Newborn rabbits!

[mrsberger]

 My rabbit had babies yesterday morning. She and her brother have been living together since birth in early June 2010 and were recently separated (before we knew she was pregnant).  I have never bred rabbits before, and the pregnancy came as a surprise so I have a lot of questions. By the way, she and her brother (who is smaller than her luckily) are both some sort of American breed of rabbit, we aren’t sure.

1. She used a towel to give birth on and tucked the babies into it.  Since then, I have moved the babies (with towel, some Alfalfa hay, and lots of her fur) into a small box similar in size to what she uses for litter.  She does not seem to mind me touching her babies or the towel or reaching into her cage to pet her.  Was it a bad idea to move the babies? I saw one crawling out of the towel and was afraid it would get cold if it got onto the wire part of her cage. Also, when I moved the babies as I was cleaning last night I counted five.  This morning there are six..did she give birth to another during the night?? 

2. I am worried that since she is a young mother (just turned six months old the day she gave birth) she won’t take good care of the babies or feed them.  Six seems like a pretty big number for her first birth and I’m worried that one will die (none have so far). Although she does allow me to touch her babies, I don’t want to annoy her by constantly handling them.  Also, I am afraid I will give one of them a disease or hurt it because I am not used to handling baby bunnies.  Her babies are quiet most of the time, which I read is a good sign.  I have only heard a few peeps out of them since they were born.  Does this mean she is feeding them? I have read you can tell if the babies are being fed if their stomachs are round, but I am not a rabbit expert and don’t trust my own judgement on this.  Also, I don’t have a postage scale to weigh them on. How can I know 100% she is doing a good job feeding them and that they are all being fed?

3. This morning when I woke up and checked on her, she had dragged part of the towel out of the box and all of the babies are lying on the bottom part of the box (not on top of the towel). They are usually in groups of 2 or 3, laying together.  I try to move her hair to where the babies are laying and put the towel to cover them, but I am afraid they are still not warm enough.  If they were cold, would the babies tell their mom by making noises? How do I know? Last night I bunched them all together before I went to sleep, so hopefully they all were in one area to get fed.  I will do this every night before she feeds, but if one crawls away from the group, will it not get fed by her?

4. The mom’s new cage (after we separated her from the dad) is right next to the dad’s cage.  After she gave birth, she seemed to get angry/excited and run around her cage when she saw him, so I put a barrier between the two cages.  Should her cage be in a completely separate area from the dad’s cage? Ever since I put the barrier, things seem to be fine and she is relaxing, but I’m afraid she can still smell the dad and that will stress her out. 

5. Is there anything special I should be feeding the mom? So far I have just been giving her larger amounts of her normal diet (parsley, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cucumbers, carrots, Timothy & Alfalfa hay (I have a third baby bunny about 2 months old so thankfully I had some Alfalfa to give her after she gave birth), water, and a bowl of her rabbit food pellets. 

6. Sometimes when she is up and walking around her cage, her tail starts to wag.  Does this mean ‘stay away from my babies’? Should I not touch them when she looks this way? Most of the time when I check on the babies, I pet her a bit first so she is laying down and relaxed.  If I ever see her make any motion toward the babies, I take my hand away and let her check on them. Does she not want me touching them?

7. Will her personality change after she has had a litter? For the past month, she has been more standoffish and reserved and we had no idea why until she gave birth. Before that, she was very friendly and would hop over to the side of the cage and stand on her hind legs to greet you if you walked near.  Will she be friendly again?

8. Both she and her brother are a brownish-grey color with white markings.  She has some white on her head and around her neck and on her paws, and the dad has a white nose and paws.  What color will the babies be? I can see some markings on their skin, but I don’t really know what that means.  Will they all be brown? I remember in the litter the mom & dad were born in, there was a white bunny with some light brown and black spots. 

9. How and when can I tell the babies’ genders? 

10. Since I will be keeping the babies for at least 8 weeks, how can I make their moms cage safe for them?  When will they start to climb out of their nest box? Her cage is made of wire and I don’t want them falling through or getting hurt because their paws are smaller than the holes. Are they supposed to be separated from their mom at a certain point? 

11. Lastly, how can I make sure each of the six (most likely we will be keeping one, so five) babies go to a good home? I am afraid that if I give them away for free, someone will take one and feed it to their snake or something like that.  Are there any sites I could post on to guarantee they will be taken good care of as pets and not used for food? I am worried that I will be stuck with six babies because I won’t be able to find good families to take care of them.  I don’t want them to get euthanized because they sat in a shelter too long, either.  

Sorry for the long questions and thank you in advance to anyone that can help me with even one of my many questions!

I attached a picture of the mom and dad when they were babies, and one taken a little more recently.

 

[bunnytowne]

oh my.    ok   alfalfa is ok for a nursing mother bun.   2nd it is ok to handle the babies putting them back in where they are together. I know a lot of people may not agree with this however I have bred them when I was young and the does gave no problems when I would check them and put the ones back in that happened to sometimes get out of the nest box.  Plus the breeder who I got Ruby from handles them from birth as well. NOt holding n petting them but    just checking on them as they grow holding one for a few minutes to see how it is doing.   When they l they open their eyes and have fur is when you can hold n pet them and get them used to being handled.  Then she holds them for a bit getting to know their personalities so when she goes to sell or home them she knows their personalities and can match them pretty much to the buyer

Do you have a box to put them in?  That would be ideal.   Big enuf for mum to jump into nurse and jump out.   The front or hole should have a 4 inch or 5 inch height to it so the babes can’t get out.   Sometimes one will be hanging onto a teat when she jumps out and be out of the box.   Go ahead and put it back in.   Keep her fur in there and perhaps shredded newspaper if the hair doesn’t seem to be enuf for them. Apparantly she no longer likes the towel in there.  Hay is ok too. 

I raised rabbits when I was young and they did not get upset when I put their babes back into the nest box.

The mother feeds them at nite.    When we are sleeping.   Usually twice even once.   Their tummies will be  nice somewhat roundish.  They know instinctively what to do so I wouldn’t worry about her being new to this. 

OH you do have them in a box thats good.   They dont’ make noise per se  you may hear them wiggling around they seem to constantly wiggle.

Wow they are so cute.     Don’t be concerned if you dont’ see the mother in the nestbox.  This is normal.  They nurse them at wee hours once or twice.

flicking her tail as far as I can tell that means she is excited.   Putting a barrier between her n her bro is a good idea.  This has calmed her down.  Sometimes the males kill the young    

The color you see on their skin is the color their hair grows out to be.  

Gender   usually at about 2 months you can check  there is a website that shows pics of the males and females genital and differences in shape.  You have to push their genitalia out and once it comes out it will be a hole for a male and a slit for a female.  Very small but still once you get the hang of it you will do ok   I will have to find the website.  I shoudl keep it handy cuz we get this question here on occassion.

3 months the boys testicles drop and you need to seperate them genderwise at that age.   The males can impregnate females at 3 months which is just too young and you don’t want to end up with more

As far as  finding homes that will come in time.  Ask for a homing fee someone who is serious will not be put off by that.   And you can screen them asking if they have had rabbits b4 where they will be kept  if they are prepared to make a room or area bunny proof from chewing wires. 

Hope this helps

And post pics of them.   We love pics.  Glad you found us

[Elrohwen]

I’ll try to answer a few of your questions though BT might have beat me to it.

First, the babies need to be in a box that they can’t escape from – separating from the group is extremely dangerous because they can get cold and die quickly. Even a shoebox is fine as long as mom can get to them, but they can’t crawl out until they are big enough (probably after 10 days to 2 weeks when their eyes open). Second, take away the towel because it’s too easy fro them to get stuck in it – give them a nice bed of mom’s fur and hay instead to keep them warm.

For now, momma should be on an unlimited pellet diet, in addition to her usual veggies and hay – she needs a lot of calories to feed so many babies. Also, as they grow, don’t worry about them eating her food since they will gradually eat more and more of her food until they are weaned.

Six months may seem young, but it’s actually not young in the rabbit world. I’ve even heard that it can be dangerous to breed a rabbit for the first time over a year old, so she is at an ok age. Lucky she didn’t have a litter earlier though! Her personality will probably become friendly again after they are gone. It’s instinct for the mom to get territorial and mean when she is expecting in order to protect her nest. Especially once she is spayed she’ll probably go back to being a friendly bunny again.

I agree with BT that the mother won’t spend much time in the nest box, so don’t worry if you don’t see her in there. It’s totally normal for her to only feed the babies once per day, usually in the middle of the night. You should handle the babies daily to check that she is feeding them – if she is, they will have full bellies that look like ping pong balls. If a few days goes by and their bellies look shriveled, it could mean she’s not feeding them. It’s not true that bunnies give up their young if people handle them. You don’t want to stress out mom too much, but if she’s ok with you touching them than check them once a day. If she gets stressed you can let her out to run around while you check them out.

Babies should be separated by 8-12 weeks – 8 is ok, but some people think that 12 is better because it allows them more time to wean naturally and learn to handle adult food completely. When you look for homes, I would suggest contacting a local rescue and asking for help – most will post pictures and information about them on their websites to help you find homes for them – at least this way you have a better chance that the potential owners are looking for a pet to love and take care of. Make sure to interview owners carefully and ask for pictures or where the bunny will live and information about how they will set up the cage, what they will feed, whether they will spay/neuter, etc.

Good luck with your expanded bunny family! It must be very hard to get a new bun and immediately have an unexpected litter on your hands. I hope all of them thrive.

[mrsberger]

Thank you both for the quick replies and great advice! I never imagined I would get help this quickly. I will try to keep this post updated if I have any problems, and will definitely post pictures when the bunnies are a bit older.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Welcome!
I would remove the male immediately if you didn’t already. She can get pregnant now (breed like bunnies right?) and he shouldn’t be around the babies.

1) Nope that’s fine. I think it’s something of an old wives tale about touching baby animals. I’ve handled many and mom’s always were fine. It’s actually important that you touch them now to ensure they are doing well. They should be warm, wriggling and have full bellies. You may have miscounted, but she may have had the other later.

2) Give her unlimited everything-hay, kibbles and veggies. Make sure you check water-they can dehyrate easily-and she will be drinking more then ever. Also ensure what you feed is alfalfa based. You can weigh the babies everyday-that’s a good idea. Try to do it at the same time of day as their weight will fluctuate. She’s doing fine now, and obviously hasn’t attacked them or anything so I’d say she’s doing great. Try to keep the room quiet, and don’t turn the TV up loud for a while-she should be kept as stress free as possible, but you can certainly handle the babies to make sure they are doing well.

3) I’d put a towel over the cage for quiet and privacy, but it seems she doesn’t want a towel. She should have made a nest with hair and hay but if she didn’t you can put them on hay. I wouldn’t try to put the towel back because if she’s moving it she could move one by accident.

4) YES put dad in another room. Most mothers do not want the male around.

5) Just free feed her-even pellets. And try to give alfalfa based foods, but timothy will be fine as well. Check her water often.

6) Tail wag is an excited thing and likely it’s an angry excited-I wonder if she is doing that to warn dad off? Remove dad and see if that stops.

7) Could have been due to the preganancy but bunnies also go through teenager years -which thankfully are months-usually sometime between 6-12 months. After the babies are gone (8 weeks no less!) and she is spayed she should be friendly and calm again.

8) No way to tell yet, but they develop fast. You can expect their eyes to be open at around a week or so and you’ll really see colors by then.

9) That’s difficult and usually a vet is best to answer that-they are one of the harder animals to sex. If you can take nice clear pictures of their regions, and post we can likely help. Boys have cheerio’s girls have slits-but sometimes they are a little ambigious.

10) go to the hardware store and ask for coroplast…it’s corrugated plastic. It’s like plastic cardboard. It’s cheap and you can cut it to fit in the bottom of her cage. Do this now before they start crawling. Get a sheet big enough for dad’s cage too-bunnies should not be kept on wire bottom cages as it’s very hard on their feet (they don’t have foot pads like almost every other animal and they get infected sores on their feet). You can likely do both cages for around 10$. It’s also easy to clean

11) it’s not what site you post on, it’s up to you. You have to ask questions about their intentions. I would charge about 50$ because no one buys an animal to feed another for that price. You should also ask about their intentions to spay/neuter, properly house, feed and care for the rabbit. We can help you draft up questions to ask as the time comes closer-no problem.

[LoveChaCha]

Welcome.

When it comes to bunny genetics, anything is possible. Any types of coloring, related or unrelated to your rabbits is quite possible.
 

Could an animal rescue or a shelter help rehome the bunnies? I think that the bunnies will need to be seperated from mommy at a certain age .. but please someone clarify for me!!

i hope you get things sorted through and she and her brother get fixed Good luck! We are here for you!

[Beka27]

While the mother is busy with the babies, please schedule an appointment as soon as possible to have your male neutered. This way, by the time they can be reintroduced, he will have healed completely and will no longer have any viable sperm. Although females are not typically spayed before 6 months, males can be done between 3-4 months, so he is long overdue to be neutered. Did you not realize they were different sexes? How is it they were housed together up to 5 months of age?

[RabbitPam]

Hi.
I think everyone has addressed your questions well, so I doubt I can add to it. But I have a couple of questions of my own for you.
I am a bit confused about your mention of having a third baby. If I have it straight, you started out with 3 baby bunnies, the brother, sister and a third. Is that right? The siblings were together so got pregnant. Where is the 3rd housed right now? Male or female, and are you keeping that one as well?
If so, you plan to end up with three adults (teenagers really, 6 mos. old) and one newborn to keep. Trying to rehome the rest. If that is right, then you want to keep all 4 of these, starting immediately, separated from each other in their own cages until you have them all fixed. If you have one neutered, but have not been accurate at sexing the other two and you have a male/female together by mistake, the doe can get pregnant almost immediately again now that she’s given birth. That’s really hard on her. So the male needs to be neutered asap, the third one speutered, and she can get spayed within several weeks. The little baby you keep will be able to be speutered in about 5 months. Expensive, I know, but worth it and your vet may offer a group rate or pay plan. (Many do for multiple families.)

If you are keeping them for the purpose of having more litters, that is intentional breeding. I’m sorry but that is not allowed as a discussion on this site. If this litter was intentional, or a mistake because of timing but you had planned to have a litter soon, or the two (three?) you had first were the result of an intentional litter, than that would be part of our limits on this site. There are many reputable breeding sites, so you can get advice on those. We strongly advocate the speuter and control of bunnies breeding here, preferring to give unwanted bunnies good indoor homes, so we advocate the care and adoption of babies and bunnies. And prevention.
We do not allow advertising your litters here for new homes either.
What I urge you to do is check online and in your phone book for listings of local shelters and rescues. Also ask your vet and other local vets as well to try to find homes for new babies, to be available 9 weeks. If you feel you must advertise on sites, use Petfinders.com. For any sale of bunnies, charge a large enough sum to put off people doing it on a whim, like $40 or more. You can always give them a break once you know it’s a genuine and reputable indoor habitat they are providing.
Good luck!

[bunnytowne]

OH yeah    feed mum unlimited hay n pellets.   Alfalfa is ok but switch her back to timmy at about 10-12 weeks n keep the babes on alfalfa til  about 7 months

How r they doing?   and where are the pics?  

[mrsberger]

Thank you all for your advice.  I have moved the dad to a different room and taken the towel out of her nesting box.  I put some shredding paper bedding on the bottom of it to make sure it stays warm.  I have some bad news, though.. this morning when I checked on the mom and babies, one of them had died.  It looked like she had dragged it into her litter box, and I immediately removed it from her cage.  There are still six babies though and I have counted and re-counted them many times.  Counting the baby that didn’t make it, that makes seven babies.  How could she have 5 rabbits one night, 6 another, and 7 as of last night???? I thoroughly cleaned her cage and put the babies in one area before I went to bed, so I am 100% positive that there were six babies.  What could have happened?

In response to some of your questions..

Beka27: When we got them, we had no idea what sex they were.  When we took them to the vet, he said we should schedule them to be spayed/neutered after six months.  There are no rabbit-specific vets in this area, so that could be why he gave me the wrong information.  Right now I am looking for a more reputable place to take them both spayed/neutered.  

Rabbitpam: One of our friends had a litter of baby Holland Lops about two months ago, and we could not resist taking one off her hands.  She has always lived in a separate cage from both bunnies. We have (and never did have) any intentions of breeding rabbits.  Like I said, this came as a surprise to us because our vet had told us that the bunnies mature sexually around 6 months.  All three bunnies will be spayed/neutered, but definitely not at the same vet we took them to to get sexed.  I am in the process of looking for vets who have experience with rabbits, or at least won’t give me the WRONG information.

 

[mrsberger]

 Also: here is a picture of the babies.  I hope they are all safe and healthy from now on.

[LoveChaCha]

There are times when a few of the rabbits will not survive. They are called peanuts or something. It happens I’m sorry that one went

[LoveChaCha]

Well, I hope you find a good vet place. Do you live in the states? There is a house rabbit society webpage that will give you locations to take your rabbits to.

Boy rabbits will mature very early. Again, I am sorry the vet could not give you proper information.

Here is the link to the vet sites:
http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

Spays tend to be more pricer than neuters.

[bunnytowne]

Hope you find a vet who knows rabbits and has experience.   A male can impregnate a female at 3 months .    3 months is too young ofr the female but it won’t prevent pregnancy if they mate.

In lookin for  a vet look for an exotics.   Rabbits are considered exotics their care and med requirements are quite different from cats n dogs.

Hmm I don’t recall having more babies as time goes on.  Though I guess it could happen. As apparantly it has.

I do know they have different uterusis which may be what happened.  Some got fertilized sooner than others maybe?   Weird.  lol.   Hopefully you just miscounted. Gosh where did I find that about different uterus’s.   I am going to try and find it

Yes sometimes you lose a babe can’t be helped.  A peanut is a bit deformed the head too big and the internal organs aren’t developed so they can’t survive no matter what you do.   The mother will know if one is not going to survive and shove it away from the rest of the group.

Yes they do have more than 1 uterus   how many I forget that could be what happened.    I am searching and found little info on this subject.

Cats have different ones too I believe.  I do know they can impregnate from different males in the same mating heat.

[bunnytowne]

IT is hard to find info on this but here is a little of what I found.   You got me curious

The female reproductive tract of the rabbit is unique in several ways. There are two separate uterine horns, but no uterine body, as dogs and cats possess. Each uterine horn opens into the vagina separately. Rabbits are induced ovulators, like cats and ferrets, and do not have an estrus cycle

 

HEy I foudn a good pic of the anal glands that need to be cleaned and a female rabbit genitalia  to hopefully help you sex them at 2 months.

 

medirabbit.com        you have to  go under  eurogenital diseases   I am not posting the pics here at this time.

the eurogenital device they point at is round for a male.  this will hopefully give you an idea

 

here is a little more on buns anatomy

A duplex uterus characterizes rodents and rabbits; the uterine horns are completely separated and have separate cervices opening into the (censored)

I hope this isnt’ too graphic.

 

 

[mrsberger]

That has to be what happened because I was 100% sure I counted five on day 1, 100% sure I counted six on day 2, and then there was the one that didn’t make it. I hope she doesn’t have any more..

[RabbitPam]

BT, that’s really interesting info. Thanks for that research.
It occurs to me that she may have had a peanut stillborn, so it may not have passed with the initial babies, but she passed it during the night and it was found the next morning. Sad. I would not expect any more.

That is terrible to be so stuck because you have a vet that couldn’t give you the right info. on examination. It just reinforces the point that, no matter what you think, keep two intact rabbits separated totally until at least one of them is speutered. It’s vital.

We don’t encourage pix of litters I’m afraid. We had a rash of litters all at once about a year ago that led to more of the rules being created and enforced, because they were so totally cute and irresistible that some members were tempted to have “just one oops litter.” Not intentional breeding per se, but definitely led to some less than responsible decisions. So it was better to nip the wee nippers in the bud and curb the photos.
We can help with your questions, though. And I would urge you to do a search in all the forums on Litters, so you can read many multi-page threads of advice to others before you. It is much better to read their circumstances and be prepared for the next few stages than start over with new questions that have been answered well already. Ask for help finding links to those posts if they don’t turn up in your search.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

WOW BT That makes so much sense! I was like…huh…I have no idea where the other babies are coming from. Thats a long hard labor my goodness!

Thanks for answering questions on how the babies came to be-I know I was wondering why bro and sis were starting a family together

Like Pam said-there is really good reasons we don’t allow *Discussion* of purposeful breeing, or pictures of babies -even from oopsie litters -here’a link to the rules in case you want to puruse.

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aff/10/aft/13313/afv/topic/Default.aspx

Definitely this happens and your very welcome to keep us posted and keep asking questions and getting support-just no baby pictures But certainly accidents happen and we don’t mean to sound like you can’t post or anything like that. We’d love to hear how things go and stay as long as you like!!

[mrsberger]

Sorry about the pictures, I had no idea. I have been looking at other posts about “accidental” litters and I can see how mini rabbits can make someone want a litter. The babies are doing great today, they have just been wiggling around and getting licked by mom. Sometimes when I go to check on them, they make little squeaks because they think I am mom coming to feed them. They have grown so much already, even from two days ago when they were born. I am starting to see a little fuzz and little white dots where their nails are starting to grow. Thanks again for all the advice, everyone has been very supportive.

[jerseygirl]

everyone has been very supportive.

That’s the idea. I’m happy to see you understood the reasoning about the pictures. It’s something that is tricky and recently been amended in the rules.
Belated welcome from me. Happy to hear the kits are doing well. Please don’t hesitate to ask further questions for support.

[Beka27]

Thank you for explaining further. We don’t mean to sound defensive regarding the litters, but this has been a big issue in the past, so the rules are the rules.

Have you contacted the vet and told him/her that the bunnies had a litter? It’s really BASIC info that male sperm is viable at 3 months. Even if the vet was not comfortable NEUTERING at 3 months, the buns still should have been in separate cages from then until they were altered. I would definitely let the vet know that this happened, in part, because of erroneous info you were given, and I believe the very least they can do is assist you in some way as to finding homes thru the office and providing a free well bunny/sex confirmation check prior to going to new homes.

I would not recommend you keep a baby. You already have 3. Average price of spay/neuter of one bunny is $200. You’re already in it for $600 (at least!) of vets costs, not including meds and initial exams… If you keep a 4th, you’ll be well over $1000!!!!

[RabbitPam]

“Sometimes when I go to check on them, they make little squeaks because they think I am mom coming to feed them.” Squeeee! even in writing with no pictures baby bunnies are irresistible.

Please know that whatever the number of bunnies you end up with, the Bonding section in the green banner and the Bonding Forum will help you learn to have the bunnies live together. When bonded correctly, you can avoid fast and serious injury if they fight, and without a good vet so far, that can be a big problem down the road. I agree with Beka that you could notify the vet who was wrong, even if he meant to say to keep them separate, he didn’t make it clear to you.

[bunnytowne]

Ooops I didn’t know you changed the rules about baby pics.    I been away that long?

Awe their little squeaks must sound real cute.   They grow so fast.   I wish they would stay small and baby cute always.

OH they do poop very frequently when young.  Don’t be surprised once they start hopping around exploring they poop a lot.  Then it gets crazy with so many young ones

[Author]

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