Does my nest box look okay? (Pic)

[Sendhendrix]

Hello,

I'm new to the forum and to raising rabbits.

Thursday afternoon (3-4 days ago) our 7 month old Cali doe kindled her first litter. There are 9 living kits.

I had made a nest box out of the last piece of some leftover floor wire, it's 9 inches tall on the sides and 4.5 inches on the front and rear. Because I knew it would be getting hot (90'F today) I only put a piece of cardboard in the floor (so the kits wouldn't get jammed between the bottom of the box and cage floor) and as you can see momma built a great nest with hay and fur.

Now that I'm seeing my first litter, I'm beginning to think I really screwed up. Even as newborns they move around quite a bit, and I am very worried that after their eyes open and the become even a little mobile, they could escape the nest box very easily...and then walk right through the 2x1 cage wire. Understand the rear of the nest box looks like the front; back there, they only have a 4" lip to scramble over before they plummet 3.5 feet to the hay and poop under the cages.

Do I need to be worried? Can you suggest any stopgap measures I can take right now?

At the very least I plan to ziptie a piece of sheet metal to the back.

Thanks for any comments!

 

[a7736100]

Attach a baby saver around the sides of the cage. It's just a strip of hardware cloth that's too small for a baby to pass through.

 

[KimitsuKouseki]

:yeahthat:

 

[alforddm]

The nestbox itself should be fine. I use wire nestboxes that are very similar and they work fine. The only difference is that mine are taller on the ends. However, I have another commercial nestbox that is that low on the end and it still works.

The real danger is that kits get drug out of the box by the doe if they are still trying to nurse when she is done. I've had that happen even with the high sides on mine. In those cases the baby saver can help if you get to them in time.

 

[Sendhendrix]

Thank you for the replies ... I keep trying to ask another question but it just adds an edit to this post instead of creating a reply. I might just start a new thread because it's a fairly unrelated question.