All does are pregnant, will nests in common colony cage will work or should I make separate cages for each pregnant does?

[Bike guy]

3-4 weeks ago my male rabbit who is a fan of Prison Break, somehow escaped to the next cage which is colony cage that I keep all rabbits except the male and the new mom. Now all females are pregnant (facepalm). Apart from the main (colony) cage and male's cage, I also have a small nursery cage for one doe and there is already a mom and her babies in it. Now that all females are pregnant, I have 2 options;

1-I will make 3 more nursery cages for each pregnant does, or
2-I will make 3 more nests within the colony cage and hope that does will respect each others nests and do not harm their babies.

Which option would you chose? Making new cages is very difficult option, so if possible I want to make new nests and put them in the colony cage. Will they disturb each other's nests? I've seen some nests made out of large buckets with lids on them and have tunnels on them in colony rabbitries but currently I have only woods for building nests, not buckets. Also my cage is not big enough for those tunnels.

If I choose colony rabbitry option, do the tops of the nests have to be covered to prevent other rabbits from trampling on the babies? All does are sisters, will they respect each other's nests?

 

[Bike guy]

BTW it is an indoor cage, so the common solutions for the other colony rabbits will not work.

 

[tambayo]

For safety seperate them, but don't be suprised if they don't want to live together anymore after. Yes some does will kill other does kits or younger kits may be killed by the older ones. It can go just fine, you could end up with no kits at all or every variety there of.

 

[Bike guy]

For safety seperate them, but don't be suprised if they don't want to live together anymore after. Yes some does will kill other does kits or younger kits may be killed by the older ones. It can go just fine, you could end up with no kits at all or every variety there of.

I already had a murder case, last week I found a dead body of a baby in the male's cage. I'm not Sherlock Holmes but it seems the male pulled the baby from the nursery cage through the chicken wire into his cage and the baby died during this grab bag/or he intentionally killed the baby afterwards.

 

[ladysown]

OR the baby crawled through the wire and died. (babies can fit through chicken wire easily).

 

[Captaincatholic]

BTW it is an indoor cage, so the common solutions for the other colony rabbits will not work.

What did you decide? I have two does in a colony with a shared nest now. One 10 week old
daughter also lives with them.

 

[Bike guy]

What did you decide? I have two does in a colony with a shared nest now. One 10 week old
daughter also lives with them.

They all gave birth to too many babies last week, and became incredibly intolerant to each other. One of the does heavily wounded a 2 months old and I had to build separate cages for all does. All wounds are at the back, around the spine.

Another female killed a baby of her own daughter, it was probably not intentional.

I've currently 25 rabbits and this is more than I can take care of, so I decided to discard the only female which is turned out to be not pregnant. She is one of the largest ones. I don't know how will I do it, I don't think I'm ready to kill a rabbit but I have to. This week I will be a murderer. Maybe drinking some alcohol will make it easier, I don't know.

So how about yours, do they get along well, any fights?

 

[Captaincatholic]

They all gave birth to too many babies last week, and became incredibly intolerant to each other. One of the does heavily wounded a 2 months old and I had to build separate cages for all does. All wounds are at the back, around the spine.

Another female killed a baby of her own daughter, it was probably not intentional.

I've currently 25 rabbits and this is more than I can take care of, so I decided to discard the only female which is turned out to be not pregnant. She is one of the largest ones. I don't know how will I do it, I don't think I'm ready to kill a rabbit but I have to. This week I will be a murderer. Maybe drinking some alcohol will make it easier, I don't know.

So how about yours, do they get along well, any fights?

No fights. 2 does are using the same nest. The only problem is that some of thr stronger and bigger babies get to eat twice and may edge out the runtz. When I count thr babies every few days I try to leave the skinny runty babies on top so when they nurse they hve an advantage. So far they are all still alive, but the big ones are at least twice as big as the runts. I hope we can even that out when they get bigger by having lots of feeding and drinking areas.

 

[ladysown]

You won't be a murderer. (that would be of your own species). What you are doing is being a responsible owner and reducing your stock. Don't let her go to waste!