# Mother eating young



## montverdechick (Mar 7, 2012)

Have any of you ever had a mother eat her babies? One of our NZW does had her litter this morning and ate parts of most of them. Two were still alive, but had skin missing so I dispatched them. It's was her first litter... Fun thing to wake up to in the morning with hubby already gone to work...


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## brentr (Mar 7, 2012)

It is not uncommon for first-time rabbit mothers to abandon, abuse, even kill their litters.  Unfortunate, but it happens.  Most of those same does will perform flawlessly with litter #2.  That is why most breeders suggest giving a doe two, even three tries at raising a litter successfully before declaring her an unfit mother and removing her from the breeding program.

I just had a very experienced doe kindle two days ago.  It was her 5th litter.  She had a litter of nine, and I found one with its head missing - and it had clearly been eaten.  Why?  Who knows.  She's caring for the rest like a champ.

If your doe's entire litter is gone, completely remove the nest to help her "abandon" it, give her 24 hours rest and then rebreed her.


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## montverdechick (Mar 10, 2012)

Thank you!


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