# New healthy litter



## zachbelle (Mar 20, 2015)

Because of my recent loss due to the cold my other doe is in a very large plastic dog crate indoors, she refused to build a nest in the box kept dumping it out and built a nest in the back corner of the crate....plastic bottom and in the house so the kits will be warm and safe but this morning when I woke up to fur everywhere and a bobbing nest I took mama out and gave her a treat to check the number and health. .4 babies in the nest and 3 more outside the nest..still covered in fur, I know sometimes rabbits will do this to make feeding easier but I put them all in the nest and covered them back up I'm hoping she will be ok with this. I'm not sure if she had the first 4 and thought she was done then had the other three after she had gotten out of the nest or what...did I do the right thing putting them all together? So happy to see healthy fat wriggling babies this morning! This was her first litter seems like lucky number 7 seems to have a pattern for first litters around here!


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## Hens and Roos (Mar 20, 2015)

Congrats that's great about the healthy kits!  It's possible that she started having them and thought she was done therefore kits in 2 places. Sometimes the kits wiggle away from the group too.

Enjoy!


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## zachbelle (Mar 20, 2015)

Thanks!  While I've got a response on this thread I've got another question. My doe that had babies night before last that were cold and unable to be revived had five more last night on the wire after I removed the nest box...is this normal to Kindle on two separate night? My only thought could be she had four babies in one uterine horn and five in the other kindling separately but I didn't know if this was possible or normal?


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## Bunnylady (Mar 21, 2015)

It isn't typical for a doe to split the litter and have two separate kindling dates, but it certainly is possible. Most people will breed the doe at least twice on one day only, to try to eliminate the possibility. I have talked to Angora breeders that tell me that their breed is notorious for kindling over the course of at least a couple days. I can remember a Jersey Wooly doe that I had years ago that had 4 kits one day, and 4 more a few days later . . . she may have been the only one I've ever had to do that (the only one I remember, anyway), but I know it can happen.

As to your first question, you did right in putting the kits together in one nest. Kits are highly mobile, and they often crawl around in whatever space they can. They are attracted to warmth, and tend to huddle in groups, but whether they all find their way back to the nest or whether they form more than one huddle (or some even wind up cuddled up to the doe) is never a certainty. Part of the reason for a nest box is to confine the kits to one small area, where they are more likely to cuddle together and keep each other warm. Sometimes, you will find that there is one kit that is always in another corner of the nest box, away from its siblings. Those kits almost always die - the instinct to share warmth is pretty important.


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## zachbelle (Mar 21, 2015)

Thank you for the reply.. it stinks I lost nine kits but I always try to look for the silver lining and j guess in this case it's a lesson learned the hard way that even if I find dead kits leave the box in a few extra days so this won't happen again...I think that's the hardest part about raising animals, no matter how much you read and research and talk to people who have gone through it, you always learn as you go and the animals tend to teach you more than anything


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