays it out and a girl dribbles!) I would doubt a vet would know at that age
 
Generally, I find that sexing before 3-4 weeks of age is a waste of time. When done early, I've seen girls turn in to boys and babies that I swore were boys, turn into girls. :embarrassed:(That's what they call "getting wacked by the Gender Fairy"!) And your vet may be surprised to hear that at 6 days of age, they really all look the same!

Have patience and let them grow up. :biggrin2:
 
Well we got Dip and fluf when they were 8 and 10 weeks and the breeder thought dippy was a girl but he got it wrong we were only sure when they were about 5 months!

I am so glad the litter is healthy and mum is too!

Becca x
 
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