Rabbit Web Discussion Board

About two days ago peaches starting pulling a wee bit of fur out. Then overnight she pretty much finished her nest and it was a peice of rabbit engineering beauty to be honest

But she still looked very plump so I didn\'t think she had given birth. Then when my sister came home from her night shift she came and woke me up and said, \'There are babies!!\' So I went outside and opened the section where the nest is and looked very hard and saw nothing. Then I saw some moving and thought there must be some babies. Plus peaches was looking very skinny.

I phoned the vet who says that I shouldn\'t handle the babies, in case peaches doesn\'t like the human smell and eats them. But I\'ve not actually seen the babies yet. Only my sister says she can see them and that is after a 12 hour night shift! I can\'t see any movement now, but to be honest it is very windy today so the fur from the nest is blwoing about from the wind!

I don\'t want to take the fur off and look in case the babies start smelling of human and she eats them, or kills them.

When I went to get her teeth clipped at the vets a few weeks ago he said there where two babies from just feeling about

She has had babies before, but we never realised she was pregnant (never even attempted a nest) and then one day there where just two baby corpses lying around the hutch. She is seperate from the male. Has been since her first two babies died. But one Sunday we let them out in the garden to run around and \'snowball\' did the business.

I\'ve did a search for babies here and I am just a bit reluctant to handle them at all.

Pictures of peahces to follow since she is just so darn cute

It is OK to handle the kits. I\'ve raised rabbits almost 42 years and have not had a problem in this regard. I check the kits every day to make sure all is going well.

Should you have a very nervous doe, I find it helpful to take her out of the cage while you are looking over the kits. I count the kits and make sure there are not any dead kits left in the nest. (This happens sometimes.) I want to look at the kits to see if they are eating well. If the kits are consolidated into one nest and their tummies are full and round, she is feeding them. Occasionally does will make two nests and divide the litter. I make sure they are all together.

Does that kill their young in my experience, do so because a predator comes in and causes the doe to panic and mash her young when stamping a warning. Some does just kill their young, but I have not seen a correlation between handling the kits and whether the doe kills them or not. Some does have that tendency inbred. In 42 years, I have had 2 does cannibalize their kits. One was from a breeder who had that tendency prevalent in his herd. I got rid of that line and the problem stopped. Several years later I had another doe do the same thing. No rhyme or reason, but I didn\'t breed her again or save any of the kits that survived for breeding. I find that the does who do kill there kits, do so before you have even had a chance to look at them in the first place.

I don\'t put vanilla on the doe\'s nose or rub my hands on her first to mask any smells. I often don\'t even remove the doe from the cage (unless she is acting nervous). I never have a problem. I do give my new moms a slice of apple during the time the kits are in the nestbox as a treat while I have a look at the babies, but this isn\'t necessary. I just do it as a thank you to the doe.

Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com

Our doe Midnight has had 2 litters. Each time we had only one survivor, not because of us handling them, but because they were stillborn. We handle the kits the day they are born and each day thereafter. I have found it helps in raising very human loving bunnies. Midnight always watches me, but has never attacked us or the babies. I do pet her before we check. Not to mask scents, but to let her know we are there inside her hutch/nest.

Good luck with your new family.

I had a cheeky wee peek inside the nest yesterday and there are two wriggling little babies inside

I will have a closer looks today to see if their tummies are nice and full as well. Hope they are...don\'t want any complications.

How long will it be before the babies come out of their nest? It has been so long since I\'ve had rabbit babies about. Last time was my old rabbit Floppy(RIP) who had 8!

The kits start to come out of the box between 2 1/2 and 3 weeks. I have found that the earlier the kits come out, the less milk the doe is producing. Sometimes a kit hangs onto a nipple and gets drug out by mistake. If this happens, just put it back.

I remove the box when the kits are 3 weeks old uless it\'s wintertime and very cold. Then I leave it in a week longer.

Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com

Well I didn\'t actually put a box in...she made the whole thing herself! Clever little thing! She made like a crater out of straw then filled it with fur.

The kits seem quite active in there....I counted and there are 4.

2.5-3 weeks that\'s ages! I really want to see them come out soon. I\'m really nervous about handling them. I\'m a big guy so I don\'t want to break one And I still have the vet\'s voice saying \'Don\'t touch them\' in my mind.

Don\'t worry. \"Big Guys\" can handle kits just fine.

(FYI: LOVE vets. Don\'t know what we\'d do without them, but fact is MOST know very LITTLE about rabbits.)

A \"floor nest\" works great. I have resorted to that technique whenever I have a doe that acts like she doesn\'t want to use the nestbox. I just fill the cage with hay and the doe makes the nest where she chooses. I do, however, transfer the whole nest into a nestbox at that point and the does never seem to have an objection. I do that for safety\'s sake because I have wire floors and eventually a wandering kit make get stuck in the wire and it is also a housekeeping issue. If you have solid floors, though, the \"floor nest\" can suffice for the entire 3 weeks.

Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com

AH HELP!

I went to see the kits today. They have grown so much! Can tell which colour they are going to be....colour confused me a bit (being a genetics student and all, but that is a question for another day)

Well I moved the fur from on top of the babies and saw them wriggling about. Then they started getting very active, and now even if I cover them up they are trying to sort of jump out the nest and making wee moaning sounds.

Going to give some apple to peaches in case she is angry with me for messing her babies up. She seemed to be running about a bit.

I caught her feeding the babies yesterday by chance. just opened the enclosed section and she was sitting on top of the nest so I can only assume she was feeding them.

Help quick please!

Sounds like everything is going OK. Relax.

It is normal for the kits to jump about when you examine them. (They think it\'s Mom and they\'re ready to eat.) Kind of funny, really. I always likened it to kernels of popcorn popping. They\'ll settle down quickly once they\'re covered up.

Yep. Sounds like you caught Peaches feeding. The doe hovers over her kits and they nurse like mad. She\'ll clean them up a bit, cover them up and move away from the nest. (Does only feed the kits once or twice a day.)

I\'m a bit of a student of color genetics myself. What color do you think they are? What color(s) were you expecting?

Charlcie Gill
Zodiac Rabbitry
Astoria, OR
http://www.zodiacsatins.com

This is peaches (named accordingly)




This is snowball also named accordingly. Snowball (correct me if I\'m wrong) is an albino rabbit. Albinism is a recessive disorder so he must be homozygous.

The kits from what I can see. 3 are peach coloured and one is white coloured.

But if peaches was also homozygous, then I\'d assume that her colour is dominant. Then all the babies should be heterzygous for peaches colour.

But if peaches was heterozygous and had one allele albino, then half would be peach and half would be white!

I will need to e-mail my lecturer about this once they have grown up a bit and shown their proper colour