Am I overthinking this? 15 kit litter

[Aviodont]

12 month old NZ doe, 2nd litter born today on day 31 in the nest after haystaching and pulling fir on day 24. Buck was a NZ

1st litter had 10 kits on day 34 in the nest, one died 2nd day. No issues. They are our “Hurricane Helene bunnies” which is an funny story in and of itself. Unplanned buck was a Rex.

This litter was 15 and in the middle of the day and with lots of fur. As I leaned in and felt around, I noticed a main pile about 3/4 of the way in with a few close stragglers. Since they were not all huddled together, I rifled through whole nest box and sure enough I felt a cold one but still squirming a bit in the front left corner and somewhat damp.

I immediately brought her in holding her snugly and put her in a ziploc and in a bowl of water that was kept warm. Then I brought the remaining bunch inside to count and assess. But I was worried I did not search carefully enough and there may be another. Sure enough, in the same spot where the other cold one was, there was an even colder but smaller mass which was very damp and I thought maybe a placenta, but I pulled it out and it was a very underdeveloped kit, with all body parts. Despite the warming in a ziploc bag for over an hour, neither made it. So we are left with 13!

My question is:
Being that a few stragglers were not very near the main pile in the back (maybe 1-2 inches away), were these two cold ones in the far front corner delivered there accidentally? In other words, was she a little sloppy this time, dropping them willy-nilly wherever? Or did she know something was wrong with those two and put them far away from the main pile of kits in order to protect the main pile?

Maybe I am overthinking it and maybe I need to concentrate on bottle feeding instead.

 

[Aviodont]

So we left mom alone with her kits for about 36 hours until yesterday mid morning and I went to see if we had any casualties and if they had been fed.

ZERO casualties! But with 13 kits, some got fed nurses than others! Some look like greedy porkers!

We hand fed the smallest four who were completely empty and then put those plus the next 3 smallest back in the nest with mom late afternoon so they could get a feeding without the porkers. I wanted to put the 6 remaining big ones back in around 10pm but my wife thought it better to let the little ones get the morning feeding as well. So they were shelved. We hand fed the 6 porkers last night and she will again this morning. And we will put them back together with the 6 smaller ones mid morning today.

Does that sound like a good plan?

Also, any thoughts on my original question.

 

[tambayo]

The doe could have done that, but so can the kits. They want to be warm, so cold things they move away from, wet + cold where the 2 others where qualifies as a don't want to be there spot and the main bunch was strong enough to wriggle away from there.
Rabbits have about 8 teats for standard size, so not enough time on the teat or even getting one can cause such a difference. If the doe is friendly and relaxed you can feed such a kit(s) by putting the kit on her. Either with doe on a table and place kit face first against her side or even by cradling the doe on her back and placing kit face to face with a teat. One with a round belly from an afternoon feeding should give otherwise healthy kits enough energy to get a drink the next regular feeding from the doe.
Other option is to split the nest into 2 nestboxes and giving the doe one in the morning and one in the evening, shelving both in between.
With more kits hungry i'd go for splitting the nest, normal feeding routine for does is 1 or 2 times a day, so the kits would handle 1 feeding per 24 hours fine.
However with so many short on milk, take a good look at how much and what you are feeding this doe, because she is either short on milk or short on patience (maybe both). So feed her for the work she is doing, the more of the work she can do the better for the kits and way easier on you.

 

[Aviodont]

The doe could have done that, but so can the kits. They want to be warm, so cold things they move away from, wet + cold where the 2 others where qualifies as a don't want to be there spot and the main bunch was strong enough to wriggle away from there.
Rabbits have about 8 teats for standard size, so not enough time on the teat or even getting one can cause such a difference. If the doe is friendly and relaxed you can feed such a kit(s) by putting the kit on her. Either with doe on a table and place kit face first against her side or even by cradling the doe on her back and placing kit face to face with a teat. One with a round belly from an afternoon feeding should give otherwise healthy kits enough energy to get a drink the next regular feeding from the doe.
Other option is to split the nest into 2 nestboxes and giving the doe one in the morning and one in the evening, shelving both in between.
With more kits hungry i'd go for splitting the nest, normal feeding routine for does is 1 or 2 times a day, so the kits would handle 1 feeding per 24 hours fine.
However with so many short on milk, take a good look at how much and what you are feeding this doe, because she is either short on milk or short on patience (maybe both). So feed her for the work she is doing, the more of the work she can do the better for the kits and way easier on you.

Since kindling she has had free access to 18% protein pellets and hay. And once or twice a day, I give her a handful of old fashioned oats.

As far as the placement of the 2 cold ones, the main bunch of warmies were in the depression in the rear of the nest that she created and lined with fur and then covered. The cold ones were all the way up in the front.

 

[Naelin]

My wonderful doe on her first litter (7 kits) had them in the middle of the day and dropped about half of them on the front of the nest box. I placed them with the others and everyone survived and was copiously fed, I just took it as her being inexperienced.

 

[tambayo]

Add some sunflower seeds to the diet, rabbit milk is 47 or 49% (i forget which) fat and a source for that should help.