# Baby Rabbit Vanished!?!



## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

Ok, my doe had 12 kits in her nestbox. One I was very concerned about because it was really runty was not there when I went out to check! Gone. Not a trace. Vanished.

Did Wendy eat her baby?!? I've had does do that, but usually only moments after they are born... and usually you will find some trace. There is no evidence in the nest box or on my doe. It just vanished without a trace. WTF?!?


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## promiseacres (Dec 9, 2018)

I would pull the box out and triple check the box. Often if one passes it  can be crushed and under all the other kits. That's been our experience but yes she could have eaten it. Or not impossible pulled it out of the box and it fits thru the cage bars.


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## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

promiseacres said:


> I would pull the box out and triple check the box. Often if one passes it  can be crushed and under all the other kits. That's been our experience but yes she could have eaten it. Or not impossible pulled it out of the box and it fits thru the cage bars.


I searched and double searched the nest box and all around inside her hutch.


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## B&B Happy goats (Dec 9, 2018)

Yikes, hope you find the bun...


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## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

Found it.  She'd pulled it from the nest and it was wedged against the wall under her hay manger.


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## Pioneer Chicken (Dec 9, 2018)

Oh no! I'm not sure what I can add other than to agree with you and PromiseAcres. If a doe eats a kit, I usually see evidence or some part of the kit left. Usually, it's the other kits that smother the missing kit and after a few panic-y searches, I find the kit all flattened. : (  What kind of cage / wire do you have? I had one kit manage to get out of one of our first hutches, sadly already dead.  Hope you find your missing guy.


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## Pioneer Chicken (Dec 9, 2018)

Aw, I'm so sorry.


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## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

B&B Happy goats said:


> Love a happy ending


It wasn't happy.  It didn't make it.


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## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

Pioneer Chicken said:


> Oh no! I'm not sure what I can add other than to agree with you and PromiseAcres. If a doe eats a kit, I usually see evidence or some part of the kit left. Usually, it's the other kits that smother the missing kit and after a few panic-y searches, I find the kit all flattened. : (  What kind of cage / wire do you have? I had one kit manage to get out of one of our first hutches, sadly already dead.  Hope you find your missing guy.


I found it.  It had teeth marks and was dead.  It was wedged under her hay manger against the wall.  

The hutches I use for bred and nursing does and litters are untreated oak with three sides fully enclosed and baby saver wire on bottom and front, about twice the size of a standard  x-large commercial cage.


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## GypsyG (Dec 9, 2018)

B&B Happy goats said:


> Oh no...did i misunderstand ?  Is the bun ok ???   I thought it was ok  ? .....


No.  It was dead when I found it.  It had teeth marks like mom had already hauled it out of the nest herself.


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## B&B Happy goats (Dec 9, 2018)

I'm  really sorry  ......


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## Simpleterrier (Dec 9, 2018)

It's called nature. Animals will get rid of the weak and dying on their own. It's us humans who step in and mess it up. And other times it is us who cause them to die


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## Tale of Tails Rabbitry (Dec 10, 2018)

GypsyG said:


> Found it.  She'd pulled it from the nest and it was wedged against the wall under her hay manger.



This is a common misconception. Even after I read an extensive book on raising rabbits, I did not want to believe it, but experience proved it true. In the 8+ years I have been raising rabbits, I have never yet seen a mama doe pull or intentionally push a baby kit out of the nest. They never move their kits in or out of the nest.

I have seen kits latched on and dragged out. I have seen a sick one work itself out of the nest because it was struggling for life. I have seen kits that are too hot or too cold fall out of the nest as they went searching for a more comfortable place. I have also seen crippled kits that cannot control their mobility well end up falling out of the nest. I have seen does accidentally catch one as she hopped out of the nest.

The most common is young blind kits may get out of the nest by staying latched on to the mother. Regardless of how the kit got out, once it is outside of the nesting box, the kit will wedge itself into a corner usually and the doe will ignore it mostly and it will die, if it cannot get itself back into the nest and those little things are climbers, but if they cannot find the nest they will die. Why? Because mama does DO NOT move kits...not at all.

But what a mama doe will do once a kit is dead outside of the nest is instinctively try to dispose of the body to keep it from attracting predators. In other words, eat it.


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## GypsyG (Dec 10, 2018)

Tale of Tails Rabbitry said:


> This is a common misconception. Even after I read an extensive book on raising rabbits, I did not want to believe it, but experience proved it true. In the 8+ years I have been raising rabbits, I have never yet seen a mama doe pull or intentional push a baby kit out of the nest. They never move their kits in or out of the nest.
> 
> I have seen kits latched on and dragged out. I have seen a sick one work itself out of the nest because it was struggling for life. I have seen kits that are too hot or too cold fall out of the nest as they went searching for a more comfortable place. I have also seen crippled kits that cannot control their mobility well end up falling out of the nest. I have seen does accidentally catch one as she hopped out of the nest.
> 
> ...



I have kit catchers on my nest boxes to keep the does from accidentally pulling out kits that may still be latched on.  Is there anything else that I can do to help prevent this from happening in the future?


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## Tale of Tails Rabbitry (Dec 10, 2018)

GypsyG said:


> I have kit catchers on my nest boxes to keep the does from accidentally pulling out kits that may still be latched on.  Is there anything else that I can do to help prevent this from happening in the future?



If you were losing several in every kindle, I would say that you need to change things. One out of such a large kindle is often expected even if all the kits stay in the nest. Sounds like what you have mostly works and that is about the best you can do anytime.

I will say I have drop nest boxes that I love. The doe has to hop out of the box and hop over the lip at the dividing door to her outer cage. A kit that gets dragged out will usually drop off by the second hop, move around on the ledge around the drop nest, and usually fall back into the nest to find its siblings to warm back up. I have not lost a kit outside of the nest yet since we had these, but they do require good insulation as they are more exposed to wind if outside as ours are. We use cardboard, paperbags, and even foam wrapped around the outside of the nest.


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## GypsyG (Dec 11, 2018)

Tale of Tails Rabbitry said:


> If you were losing several in every kindle, I would say that you need to change things. One out of such a large kindle is often expected even if all the kits stay in the nest. Sounds like what you have mostly works and that is about the best you can do anytime.
> 
> I will say I have drop nest boxes that I love. The doe has to hop out of the box and hop over the lip at the dividing door to her outer cage. A kit that gets dragged out will usually drop off by the second hop, move around on the ledge around the drop nest, and usually fall back into the nest to find its siblings to warm back up. I have not lost a kit outside of the nest yet since we had these, but they do require good insulation as they are more exposed to wind if outside as ours are. We use cardboard, paperbags, and even foam wrapped around the outside of the nest.


Do you have any pictures of these?  I like the idea and might try building them into the next hutches that I build.


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## Tale of Tails Rabbitry (Dec 11, 2018)

In this picture you see enough of a ledge on the left, which is the door side, that the doe can lay on and not be in the nest. This is a warm weather nest. In the winter we wrap the outside with more cardboard, paper bags, and or foam.



 

In this picture you can see part of the door opening to the nesting area. There is a lip and also enough space between the cage wire and the wooden part of the hutch to slide a thin piece of wood forward to close off the nesting area. It sits on a frame so I pull it from below. Crude perhaps but works well.

We also have a heavier board that covers the drop nest and act as a resting board, but it is rarely used.


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## GypsyG (Dec 11, 2018)

Tale of Tails Rabbitry said:


> View attachment 55801
> 
> In this picture you see enough of a ledge on the left, which is the door side, that the doe can lay on and not be in the nest. This is a warm weather nest. In the winter we wrap the outside with more cardboard, paper bags, and or foam.
> 
> ...


I really like that idea!  Thank you for sharing with me!


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