Why are all my babies dying?

[Madison Harrison]

My American Chinchilla rabbit had a surprise litter about 9 days ago.

We got her from another farm 15 days ago, they said she’d never been bred so we went ahead and bred her 10 days ago then the next day she had 11 babies.

She ate one of the babies then we gave her a nesting box and she totally ignored the next baby. The next morning we woke up to find she had made a pretty decent nest, it seems like every day she adds more fur and her babies are staying warm. And she’d had 9 more babies, 3 were dead (leaving 7 living baby bunnies) they probably were born before she got a handle on what was going on.

Since then we have found 3 outside of the nesting box with their head or backside hanging outside of the hutch and they were dead (I won’t use chicken wire on female rabbit hutches again, I promise).

Can anyone tell me why they’re dying? Why they’re crawling out of the nesting box? The remaining 4 have nice full bellies and are warm and active. Could she be ignoring them because she’s pregnant? Or possibly dragging them out of the nesting box? Is this just first time mom stuff?

 

[promiseacres]

Sometimes they are latched to the nipple when she jumps out of the box, a reason a lip on the box is a good idea. Mom generally does not pick them up like a cat does.

 

[AmberLops]

Sounds like the babies are just hanging on a nipple and then she jumps out of the box...
Best thing for that is a good nesting box and some baby-saver wire. I'm just putting the baby savers on my does cages today. If this is her first litter, it's almost always rough...I've only ever had one doe who had a normal, healthy first litter with no issues...all the others have their problems.
Maybe next time around she'll have a better idea of how it works. Could be the stress from the transition sent her into early labor ? Eating their babies is usually a deficiency in salt, a lot of people give their does cooked bacon right before they give birth, I don't do this...I keep a salt lick in their cages at all times
Hope this helps!
Also...is she feeding the last 4 babies?

 

[Madison Harrison]

Sounds like the babies are just hanging on a nipple and then she jumps out of the box...
Best thing for that is a good nesting box and some baby-saver wire. I'm just putting the baby savers on my does cages today. If this is her first litter, it's almost always rough...I've only ever had one doe who had a normal, healthy first litter with no issues...all the others have their problems.
Maybe next time around she'll have a better idea of how it works. Could be the stress from the transition sent her into early labor ? Eating their babies is usually a deficiency in salt, a lot of people give their does cooked bacon right before they give birth, I don't do this...I keep a salt lick in their cages at all times
Hope this helps!
Also...is she feeding the last 4 babies?

Yes! I believe that she is. They all have full bellies and aren’t showing any signs of dehydration or lethargy

 

[Bunnylady]

Welcome to the world of raising rabbits; sounds like you may already understand why I say that anyone who believes in the expression 'breed like rabbits' has never tried it.

It isn't unusual for a first-timer to at least partly consume one or more of the babies as they are born. What typically happens is that the doe gets a bit carried away when she is eating the membranes and the cord, and winds up chewing off ears, or feet, or biting into the belly. Most of the time, such a mistake doesn't get repeated.

(I have heard the old wives' tale of blaming baby eating on dietary deficiencies, but with so much research having gone into animal feeds, unless you are trying to make up your own feed, the diet should be pretty well balanced. IME, all a salt spool does is absorb water, and rust out a cage in record time!)

Babies often hang on and get pulled out of nest boxes. People have tried a number of different designs to try to remedy this issue; probably the most successful is the dropped nest box (the box is mounted below the cage floor, so any babies that get pulled out will most likely fall back in). Babies instinctively seek the warmth of the nest and their nest mates, and can crawl surprising distances if they get out of the box. Before I started using baby saver wire, I often found babies outside of their mothers' cages. Another reason the babies might get out is that if they are too warm, they will spread out; my all-time record was a surprise litter of Mini Rex that were born during the summer. Not only did these kits get out of the box, they got out of the cage and crawled all over the rabbitry floor. At least once a day, I would find several of them out of the box (sometimes all of them!) and have to hunt them down, and they might be 10 feet or more away. It was a huge relief when they grew too big to fit through the wire - they might not have been in the box, but at least they were still in the doe's cage.

These days, I have several cages that are completely made of 1/2" x 1" wire, and try to put any pregnant does in them long before litters are due. Not only can't the babies get out of these cages, snakes can't get in; it's incredibly frustrating to have the doe doing everything she should, and then lose the whole litter to a predator!

Sounds like your doe has had a lot of disruption during the last couple of weeks, but is doing a pretty good job in spite of it. I've seen pregnant does get so traumatized by a move, they aborted the litter, or refused to feed them after they were born. Fur pulling for days after the litter is born is common during cool weather; I usually consider it a sign of a good mother. Good luck with the remaining 4; hoping your future litters are less problematic!

 

[AmberLops]

I hope the last 4 make it for you and i'm sure next time It will be a lot easier!
And @Bunnylady I agree with you on the "breed like rabbits"....it just doesn't work that way in the real world of breeding rabbits Kind of funny and people tell me all the time that they want to breed rabbits for the easy money and i'm just like....ok ha ha.

 

[AmberLops]

Yes! I believe that she is. They all have full bellies and aren’t showing any signs of dehydration or lethargy

You can use some cardboard about 3-4 inches tall as a baby-saver if you don't already have some