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Hello Biancaf1 and welcome to RabbitTalk. This is a very old thread but your post illustrates why some substances are not good choices to replace the doe's own fur. If you used the polyester-type stuffing from the pillow, it can indeed become wrapped around the kit's neck and tighten like a...

Some people keep rabbits as pets. Some people keep rabbits as livestock, to provide their families with high quality meat at a reasonable cost. Both these are valid reasons for keeping rabbits, and I can assure you that meat rabbits receive care as good as or better than the average pet rabbit...

I wouldn't chance it. Highly aromatic trees also tend to be toxic and some of the information online indicates that the leaves and twigs, although sometimes used medicinally and as seasoning, are considered toxic. There are plenty of safer greens to offer to your rabbits. If you want to do more...

Many of the invasive European weeds arrived in North America as pot herbs -- greens that could be used for food. They also tend to be plants that the European rabbit, from which our domestic rabbits are descended, have been eating since the last Ice Age. We call them weeds, but they have a great...

It's common nettle -- Urtica dioica. It's a very useful plant for both humans and rabbits, but for the rabbits it must be either well wilted or dried so that they don't get stung. It has uses as a human food and medicinal plant. Nettle soup, nettle tea and other dishes can be made from it...

Here's another problem: lookalike plants. http://identifythatplant.com/three-easily-mixed-up-early-spring-plants/

A big part of the confusion results because people neglect to use the botanical (Latin) names for plants. Common names are not consistent and can vary with the locality or culture. Take Daucus carota, for instance. You might know it as Queen Anne's Lace. In some places it is known as bishop's...

Rats can be too aggressive for some cats to handle. And the more rats there are around a place, the more vicious they get. Still, your cats may take out some of the young rats, which is a help if not a solution to the problem.

All these methods help somewhat, but you need several of them used in rotation. Rats, unlike mice, are intelligent and wary. You need to keep a step ahead of them. Rat poisons should be used in a proper tamper-proof bait station to protect children and pets who might be in the area. A "one...

All the same, leave the nest box for another couple of days. Sometimes with a doe who is late, the stimulation of breeding will cause her to go into labour. Chances are that she was not pregnant, but why take chances?

Excellent research, MuddyFarms! We have red osier dogwood here, but I never thought to feed it to my rabbits. I wish I had! This is definitely one to add to the safe plants list. I used to cut branches of red osier in winter and force them in a vase for the foliage and blossoms to fight off...

I always grew a few plants of lavender in case I needed them for a situation like this, but I never had occasion to use them. It can be used fresh or dried. Lavender is definitely a medicinal, not a regular food plant, but a few sprigs will not harm the doe. What it will do is help her to expel...

I agree with Ladysown about intervention. I can see allowing a dedicated feeding or two on momma just to help a runt over its initial disadvantage, but if it takes more than that it may well be there is something wrong with the kit. A healthy animal has a strong will to survive. I had a runt...

Are you talking about my pictures, Muddy Farms or those of Rabbits by Accident? The two unfed kits in my old post had flat, slightly sunken bellies with a lot of wrinkles. If they had been fed, they would have rounded smooth bellies, as though they had swallowed a grape whole. (Clearly...

Keep that nest box in there! There is a very good chance your doe is pregnant but running late on kindling. This can happen with any species of mammal. I don't know how many times I've heard the wailings of rabbit keepers who removed the box thinking the doe was not pregnant only to have her...

I can't see the kits' bellies well enough to tell -- grey on a black glove gives little contrast. But this old post may help you decide if they are fed or unfed: https://rabbittalk.com/threads/fed-vs-unfed-kit-pictures.3052/

Tracy, welcome to RabbitTalk. You should be able to post in all the forums now. ~ MaggieJ

All's well that ends well. Hope you get a lovely bunch of kits in a few week's time.

Cosima, it makes it difficult to help you when you won't answer my questions. Have they been housed together all along? If so, why is this their first mating? If not, why would you think they would be lonely apart? Licking and grooming each other, cuddling ... these are normal rabbit behaviours...

Cosima, when a rabbit is pregnant, hormones can affect her moods. She may not want to be around anyone just now as she adjusts to those changes. If she is housed with the buck, make sure their enclosure is big enough that they can get away from each other if need be. Can you divide their...