Mother eating young

[montverdechick]

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...

 

[brentr]

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.

 

[montverdechick]

Thank you!