Help! Baby bunnies

[ShowMeTheBuns]

Sometime between Sunday morning and yesterday afternoon (we were out of town Sunday), my newest shelter bunny gave birth to 9 babies.  I did not know she was pregnant, she is a large Holland and has been big since we got her. When I went to get her out of the rabbitat last night for cuddles, I noticed a mound of fur in the corner of her rabbitat that was moving and realized she had a litter Obviously, I didn’t do a nesting box or anything since I didn’t know she was pregnant.

Today I put a box filled with hay in there and moved the babies so that I could check for any deceased (and clean the cage, she’s been peeing on the hay in one corner rather than using her litter box to pee, new habit, she still poops in the box tho) and found 3 passed away  and 6 live ones. The 3 deceased ones were bigger than the live ones, which I found strange. Any idea why that would be? The 3 deceased ones are a good inch, inch and a half longer than the live ones 

I know the birth had to take place between Sunday and yesterday afternoon because I groomed her Saturday night and she still had all of her fur. Today now that I’ve handled her (she jumped on my lap) I can see her dewlap is less fluffy and her belly hair is almost all gone. She looks rough, poor thing. Is there anything specific I need to do or not do?

 I feel like such a bad bun mom 

[Sirius&Luna]

Unfortunately we’re not a forum that knows much about baby bunnies!

As far as I know, the most important thing is to make sure babies stay warm, and that they have full round bellies. I believe rabbits only feed their babies a couple of times a day, so it’s fine if she seems to ignore them most the time as long as they have full bellies. It might be good to move them to a nest box or something similar so the babies all stay together for warmth.

You might also want to give mum extra pellets, since she’s feeding.

There’s a previous thread here that might be useful:

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/166684/Default.aspx

And the Rabbits Online forum has a breeding section, so they’ll know more about babies
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/forums/the-rabbitry-and-show-room.20/

[Bunny House]

S&l gave good info. You may want to talk to your rabbit savvy vet about the litter and what else you can do to help her and them

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree with BunnyHouse. I would call my vet if I were in your situation.

So sorry about the little babies passing away.

[MintJulep]

So this is back from my 4H days which was quite a while ago… but if you are noticing that the babies aren’t eating enough (tummies not nice and round) you can help them nurse. This means holding the mama bun on your lap on her back and placing the babies on her nipples. They should latch on and be able to nurse. Just keep them there until they are done and you can rotate so everyone gets fed. Normally flipping bunnies and holding them like that isn’t great but sometimes it is necessary. Mama buns normally feed twice a day and don’t do much with the babies during the day so if you see her away from the nest during the day it’s okay. Make sure she has extra food to support the calories she is losing with nursing. You can syringe feed babies but it is very labor intensive and it’s easy to lose the baby. Keep everyone nice and warm and good luck!

[Klutz]

A nest box with the fur and babies in it is the best place you could have moved them. Baby rabbits die for unexplained reasons, so don’t beat yourself up about it.

I’d leave mama alone in the cage until their eyes are open, let her do her thing and care for her babies. Petting and treats are fine, but I’d leave her alone other than that to take care of herself and her babies. Give her some alfalfa in her hay to help with her milk supply, and make sure she always has plenty of water and offer her unlimited pellet food as well.

I’d check the nest once in the morning for the next few days, see if their bellies are nice and round, if they are then mama is doing her job and you can leave them be. You might or might not see mama ever nurse the babies, rabbits only nurse once or twice a day.

Mama will probably wean them on her own (in my experience this happens 4-6 weeks depending on the mama) and at 8 weeks they can be separated into a baby-only cage and find their new homes.

By 2 or 3 weeks make sure to keep and eye on the cage, babies like to test out their legs and sometimes escape!

There is probably 2 or 3 sizes of kits in her litter. The larger kits were rabbits that didn’t inherit the dwarf gene from mom or dad, the slightly smaller ones have a single dwarf gene (these are the babies that have show potential). You said mom was big for a Holland so I’m assuming she doesn’t have a dwarf gene, but if she does, you might notice a TINY baby in the mix. This baby is called a “peanut.” They inherited two dwarf genes and rarely make it to adults. (There is hope though, sometimes a “peanut’ turns out to just be a small runt.)

I hope this helps!

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