Pregnant mother and daughter – yes or no?

[Averill]

We have a bad stray rabbit problem here. Earlier this year, we caught a doe who had a healthy litter. She was housed with one of her daughters once all the kits were weaned and given new homes. They’ve been very good with eachother, until they found out how to escape their hutch on Saturday. Now we did find her daughter, she’s back in the now more fortified hutch. Her mother (grizzly) hasn’t been caught yet. I know there is a very good chance they are both pregnant, and there’s a chance they’re not.

How safe is it for them to raise the two litters in one hutch? Spaying is very expensive here and I doubt they would spay if they’re pregnant.

[LongEaredLions]

Because BB is a house rabbit forum, many of our members are not experienced in this sort of thing, nevertheless, I will do my best to answer your question, though you may want to do additional research.
Pregnant by wild bunnies or your own domestic males? Do you see wild rabbits frequently? My main concern at the moment would be catching the mother and securing the enclosure, maybe even consider bringing them indoors. After that, I would take both them to the vet to determine what can be done. Most vets will spay this early in the pregnancy if you decide on that.
I don’t know if it’s a good idea to keep two moms/litters together. I would worry about hormonal aggression or somebunny getting trampled.

[Averill]

I guess they are technically wild, but the true feral/wild rabbits here have been extinct for a long time. These guys are the result of irresponsible owners letting their unwanted rabbits run around. So most of these rabbits were born on the streets, with the older ones likely being owned by someone previously. So these two technically are domestic. The mother was born on the streets, but her last litter (the one her daughter is from) was born and raised in our house.

We don’t know if they are pregnant, but I know there’s a chance. I did catch the mother, however. If they noticbly get bigger soon, I will be putting them in the rabbit cage we have inside and our two other bucks in the girls current hutch. So six rabbits and two hutches and one cage. That’s why I need to know if it’s ok for them to raise two litters together, assuming there will be any. Hopefully just the mother is pregnant if not both.

On a side note – as far as I’m concerned, true wild rabbits are agouti, yes? The first rabbits we started seeing were brown or otter. So there’s no chance they’re wild by default/they’ve had a human owner before. The agouti rabbits didn’t pop up until recently last year. Before then, we would just see the occasional brown, otter, or white rabbit but many brokens and blacks.

[Azerane]

Yes, true wild rabbits are agouti, however the agouti colouring also occurs in domestic rabbits. I’m not sure on the genetics of the agouti colour, but it’s likely that neither parent has to be an agouti for the kits to have agouti colouring. True wild rabbits in the USA also can’t breed with domestic rabbits because they are a different species. However, the feral rabbits which were previously domestics obviously could.

In regards to housing them together if one or both are pregnant. I have heard of it working, but also of it not. Some does get very territorial and will attack other does when they have a litter, sometimes a doe that hasn’t given birth may harm the kits. It would be best not to risk it and I would house them separately if you find that they are pregnant.

Wishing you all the best for finding the mother soon too. I hope she turns up safe.

[Averill]

Exactly what I was thinking, in terms of agouti. The mother is agouti, but if shes able to have healthy litters with the otter buck on our street, then she has a domestic line. She just wasn’t born domestically. Besides, the only other lagos here in my city are hares. which would have obliterated these rabbits anyway. thank god they live a good few miles away.

Our other option (if they are both pregnant) is to introduce our inside bucks to our outside bucks, which frees up the indoor cage. So momma could be outside and baby could be inside. But as far as I’m concerned, introducing rabbits can be quite difficult, yes? So we will have to find some sort of other inside cage i guess. Though I was thinking that momma has had plenty of litters outside so she might be fine, providing we gave her enough warmth and whatnot. If I do separate them, I just hope they will be good with eachother once they are housed together again. 

Oh, and we did catch the mother. I’m started to doubt we caught the right otter doe..there seems to be another one around our house the same size as her. but she won’t come to me, whereas the one we have now is fairly docile. (despite being quite frightly before she ran off)

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