Bad parent or something else?

[ckcs]

My Velveteen lop had her first litter yesterday morning. 6 fat healthy babies. I got home and one of the babies was dead. A few hours later another one was dead. Watching her she seems to be stepping on them or suffocating them. She was trying to stay in her nestbox. I pulled the nestbox and put it in this morning and she fed them. This evening she didn't do so well and I put the babies on a table and held her over them. She actually stayed there on her own and let them feed. I had to pull her foot off them a few time though because she seems clueless that she is standing on them. How old should you left the babies get before putting them back in with her? Could the nest box about 12"x 12" be too small?

 

[Marinea]

First time moms...sorry you are going through this.

Not sure how big your doe is but my nest boxes for my NZ doe (she weighs about 12 lbs) is 18"L x12W". Can your doe get into the box without stepping on the kits? Mine hop into the front of the nest, and the kits are in the back.

I take my nest boxes out during the winter, especially with the crazy weather we're having lately. I do that until the kits open their eyes, or until the weather warms up. I am overprotective, though.

 

[Zass]

I think your nestbox might actually be too large. My v-lop doe is only about 6 1/2 lbs. The size of a mini lop. Your nest boxes are larger than what I use for my meat buns.

The box shouldn't have enough room for her to get cozy. V-lops are notorious cuddlers, but cuddling is the last thing you want a doe to do with new kits.

Scattered dead kits with full bellies is often a sign of a doe sleeping in a nestbox. She may have trampled them, or she may have smothered them, but I think the most likely thing that happens is that her presence keeps the nest disturbed so that the babies are not properly huddled in a pile under her fur.


You might want to just keep the nestbox with you until they reach about 2 weeks old.

 

[ckcs]

She is definitely a cuddler. I'll keep them out of the cage for 2 weeks.