my “boy” rabbit had babies… help

[lucinda]

Three months ago I got 2 rabbits and was told by the two different people that I got them from that they were males… I was planning on getting them neutered but wasn’t in a hurry since they were not fighting. I have never had 2 bunnies at the same time and was enjoying the fact that they had bonded and while they occasionally would hump each other and yes I saw both of them being the “male” in the humping, it wasn’t very often and it wasn’t ever violent. I built them a nice 3 story condo and they are allowed to run my whole room during the day. Very happy and content rabbits, not the friendliest ones but I figured that is because they are bonded to each other instead of me..no biggie. Last night went to give them their veggies and lock them in the condo for the night and noticed that on my bed there was chunks of fur.. figured they must of gotten in a fight, pulled back my blanket to collect the fur and WOW! 5 little babies… to be honest I screamed and for some reason the first thought was rats! (I don’t have mice, but I grew up on a farm and remembered coming across a nest like that). 

First thing I did was try to figure out the mom… since one is white and the other is golden, and the fur on my bed was not really white I got my smaller rabbit (Roscoe…but I am guessing now it is Rosey lol), Emmet the white one was trying to hump her and when I picked her up there was a little of blood on her. Put her in the condo while I made a nest out of a small cardboard box, lined it with a layer of newspaper and filled it with hay… cut out a door for her to go in and then put the babies in it and covered them with a little hay and the fur I had found. Have her and the babies in the condo and put him in a small dog crate for the night. It is way too small but big enough for his litter box and food and water, this morning I quickly let him out that way he can run around and be free. This is just a temp. solution untill I can take apart the condo and make it into 2 condos… I know that he probably got her yesterday after the birth but this is a just in case I am lucky and she isn’t already pregant again..fingers crossed. They are missing each other but I have the crate next to the condo and right now he is laying outside the condo after he gave up shaking on the condo doors to go inside. 

So the questions… one.. the box has a lid and I cut out a door, I am not for sure if she will go inside, she is moving the box around the bottom of the condo and occasionally sticking her head in it, but of course I haven’t seen her actually go inside. When I put the box in there last night I did put her inside it on top of the babies that way she knows I moved them there. Should I take the top of the box off?

Babies are warm and moving like crazy, so for right now they are doing ok… How will I know if she is actually feeding them? She didn’t pull a lot of fur out and after searching really hard I was able to find a teat.. but she isn’t filled with milk…well idk, it isn’t like all the other farm animals I grew up with or cats and dogs since. Does the milk come later?

If she is pregant again…what does it mean for these babies? Isn’t it bad to take them away from the mother and milk after only 30 days?

I will be getting the other rabbit, Emmet, neutered soon, but it will have to wait till after christmas. So if I rebuild the condo to two side by side, can they mate through the wires? It is a NIC condo so that will tell you about the size of the wire I use. Untill I decide how to rebuild he is in a dog crate about the size of the awful rabbit cages they sell in pet stores, and I know he isn’t happy even though it is ONLY to sleep at night, since they jump on my bed I don’t want to leave him free and have him jump on me in the middle of the night and get hurt. My room is completely bunny proof, he taught me real quick of all the little holes he could go through. But this means she is locked in the condo all day.. honestly she would only come out of the condo for short periods of time and then go back to sleep inside, the condo is huge. 

Any help or suggestions would be great… 

Thanks..

[Bam]

Rabbits can mate through wire. You need a safe distance between the cages. 

I think you should take the lid off the box, the pictures I’ve seen of nest-boxes never have lids. The babies should be covered with mommy’s fur. 

As for the babies, the BB Forums isn’t the best forum for baby-questions since were not a forum for breeders. We have a rule against discussing intentional breeding and most of our members have never dealt with a litter of newborns. That said, we want your surprise babies to thrive and be well. Rabbits are very often good mothers but any first-time mom may need a little assistance.

Here’s a link to a good web-site with good info. http://www.rabbit.org/care/newborn.html

This website also offer lots of advice, both on pregnancy (in case your girl is pregnant again there could be some useful info) and on how to take care of bunny kits: http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Care-of-a-Pregnant-Rabbit (it does say that baby bunnies should be fed a pellet-only-diet until they’re 8 months old though, and that’s debatable, bunnies should have hay right from when they start eating solid food.)

There are more links on our resource page, under Pregnancy/Babies https://binkybunny.com/RESOURCES/tabid/67/Default.aspx

Edit: there is a forum called Rabbits Inline that has a section about breeding. I think you’d get more qualified help there.

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