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hokankai

hokankai

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2011
Messages
186
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Location
Vancouver, Washington, USA
Well, the mama rabbit/three 6 week old babies I've been fostering have been doing great. Lately I've seen them sleeping on top of the house, and today I found out why. There are not 1, not 2, not even 5...but NINE newborn kits inside their home in a huge fur nest. I had NOidea she was pregnant!!! We've had them for about 3-4 weeks now. What on EARTHdo I do?!?! I have no idea how to care for a mama rabbit and her now TWELVE babies!!!!! Holy Jeez. Hahahaha. Any and ALL advice would be much appreciated.

Here are some pics
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Is there anything I need to do? Or should I just let mama do her thing and let nature take it's course in regards to runts? I've raised chickens before...but never rabbits! haha

Also, should I return mama and the babies to the shelter, or the three 6-week-olds? There's no way I can care for this many rabbits for long.
 
I would let mom do her thing. It's VERY hard to try to intervene with baby rabbits. Who to return is a personal choice, unfortunately I can't help you answer that! Good luck!
 
Wean the 6 week olds slowly (take away two at a time) and then take them to the shelter. I assume you're fostering for the shelter? They will be able to house them there hopefully and get started on finding them new homes.
 
Could I just hold onto the 6 week olds for two more weeks and then take them in? I don't want them separated from mom for as long as possible. But I'm not going to be able to care for the new babies for long. I do NOT have the funds to care for 10 hungry rabbits!!!
 
If the Mom hasn't already weaned the 6-week-olds herself, she will within a matter of days. Rabbits don't care for two litters at once, so you may as well remove the older ones because she's not going to take care of them. She is focused now on her new litter of babies. You can keep them for another 2 weeks if you want, but why, when the shelter should probably be taking them now.
 
Alright, got a hold of the shelter and they are gonna have me keep the 3 older kits and return mama/newborns when I can. The shelter is 45 mins away(I'm a college student), so I really need to plan when I'm gonna head up there. I'll probably be able to go next weekend, and I'd prefer the babies had furr before I try moving them into a cold car.
 
Honestly I would not move her and the litter until they are old enough to survive on their own. Moving them back to the shelter now could cause he to reject them. Can the shelter help you out with food/bedding? I know when the SPCA here fosters out animals we give food/bedding etc. I'd bring the 3 older kits in and let them be adopted out and focus on the new litter.
 
I'm just gonna do what the shelter told me to. They're not gonna provide me food or bedding and I don't have the resources to care for 10 rabbits. I can hold onto them until they start eating hard food at the latest.
 
I agree with Pharfly. I wouldn't move a mother with newborns as theres a very real chance of her rejecting them. Rabbits aren't great mother to start with but giving them reasons to reject a litter will most likely end up in chaos.

I'd send of the 6 week old bubs as they're big enough to survive without mum now. Send them off would be exactly the same as sending off mum and the new bubs. The new bubs wont eat a lot till their eyes open and then it's not terribly expensive for the last 4 weeks to feed them till they're ready to all go back to the shelter.

I personally think it's a very unwise decision to take back mum and kits then the 3 older bubs that are perfectly old enough for homes.
 
Not expensive? You're kidding right?! I've had these rabbits for only 3 weeks and they've cost us $200, most of which is litter and food/hay and that was just for four of them.

I really have no idea what the future of these babies is, but I can't take on this responsibility. The humane society doesn't adopt out young rabbits, they wait until they're old enough to be fixed, fix them, and then put them up for adoption. That would mean I would have these babies for 3 months. I'd rather care for the three and be able to give them adequate attention and socialization than have too many for me to interact with one-on-one.
 
$200 on just food/hay/bedding seems very high... Purina pellets from a feed store are about $20 for a 40 pound bag, I buy cat-litter paper pellets from a local grocery store for $5 for a 20 pound bag, and hay I buy in mini bales since I don't have room to store a large actual bale, but if you do you can save a lot on hay getting horse quality hay from a feed store.. Just a suggestion. Good luck!
 
They arent expensive to raise, I have over 21 rabbits and It only cost me about $50 for an month!
 
Maybe that's the problem. I don't know of any feed stores around me (I'm in a college town) so I've been buying everything from Petsmart/Petco. They went through a 5 lb bag of food in less than a week which was $.79 a pound and the cheapest I could find. The only hay available is Oxbow or Kaytee, and I can only get alfalfa in small bales which is about $5-7 and lasts us about a 1-1.5 weeks.

We use Yesterday's news litter, which is about $13 for a 15 lb bag. We change our litter box every other day, but the litter box is huge so everyone could sit in there at the same time and eat/poop at the same time.

Also, our cage would be a ginormous mess all the time with that many rabbits in there. We already are constantly cleaning...and I don't think I could deal with 9 non litter trained baby rabbits.
 
It's a lot to take on, to be sure. You're doing a good thing by fostering these bunnies and you can only do the best you can.

The others are right--there is a very high chance that the mother will reject her litter fi you move them to the shelter. BUT, if you can't care for them you can't care for them and it's as simple as that. You can only do the best you can. I think if you focus on the three older ones, you will be doing a service to the shelter since that is what you originally signed up for--3 bunnies, not 10.

With that said, definitely get to a feed or farm supply store ASAP to cut down on your expenses, or look at ordering online. Good luck!
 
Thanks! I'll hold onto the little ones until it gets to be too much. Right now they're just taking up room in the house, but nobody seems to mind. Once it feels like I'm swimming in rabbit kits I'll return them.

I found a feed store a little ways away. Here's hoping they have what I need!
 
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