# young doe...never been bred...fostering?!



## PinkFox (Jun 19, 2012)

i whent to check on my babies this evening like i do every night and my broken black doe has a litter of 5 in her nest right now, there not quite a eek old...
well i count them like i do every evening and theres only 3, i freek out, there nowhere in the hutch (i have hutches so theres no wire to escape though...
thats when i noticed a small (about the size of a quarter) hole in the corner of the diving wall between her hutch and my young nz/cali mix doe haystack.

haystack will be 5 months old at the end of this month., shes never been bred obviously...and i was expecting the worst...i know does will sometimes foster kits if theyve had babies about the same size/age, but ive never heard of happy endings in the cae of Completly random kits on a strange doe...
so i open the hutch tentitivly expecting the worse...
and what do i see? the 2 houdini kits SAFE snuggled togehter IN A NEST...im not taking just a pile of shavings that theyd snuggled into to make themslves a bed, im talking haystack had pulled hay from her hay feeder, on the opposite side of the 4ft long hutch, shed also pulled some fur (i know its hers because it feels different than the rex fur too) and there were the 2 babies snuggled cosy in this little makeshift nest.

as anyone ever heard or seen anythign like this?!  it was so cute and i felt bad taking the babies but haystack has no milk.  i put the babies back in with blackberry and watched closely...she gave em a little sniff then whent back to eating and when i checked on them before comming in she was feeding them so yay...

ive never seen anything like it...hoping this means shes going to be a Realy good mommy when the time comes.


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## pennylove (Jun 19, 2012)

I've never heard of anything like that, aside from situations where litters are fostered out to other nursing does . . . but then, I can't imagine how often all those circumstances fall into place that would allow this to be possible, from the hole in the cage, to the friendly female next door. Pretty awesome story, though! I hope you took pictures before moving them back: )


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## Bunnylady (Jun 20, 2012)

I went into my rabbitry yesterday and was greeted by a drift of black fur under the cage of an 8 month-old doe that has never been bred. This is at least the third time this particular doe of mine has pulled fur like this (time to breed her, wouldn't you say?). While it is very nice to think that Haystack made a nest for her two young guests, I suspect that it was a case of a doe responding to a hormonal peak and exhibiting nesting behavior, with the babies' visit being merely coincidental. But yes, I think Haystack will at least get the nest making part right when she does kindle! 

As you have now discovered, baby rabbits are highly mobile. I have found newborns a surprising distance from their mother's cage when they have fallen out by accident (one of the reasons that my expectant/nursing doe cages now are made entirely of 1/2" x 1" wire).  Babies do occasionally get pulled out of nest boxes, but boxes of some kind are usually pretty useful at keeping the kits confined to a small area, where they are less likely to get isolated and chilled or stepped on.


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