Bunny had surprise babies last night…HELP!

[sinistermooess]

Hi everyone

I am extremely new to your forum, I looked around last night and decided after this mornings events that I better ask here as you guys seem to know what you are talking about.  Irescued two bunnies last month from neighbos who did’;t want them anaymore, they were preparing to throw them out in the snow, I saw and intervened, but obviously we have a m/f instead of m/m like we were told.

Starbuck had three babies last night, her mate has been removed from the cage already.  She had her babies lyng in a nest in the corner, just a few minutes ago she ruined the nest and took just one of the babies with her to the other side of the cage, leaving the other two in the now non existent nest.  All three are still alive and their bellies looked full and plump ( I was advised to check that every morning to make sure they were being fed).

I guess I am not sure if I need to be concerned about her behavior and moving one of the babies.  We tried to give her a neting box but she wasn’t having it at all.

 

Help?

 

Sarah

[Sarita]

I would just watch to make sure she takes the other two – she may just not have gotten around to it – they do need to stay warm too. If she doesn’t appear to eventually move them then I would intervene and move them with the other one.

How old do you think the mother is too? Sometimes if they are too young they do not know how to properly care for the babies either.

[Sarita]

http://www.rabbit.org/care/babies.html

I would also recommend reading this article as well.

[sinistermooess]

Thank you Sarita or the link.  I am terrified because I have heard that they are super fragile and I don’t want to hurt them.  She has now moved the lone babie into a corner on top of her food pellets, should I move him back with the other ones who still have some of mommas fur around them?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Keeping them warm should be your number one did she pull alot of fur and make the nest with that? Ensure the babies are covered with the fur at all times. I wouldn’t intervene if she moved one, I’m not sure why she would but they are different then dogs and cats as moms so she may be doing something very natural (maybe that one is slightly dirty and she moved him to clean him-babies have no scent and that’s why the moms aren’t with them other then at feeding times, so as not to lure predators to them-he may need cleaning to reduce scent? Just a thought). I’d check twice a day to make sure they’ll all alive and covered with the fur from the nest. She should feed early am and late evenings, only twice a day.

Keep us posted! Welcome to the forum and Congrats on saving those two(five!) bunnies!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hmmm if she moved baby onto the food pellets, you might want to just scoop him and put him back with the others? I would try that but I’m not all together sure that’s the right thing….

[sinistermooess]

She actually did not pull alot of fur, she nly started doing it a few hours before she gave birth, so there are very scant amounts.  Is there anything I can use to help keep them warm other then moms fur?

[Sarita]

I do think I would move him as well.

You will want to make sure as well that the cage has a flat bottom – no grates or anything like that as the babies can fall out of the cage when they are this small. Not certain if that is a problem for you or not.

Don’t worry – you sound like you will do just fine with helping Starbuck and her babies.

[Beka27]

welcome here! oh my! you’ve gotten great advice so far. i have nothing further to add, but please keep us posted on how they do.

what do you know about the neighbors? how long did they have these rabbits and do you know approx. what ages they are? is it possible they might have been bred in the past by the neighbors or were they housed separately?

[sinistermooess]

I do not know the neighbors very well, and after seeing the getting ready to throw those two furballs into a snowbank i decided I didn’t really WANT to know them very well, if you know what I mean. They said they had just bought them a few weeks earlier before they “got sick” of them. Blech, I wanted to punch them, not a good feeling for a pacifist!

[Beka27]

i know! i totally understand where you’re coming from. animal cruelty is one thing that i cannot put up with. well, all that matters now is that YOU have them and they’re all safe.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

If she didn’t pull alot of fur they do sell small animal nesting material in the petstores-or you might use some nice soft Kleenex, just shred it and add it to the nest.

Here’s what a nest should look like, just because ‘a lot of hair’ is kind of subjective You can take a look and see if she did a good job! Most rabbits only pull fur and make the nest the day of giving birth-the whole predator prey thing.

http://www.fellowmortals.org/images/nestbunnies.jpg

Also how big are the spaces in the bars of your cage? Does it have a high bottom? Babies can crawl away from the nest and if they do they can get hypothermia easily-you’ll want to make sure they can’t crawl out. If you have a reg pet store cage, the kind with a high bottom, thats solid, that should work fine.

[sinistermooess]

Thanks for the link to the picture, you guys rock!

 

We have moved the lone bunnie back with it’s siblings and covered them with the fur we could find in the cage after her destruction of the original nest, there is a little less then in the picture it seems.  Mom is eating her breakfast salad at the moment, she wasn’t upset with us moving her little one, that must be good right?

 

The cage we have is a pet store cage with a high bottom, no slats in the bottom or anything. 

 

It’s my birthdaya in 4 days and my husband waas actually going to buy me a birthday present this year( financially unable to up till this year), instead I get a new bunny cage for Helo, aka…Daddy.  I prefer to look at it as though i got three baby bunnies for my birthday!

 

Sarah

 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL Well Happy Birthday! That’s a great way to look at it-new babies for your bday! You’ll have to keep us posted on them! Very exciting!

[bunnytowne]

How neat.  But oh my gosh surprise surprise.   Happy Bday buns and bunny mum too

[MooBunnay]

Happy Birthday to you Baby buns are a fantastic birthday present! Just wait until they get a bit older and start running around and doing little bunny binkies!

I’m so glad you saved the bunnies, that is so awful that they would put them out in the snow. I would be sooo angry if I heard that from any of my neighbors…I would probably have to move away.

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