She had kits on wire

[anthonyjames]

So I had a rabbit that was due today. Nest box was in her cage since Sunday. She ate out all the straw and treated the box like a lounge. Today when I came home I went in to check and she pulled no fur and all the kits were on the wire and partially eaten. She is only 7 months old.

I picked her up and noticed alot of blood by her back side. I cleaned her up and put her in the bucks cage to rebreed right away. She went crazy screeching, tearing to get out and so on. So I pulled her out and put her in her own cage. How long do I need to wait to rebreed and is the actions of putting her in the bucks cage normal after having kits and eating them?

Any advice greatly appreciated. My first rabbit in my bunch did great last week and I have 5 more ready to have kits in the next 10 days. Just trying to figure out what to do with this one.

 

[kelsystar]

I know I wouldn't want to mate so soon after having a baby. Give her at least 3 days to recuperate.

She ate her babies? That's usually a stress move. Is she a stressy rabbit or is something else going on in the rabbitry to freak her out?

 

[Bunnylady]

Most of the does I have handled managed to mess up with their first litter. Partially eating the babies may be an attempt to "clean up the nest area," or she may just have gotten carried away (after all, she does have to eat the placentas, membranes, and umbilical cords.) Any doe that gets everything right her very first time is golden!

A nestbox is an unnatural place for a rabbit to give birth. Some does catch on to that thing, some just don't get it. I hear that people that use the dropped style of nestbox (below the floor of the cage) have less trouble with does kindling out of the box, but I haven't ever tried them to see if it's true. (The thought is that "close and down" more closely resembles the burrow that the doe would normally dig for herself.)

I usually give a doe that has lost her litter 2 days to recover before I try to breed her back. Immediately after kindling, she is still very much in the protective mother mode, and only wants to run from the buck. IME, to go longer than 2-3 days risks losing that cycle entirely, and having to wait for at least a couple of weeks before she's ready again.

I would give this girl at least one more chance to get it right. You will have to decide for yourself whether she's enough of a potential asset to try to teach her her job, or simply cull her and get on with your breeding operation. I had one Wooly doe that messed up 5 times before she finally raised a litter! I wouldn't expect anyone else to be that patient, but she was a pretty special animal to me.