1 kit alone

[Alaskan]

If i bring the kit out to the mother around 5 or 6 when i get home, what time should i bring the kit back in the house to keep it warm?

If you can watch the kit nurse that would be best, so you know it has been done.

As long as mom is on the nest and active with the kit it should be fine... but you probably don't want it out for longer than an hour? Total guess though...

@Bunnylady you here?

 

[Bunnylady]

When I take buns out to their mothers, I stick around doing other things and as soon as I see mom is out of the box, the box goes back in the house with me.

 

[Gary]

Well, the last kit died. Went to bring the box in and it was froze. I should have brought her in earlier. I need to get all this figured out for next time. This is two litters completely lost. When I decided to get into this, I thought they would just do their thing. So far, rabbits seem to be horrible mothers. At least this one is. I guess we'll see how it goes next month. I need to find someone to talk on the phone that raises rabbits successfully. I'm pretty bummed right now. She did a little better than last time but they are all still dead. That makes 15 babies.

 

[Stephine]

So sorry, Gary, that is rough.
Maybe for the next try, get a really good book on raising rabbits (there has to be one - anyone have any suggestions? maybe just look on Amazon) and read up on what to do in case of trouble so you can offer your doe optimal consitions for doing it right and are well prepared when something goes wrong. I find emergencies are much easier to deal with, when you know what to do beforehand, and have the stuff you might need at the ready...
I‘ll be keeping my fingers crossed for you!!!

 

[AmberLops]

Well, the last kit died. Went to bring the box in and it was froze. I should have brought her in earlier. I need to get all this figured out for next time. This is two litters completely lost. When I decided to get into this, I thought they would just do their thing. So far, rabbits seem to be horrible mothers. At least this one is. I guess we'll see how it goes next month. I need to find someone to talk on the phone that raises rabbits successfully. I'm pretty bummed right now. She did a little better than last time but they are all still dead. That makes 15 babies.

Aw i'm sorry. that's too bad. Maybe next time will be better. Usually first-time moms are bad but by the 2nd litter it should be better. You need a different female.

 

[Bunnylady]

I reckon you know why I say, "anyone who believes in the expression 'breeds like rabbits' has never tried it."

I'm sorry to hear that you have lost the second litter, too. Have I gone over my "teaching the doe to nurse her kits" routine with you?

We have altered our rabbits and their environment so much, it probably shouldn't be surprising that a lot of behaviors that should be instinctive are getting lost. Does that get everything right from the get-go are golden; the daughters of such a doe should get consideration as breeders just for that reason. Most of the things that go wrong aren't the rabbits' fault; in many ways, we are often setting them up for failure and they aren't quite managing to adapt to the conditions we create.

The wild doe digs a downward-sloping burrow and puts grass, etc, in it as nesting material. She pulls fur and gives birth in a space at the lowest part of the burrow that is just a little bit bigger than she is. A couple of times a day, she goes to the nest, and stands over her kits. They crawl under her, find a nipple, and nurse. After a few minutes, she leaves. Any kits that hang on and get pulled out of the nest will tumble down the sloping tunnel, back into the nest. Since the nest is underground, the temperature will be moderated by the soil, so the extremes of heat and cold at the surface won't be a factor. Besides, the wild rabbits are seasonal breeders, having their peak production in the Spring, and having their last litters weaned before Autumn's leaves start to fall.

Very little of the domestic doe's life mirrors her wild counterpart. She can't dig a burrow (though the observant owner may see a pregnant doe digging in one corner of her cage, and put the nest box there). A nest box that is close, and dark, to some degree imitates a nest burrow, but the need to keep the kits in usually means the box is constructed with the entrance higher than the cage floor, and going up to get into her nest is not natural, so it's something a doe has to learn to do. People who use dropped nest boxes (the box is in a hole below the cage floor) report far fewer losses, probably because the whole system is closer to the doe's natural way of doing things. We have them breeding at unnatural times of year, and the kits get exposed to temperature extremes.

My poor does wind up with me interfering in scads of ways (a lot of them end up getting hauled into the house to give birth in my hall closet), so that they get anything right to me is amazing! But sometimes, all they need is a little help to get it right, and the closer you can get to how things work for them naturally, the easier it is for them to do so. Once they learn how the system works, they usually do fine from then on. I once had a Jersey Wooly doe that took about 6 tries before she raised a litter, but each time, she got closer, so I let her keep trying (do you get the idea that rabbit breeders see a lot of dead babies? We do, and it's always like a punch in the gut, even after 30+ years. Sometimes I wonder why we do it - not just to them, but to ourselves).

Better luck next time!

 

[Gary]

Thanks