Every litter born into colony has died.

[Mhennig]

Hey, I started raising rabbits for meat this summer with two does and a buck. They started in cages and I moved them to a colony setup. There’s been two litters born into the colony over the past few months and both litters died off over the course of a few weeks. The only sign that’s consistent in the rabbits that die is bloating. All they eat is hay and pellets free feed with shared water.

Any advice for helping my litters not die off? I could move them back to cages but I would prefer to keep them in a colony.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hey, I started raising rabbits for meat this summer with two does and a buck. They started in cages and I moved them to a colony setup. There’s been two litters born into the colony over the past few months and both litters died off over the course of a few weeks. The only sign that’s consistent in the rabbits that die is bloating. All they eat is hay and pellets free feed with shared water.

Any advice for helping my litters not die off? I could move them back to cages but I would prefer to keep them in a colony.

Bloating sounds like weaning enteritis, which is sometimes/often caused by coccidiosis. Coccidiosis is usually due to hygiene issues. I have problems with coccidiosis in rabbits kept on the ground in large tractors during the rainy season, when it's too wet to keep finding dry areas to move them to. At that point I pull them all back into cages.

Maybe you need to enlarge the colony area or find a way to keep things drier? Folks using colony set-ups will probably have some suggestions; I know a lot of them on this forum have beautiful healthy rabbits.