Babies at 1 week old

[KindRose]

So the babies are a week old now, but they have been hopping out of the nest box in search of their mother. Their mother keeps running away from them because it hurts when they nurse. Should I be alarmed or is this normal?
They have also started eating a little bit of alfalfa hay already. They just started chasing her around last night.

 

[eco2pia]

hm. at one week they can hop? do they have their eyes open? At one week my kits do not have open eyes, and they can sort of wiggle around/crawl. If they are out of the nest box at that age it seems like they get dragged out because they don't let go when they are nursing, and then they can't figure out how to get back in. The solution is a higher lip on the nest box for next time, and to put them back.

I think they may be older... if they can hop and their eyes are open, they are trying solid food, and mom want's to get away, that is pretty normal. I have a roof on the nest box, mom will sit up there and avoid the kits like that for a bit.

 

[arachyd]

It shouldn't hurt to nurse. Rabbits only nurse the kits for a couple of minutes and only a couple of times each day then they usually avoid them. That's a survival instinct to avoid letting predators know where the nest is. It is fairly common for kits to latch on and get dragged out of the box if the sides are low enough. If it's at all possible, build up the sides of the nest box so they get scraped loose when the doe leaves it.