Loose bunny has first litter, question on health of kits

[MaggieSims]

ok, hello all on the bunny forums! i have many animals at my little funny farm, and loose bunnies being one of them. I have only had them loose about 4 months now, but I have just now found my first litter. I bought all my starter herd of buns from a good breeder, standard rex's, and a variety of colors. I started with 6 females and 3 males. Most of the females i see together, 2 especially, and one of which had her first litter the other night, on the 9th. She and her best bunny buddy have been renovating the floor of my girly goat's barn and made herself 3 entrance holes. Anywho feeding in the morning, i discovered her nest, dug nicely into the ground, hay and straw and fur. unfortunately, 2 kits outside the nest were gone by the time I knew it even happened, but 4 survived, live and warm. I grabbed one of the many (and I mean MANY nest boxes i have everywhere they like to hang out) and started transferring into my use-all wire dog kennel. it's a 48x30 or so size, and i placed it right on top of where she chose her spot. got all the kits in the new nest, and here comes mom to investigate. I grabbed her and plopped her in the kennel. Being that there is dirt floor, she dug herself an exit, which is fine, I check on her kits several times in the day, and i place a few pieces of straw over her exits, so i can tell if she's been in there or not since last check. so now to day 2, lost a kit overnight, don't know if it were to being too cold, or what, but now down to 3. I expected losses due to the nature of the loose rabbit idea... All day went good, mom is happily frolicking with friends, and must be feeding those babies since they are already growing and showing their colors. (i will snap piccies in the morning) Nice fat bellies, and warm and hippity hopping in my hands. Today, I notice a few things, their noses seem dirty, like a bit of weeping, and got dust or what not in the noses. And their rears... need attention. All three were swollen a bit, one being worse, looks almost backed up? i picked a bit of poo goo off and gave a gentle squeeze, and was able to push out a bit of poo like the little guy was backed up. Is this an indication that momma is not cleaning bottoms and i should do the job? They still look warm, and fed. Lively and otherwise ok.

 

[Latestarter]

@Shorty @Bunnylady @samssimonsays @DutchBunny03 @LukeMeister And as you know, there are quite a few others... I may have missed it but I really see only one question... about cleaning their butts... Am I blind? Aside from that, everything you said seems to apply that otherwise they're doing fine. Congrats on your new litter!

 

[samssimonsays]

I'd say the first two were still born and she cleaned them out of the nest for the health of her other babies. I've had this happen with the poop deal tho. The mom was getting too rich of a diet for their tummies to handle and I had to tone it back all the while cleaning butts. If there is a lot of dusty straw in the best box I've learned they tend to get dirty nostrils easier than hay but I usually still have some with the nostrils dirty until they start leavjng the best. Be ware of best box eye if the nostrils are having this sort of dirt as usually as they started to open their eyes if get that as well with straw and shavings.

 

[Bunnylady]

Bunnies in a dirty environment will have dirty noses. Even if you stuff your box with the cleanest of clean bedding, with the doe living on the ground, her fur is going to have dust and dirt in it.

Rabbits aren't dogs or cats; they don't do much cleaning of their offspring. They may give them a lick and a promise when they are in the box nursing, but since they only do that for a few minutes once or twice per day, the kits are pretty much on their own otherwise. Normally, the bunnies will pee all at pretty much the same time, which can get them and the nest really wet if the doe isn't there (they think this is why really young kits often pee when you pick them up - the only disturbance they would normally get is the doe returning to the nest). Until the kits start eating solid food, their feces are normally very small, hard, and fairly dry, and simply not an issue.

Lots of people manage rabbit colonies in a variety of ways, with varying degrees of success. Bucks tend to fight, and of course there usually are predator issues to deal with; the crazy colors that we like so much make them particularly vulnerable to predation. Rabbits kept on the ground have a much higher incidence of parasite and disease problems, particularly in young animals. You mentioned the does; obviously, since you just had a litter born, you still had at least one buck as of a month ago. If that buck is still around, this doe is most likely pregnant again, and will probably have a much larger litter a month from now.

 

[Bossroo]

If that doe is indeed pregnant now, and more likely than not she IS. Then when she has the next litter, she will say OK kids, you are on your own at 30 +/ - days old. They will leave their nest at any time of day and night to eat and are now VERY vulnerable to every rat, cat,dog, weasel, snake, hawk, etc. out there looking for a meal . If they manage to survive, they will be stunted.

 

[DutchBunny03]

The losses are most likely due to the dirty environment. Domestic rabbits do not have the resilience like their wild predescecors. Once they get older, they will be ok, but expect to lose more kits than usual with every litter because of you r colony arrangement. To prevent this, you could try confining the dam and kits to a private, clean hutch for the first 2 or 3 weeks of the kit's lives. Good luck!

 

[MaggieSims]

I have raised rabbits two other times over the years, both times in cages. and lots of people in my area have apparent success at free ranging. I loved the idea and have not lost any, repeat, ANY adults to anything, i see and can account for each one during the course of a day. i adore the bun's hopping around, and really want this to work.

 

[DutchBunny03]

And it probably will work. It sounds like a lot of fun to free range rabbits. Just be prepared to have more kit losses than if you raised in hutches.