2 separate piles of kits in nest box

Stina

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Is it normal for there to be a bunch of kits (6) at the back of the nest box & (3) at the front of the box? They are 2 days old. & this happened for the past 2 days so far....all are warm & wiggling (actually flopping around). A couple seem skinny but they are very active.
 

AmberLops

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How old are they?
It could be that they're too warm. When it's hot outside and they have tons of fur in the nest they will usually spread out to cool off.
I always put the kits back together when they're separated, just to be sure they all get fed :)
 

Bunnylady

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The kits move around in the box so much, especially when the weather is warm, that they often wind up in different groups. During cool weather, it's pretty important that they be together to keep each other warm, but as long as they are all getting fed, I don't worry about it during warm weather.
 

Stina

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How old are they?
It could be that they're too warm. When it's hot outside and they have tons of fur in the nest they will usually spread out to cool off.
I always put the kits back together when they're separated, just to be sure they all get fed :)

They’re 3 days old today. Yes I suppose that the warm weather is the reason. It’s been around 83 degrees the past couple of days.
 

Stina

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The kits move around in the box so much, especially when the weather is warm, that they often wind up in different groups. During cool weather, it's pretty important that they be together to keep each other warm, but as long as they are all getting fed, I don't worry about it during warm weather.


I was just worried that because she has 9 kits, they wouldn’t get fed if they were is different spots of the nest box. After work I will check them again to make sure all are alive.
 

Stina

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The 3 biggest kits are overly fat & the other 6 are thin. I’m assuming it’s time to start bottle feeding
 

AmberLops

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Do you have another doe with a litter around the same age? Putting them in with another doe to foster them is their best bet. If you've never bottle-fed kits before...just be forewarned....it's very rare for kits to survive being bottlefed. And you would need to give them cecotropes from their mom or another healthy rabbit so the kits GI systems work properly. There was a member on here a few days ago who bottlefed an entire litter and at 3 weeks they started developing GI issues...she put them in with other babies so the kits could eat some cecotropes and last I heard, they were doing better :)
 

Stina

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I tried taking the 3 big ones out so she could feed the other 6 but that didn’t work & I didn’t want to loose the whole litter so I just put them back. Over the past 2 days, I’ve noticed they are all with full belly’s, even the runt! so I’m not bottle feeding them anymore, but I do feel that the little that I did, helped the 6 hold on. Today they are 1 week old. Big milestone in my eyes, kind of a sigh of relief. I hope things keep going good. Thanks for all of the advice friends
 
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