# New Babies and Some Questions



## Farmin' Girl (May 20, 2014)

Haven't been on here in a while, so I have some catching up to do.

My brother's rabbit died from over-heating, and we didn't know until we came home an hour or so later. She was pregnant, so my brother cut her open and found 12 babies inside! She was an excellent mother to her last batch of babies, so my brother was really upset to find her dead. 

One of my rabbits had her first-ever kindling a week ago, she had a total of 11, but 3 were still-born, and 1 was suffocated under the rest. The 7 left are doing really well, plumping up nicely and popping all over the box. 

One of our friends who is a rabbit breeder as well had a female who died while giving birth, and only 3 babies were born alive. He gave them to me to see if my female who had the babies last week would accept them into her litter. Well, she didn't accept, so I ended up trying to bottle-feed them. That worked well for 2 days until I found the smallest one under all the hay, fur and shavings in the nesting box, freezing cold. I ended up bringing the 3 inside and putting them under a heat lamp.  The cold baby died a few hours later. The next day the 2nd smallest baby died as well for no reason, it just kept opening it's mouth and twitching it's legs in a weird way. The last one was doing excellent, looked extremely healthy, and was the same size as the 7 babies with my momma (there was a 1-day age difference), so I decided to add it to the litter, giving the momma 8 babies for 8 teats, just perfect. Well, as soon as I put it in the box, the momma jumped in the box and it latched on, perfectly fine, doing well. I went out the next morning to feed the rabbits, and I found it under all the others, squished! 


I want to put 2 questions to you before I end this post.

#1. What do you think I did wrong with the 3 babies, and what can I do to prevent it from happening again in the future?

#2. How would you care for an over-heated rabbit?


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## Farmin' Girl (May 21, 2014)

Also a 3rd question, how long do you think I should wait to re-breed my momma that had babies a week ago?

Any help would be great, thanks!


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## Farmin' Girl (May 25, 2014)

Come on people, where's the help?


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## SA Farm (May 26, 2014)

Often when you want a mamma to accept new kits, you'd want to rub something with a strong smell just above her nose so she doesn't realize that she's being duped into more kits. You can also 'toss a bunny salad' - that is, when you put the new kits in, kind of pile them all up and rub them around on the other kits, so they get the scent of their new mother. 
Depends on your setup. With hanging wire cages, you can give the mamma a chunk of ice to cool herself on and nibble at, maybe add a fan system. I think there are some other things to do there, but can't recall... With hutches, move them to the shade and perhaps add a fan system for them. With wire cages on the ground, move to the shade and put a cover on them (piece of plywood or something).


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## Farmin' Girl (May 26, 2014)

Thank you, you have been very helpful to me.


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## Hens and Roos (May 26, 2014)

SA Farm said:


> Often when you want a mamma to accept new kits, you'd want to rub something with a strong smell just above her nose so she doesn't realize that she's being duped into more kits. You can also 'toss a bunny salad' - that is, when you put the new kits in, kind of pile them all up and rub them around on the other kits, so they get the scent of their new mother.
> Depends on your setup. With hanging wire cages, you can give the mamma a chunk of ice to cool herself on and nibble at, maybe add a fan system. I think there are some other things to do there, but can't recall... With hutches, move them to the shade and perhaps add a fan system for them. With wire cages on the ground, move to the shade and put a cover on them (piece of plywood or something).


 x2

you can probably re-bred the doe but you might want to take into consideration how warm it will be for the next several months in your area to avoid over-heating.


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## Farmin' Girl (May 26, 2014)

Thanks Hens and Roos!


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