Bring 'Em In?

[SoDak Thriver]

Question: It will be 47 deg F on the overnight tonight. Should I bring the kits in, or leave them out?

I keep going back and forth on this. :bunnyhop:

Details: Ginny kindled 8 kits today and she looks great. The kits look great. She seems like a good mom since she prepared her nest box textbook style. She has been in there a couple times to sniff them, but I know it can take a while for her milk to come in, so they're not fed yet.

There is a 10 Watt heater on the bottom of this box that I could plug in, but it's made for COLD, like mid-winter litters. I don't want to overheat the kits, either.

If it was colder, I know what I'd do. If it was warmer, I know what I'd do. But it's in-between.

What would you* do?

*As always, what you give here is advice. The end decision, and consequences/rewards are mine. You are never to blame. I appreciate your input.

 

[a7736100]

Bring them in so you can sleep good. That's the only reason to do so.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Is this the rabbit that pulled so much fur it was all over her cage? If so, I would say that eight kits in a well furred nest will be just fine.

I have eight litters right now, and since they were born we have had temps well below that with the kits being newborns up to about 10 days old. Barring a few losses of the runtier kits, they have all been doing well.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Bring them in so you can sleep good. That's the only reason to do so.

I love this answer. Concise, and totally forgiving of my noob status. But I will actually sleep just fine knowing that they'll be okay and might even get fed sooner if I leave them in. Thanks!

Is this the rabbit that pulled so much fur it was all over her cage? If so, I would say that eight kits in a well furred nest will be just fine.

Yup, that's her. And I gathered up all that fur and put it in the box and as predicted, she got in there and arranged it to her liking.

New question: The kits are okay to handle, right? I haven't actually handled any of them yet. I have that hard wiring of mom screaming at me not to touch baby (wild) animals when I was a kid, because the mother would abandon them.

 

[Zass]

I handle all my newborns. My smell isn't threatening to my rabbits, or associated with danger. I'm mostly associated with the smell of a full food dish, or fresh water bottle, I think. :lol:
If my handling seems to be stressing a doe, I usually it where she can't see me. Others have suggested that handling kits right in front of a wary (but not aggressive) doe can help her realize you are not dangerous to them.

The only smell I've actually seen rabbits react strongly to (other than food) is the scent of a mature buck.

None of the kits in our picture thread (at least none of mine) we ever harmed or abandoned by their dams. Not one person on that thread ever reported having a doe mutilate a kit after a photo shoot. If ever there was proof kit handling was safe...I think, we have several years of it recorded.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The kits are okay to handle, right? I haven't actually handled any of them yet. I have that hard wiring of mom screaming at me not to touch baby (wild) animals when I was a kid, because the mother would abandon them.

Yes. Your scent is already all over the nestbox since you prepared it for her, as well as being all over her cage, food, water source, etc. I check kits immediately after birth and for several days thereafter so that I can remove any dead, take note of how they are being fed, and just to enjoy how adorable the little guys are.

...and Zass beat me to the post! :lol: Well, at least you have two answers from the same viewpoint!

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Y'all rock. Thank you and :gnight:



-- Tue Mar 15, 2016 3:08 pm --

Just in case there are other rabbit noobs watching this thread, I thought I'd update:

As is not uncommon where I live, it got much colder than the weather said it would (I guess I don't live close enough to the airport :lol So when I woke up, it was in the low '30s, not 45ish as was predicted. I checked on Ginny, and just like before kindling, there was hair everywhere. She had packed more hair into the nest and the kits were warm and comfy. I scooped up the hair on the wire and put it in the box and she immediately went to work placing it the way she wanted it. Like a7736100 said, there was no real reason to bring them in.

Ginny didn't like me handling her kits. Got a little territorial on me, charging my hand. I told her Zass said it was okay.

 

[wamplercathy]

Out here in Missouri, USA the weather swings wildly. Yesterday 75+*F today 35*F
But the does are champs and pull all the fur out of the nest and then repack it as the temp drops. It took a couple nipped figures before I caught on to what they were doing. :lol: :lol:

 

[SoDak Thriver]

At what temperature, if any, would you bring them in?

 

[FourRingCircus]

I told her Zass said it was okay.

:lol: Love it!

Glad to hear all went well! I almost lost my whole starting herd of rabbits (4 at the time) when the temps got a lot warmer a lot faster than anticipated. We walked out of church and I instantly went "uh oh!" - DH was a champ and even still in our good clothes helped me set up an old tent and get fans going while the kiddos brought out some frozen water bottles.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Nice! I have big ice bottles here for the summer. My NZWs suffered last year here. The fan helped.

Is there a low end temp you would bring them in for? I want winter litters next year. That is to say, at what cold temp would you bring them in?

 

[Marinea]

I generally have litters going every winter. Usually two at a time. Since my rabbitry is small, I can handle bringing in the boxes for the first two weeks, so I do. Regardless of the temps. The peace of mind is worth the trouble for me.

 

[wamplercathy]

I would assume that the lows aren't as big of a deal as high temps. Because rabbits are usually built to withstand the lows. But if there was a wild swing and the temps were to drop below what there use to then you might have some issues. Or new mothers could have issues. For us here anything below 20*f is a cause for concern. Especially if the winds are high. But for people in Canada and the northern USA those temps wouldn't even phase them. Also if you were in the southern USA and saw temps of 20* you might think the world were ending. :x :lol: :lol:

Best advice I can give is look at the average high and low for each month, if you see that it is going to be lower than normal/average then bring in the nest. Other then that I'd leave them with the doe. But to each their own.

Hope this helps,
Cathy

 

[skysthelimit]

Peace of mind is the only reason I do it, I do have a doe that always eats the hay out of the box. At various times I worry about rodents. I like being close to the buns, even though I know it's not necessary.

About handling---I take litters to school and let adults handle them. I've never had a doe reject a litter. I do have does that would rather me not put my hands in the cage. I pay no attention to that. An angora bit me the other day, but not to harm me, she didn't even make a mark. Now I make sure to rub her first before I go reaching around the nest.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

Good stuff! I love all the replies and the different methods and everyone's different reasons for what they do. Peace of mind is definitely a factor for me, but I get that from a low-wattage heater (basically a pet bed warmer) under the nest box that's connected to a thermostatic switch.

 

[michaels4gardens]

I do not ever bring kits in, I have had litters born at 20 below with no problem. I make sure the doe has a nice place to get comfy and out of the cold[like a compartment , or box stuffed with hay] so she is not tempted to sleep with her kits. all my rabbits are in cages that are protected from the wind.
My loses are mostly from new does having kits on the wire, or an occasional kit dragged out of the nest -[ but since I now have nests hanging below the cage floor, that has not happened in quite a while].In the winter I put an extra layer or two of card board under the cardboard nest box liner. - [or a feed sack folded up to that size].- as a help to insure kits are not laying on a cold floor, or that the doe doesn't dig through the bottom while making her nest.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

It's funny; I'm sitting here concerned about the cold, but that's the condition the rabbits are best equipped to handle. This thread has shown me that I need to be a LOT less concerned about cold and start thinking about my plan for heat. It gets pretty hot here, but the wind does help.

 

[imajpm]

I've had litters born in the 20 degree range followed by nerve wracking cold snaps where it got down to 0. They were all fine and I grey a new gray hair for nuthin'. I just have to keep an eye on the nest eaters.

I had one doe that I went back and forth on about bringing her litter in, but it was because she was a nervous overly attentive first time mom who kept visiting her kits every 5 minutes to check on them. They would get excited to nurse, then she'd leave and drag a few out. I ended up not bringing hers in but just shutting off her nest box (luckily it was one of the outside the hutch boxes) so she couldn't do those extra visits. Hopefully she won't be so worried next time!