Had to Move mom and litter insde, help!

[Triple Nickel Farm]

Hi all,
I colony raise my rabbits.
I had a first time mom kindle yesterday and I had a feeling if I left them out last night in the freezing rain that t might be too cold.
I don't know if I made a rookie mistake, but I moved mom and the litter inside where it is quiet and kinda warm.
Mom has not been handled a lot and has always been free range.
She has not fed the litter yet, she seems very stressed, and is still having some bleeding still.
Tried to wait till she was calm, gave her a snack and put her in the box to see if she would feed them and all she did was grunting and very upset.
Im not sure what to do.
Should I put her in a rabbit 'trance' and let the babies get some milk? Should I hold her over the box again???
I already lost one litter to the cold. I dont want to loose these guys.
I might have a foster that I can use, but Ive never had to do that before.
Thank you for any help.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hi, sorry you're having a rough time with your doe.

For starters, please add your location to your profile. Just your province or state and perhaps a direction like north-west or south-east if relevant.

Secondly, can you give us more detail about your colony. Is it outdoors or in a shed and what do the rabbits have for protection from the weather?

Regarding your doe . . . had she fed the babies before you brought them inside? Sometimes there is a delay in milk production and she may not have milk yet. You're right to be concerned, but there is some time to correct things yet.

I'd let her alone for a few hours. She is stressed but may calm down if she is in a quiet place. I had a colony for several years, but it was in a shed with warm nest tunnels, so did not lose kits to chilling. But the rabbits do become a bit wild and unaccustomed to handling. If she doesn't calm down and feed them, you will probably need to put them back out and hope for the best. And then take steps to deal with the problems of winter breeding.

I'll look in for your reply and hope it gives enough information to suggest to me a way to help. Hang in there. :clover:

 

[ipoGSD]

Hi neighbors and Maggie. (Triple nickel farm got a few meat mutt bunnies and a meat mutt doe from me a while ago right as we stopped breeding them for meat) How is Nell Nell doing btw?

If it was me, like maggie suggested I'd leave momma and babies in a very quiet undisturbed place. Have you checked to see if the doe is producing milk? Im sure you know dandelion greens help with milk production as when you were here we chatted and it seemed like you know your greens. Ive noticed in my town shop and stop usually carries dandelion greens. Sometimes you can find it at price chopper.

Id offer mom a nice comforting dinner, lots of whatever greens shes used to. Hopefully that will help her settle in and feel comfortable enough to feed the babies. Holding her on her back to force her to feed them will definitely frighten her more and probably make her even madder. But if she hasnt fed them by the morning i definitely would try. Dont hold her over the nextbox, she could freak out and accidentally hurt the kits with her claws. If you still notice she isn't willingly feeding them, then yeah you might want to foster them out, good you have that option to do so. Ive only had a couple first time moms not feed their kits. So having a back up momma is always great. First tho, give mom a chance to figure it out. But step in if you feel the kits are declining.

Has her bleeding stopped? Maybe she had/has a stuck kit? If you feel her belly and there is a kit stuck, try some lavender they say it helps with contractions. (Can find dried lavender buds at spice type stores and no worries about fertilizers/pesticides because spice shops sell it for human consumption) I've used it before. And i dont know if it truly helped but the stuck kit did come out. Did it work or was it just coincidental? No clue but i would still use it again if need be.

What i did was, blended the whole thing of lavender buds. (Dont do a tiny bit because they wont blend, they are so light they will fly all over and not hit the blender bladed. Anyway blend all of what you have into a powder. Mash up about a teaspoon full of banana and then like half a teaspoon full of the lavender powder. And see if mom will eat it. If not, get a baby oral syringe and make her eat it. (Only do this if u feel a stuck kit) and save the rest of the lavender powder in the air tight jar it came in. Everyone says if they need it they will eat it.. i personally found that not to be true. Some of my Netherlands are so picky they wont eat certain yummy greens. So yeah i had to make mom eat it in my case.

I know nothing about colony rabbit keeping so i cant offer advice there. But Maggie if it helps you to help them, i know their colony is outdoors and they live in CT like me.

I wish you the best with your doe, hopefully she will be ok. As for the kits.. like i said at least you do have another mom that you can foster them to

 

[MaggieJ]

Thanks for the additional information, ipoGSD, and for the excellent suggestion for giving lavender to rabbits to expel retained material from the uterus.

An outdoor colony in CT could be problematic for winter breeding, unless the rabbits are allowed to burrow. I don't think that can be the case in this instance, or Triple Nickel would not have had access to the kits to bring them indoors. I find it a little strange that Triple Nickel did not post again . . . I've been checking in at intervals all day. Maybe I was too abrupt in my advice . . . because it seemed urgent I replied before I'd had coffee.

 

[ipoGSD]

I dont think it sounded abrupt? Thought it sounded helpful and that you were trying to get info to help them better I cant answer for them but maybe they just have been super busy or i know with myself i sometimes lag in replies lol or sometimes ill post, read replies and be like I'll reply later when im less tired or have more time and then i forget? Hahaha

I havent spoken to TNF in a WHILE, last we spoke is when she shared pics of Nell Nells babies with me.. which was a year? Maybe 2 ago? They were very nice people and if my memory serves correctly, i believe Nell did burrow with her kits.. but im old (41) so dont hold me to that LOL

 

[MaggieJ]

I'm glad you don't think I was too abrupt. There are probably other reasons why she hasn't come back. I admit I am edgy and sensitive today. We are in the middle of a two-day wind warning. Really high winds stress me out big-time.

 

[ipoGSD]

Yeah winds scare me too. Always afraid we will lose power and then have no heat. We can always bundle up, our dogs and cats love blankets anyway so i know they and the bunnies would be warm. Its my dart frogs i worry about. Need to get a generator!!

But yeah, your post seemed fine to me

 

[MaggieJ]

This particular weather system seems to be very widespread. I see you have a similar wind warning in effect. So far we haven't lost power, but it could happen any time. I doubt I'll get much sleep tonight.

 

[michaels4gardens]

the wind has been shaking the house here as well...

 

[Triple Nickel Farm]

Hi All, I am very sorry about not posting back. Thank you MaggieJ and ipoGSD. Great to hear from both of you!!
have an update.
Mom only spotted for another few hours after bringing her in.
I covered her cage with a blanket and left her alone until the morning making sure there was plenty of water and food to make sure she would be all set without me interrupting her.
The next morning I did check for milk and she seemed to have some. I took 3 kits and put them on my lap with a towel. Had mom lay on top of my lap and the babies nursed. She was very upset, but after talking to her and petting her, she seemed to be fine.
I checked the babies later and some of them had a full belly, so I think she may have fed them.
The litter was very noicey this morning, so I checked them out. They seemed a bit dehydrated and hungry so I took mom out on a towel on the floor and let the kits feed.
For now, I think I might keep them indoors for another week or two until the weather breaks and I can put them all in the outdoor hutch within the colony I have.

Our colony is outside and they are allowed to burrow. It is a 75'x25' pen and they do have some pretty deep burrows. This is a new mom and she had them in a playhouse my daughter put in there. I felt the need to take them out because we were going to be getting a lot of freezing rain and the playhouse tends to flood. I need to work out some minor details for next year I think. Until then, I plan on taking the male out of general population until this weather calms down.

Thank you all again for all your advice and I am very sorry I did not get back to you quickly. It was urgent, I just made a plan and tried to see it through. I really cant say enough how thankful I was to see everyone's response.

I will update our location. Thank you, forgot to do that when I set up the account.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hi Triple Nickel.

Glad you have things under control. It's no fun feeling helpless with a first-timer who doesn't get it. It's always good to post an update as people who post advice want to know how things are going and what worked or didn't work. I was mainly concerned that my "tone" hadn't been as friendly as it might have been if I hadn't been sleep and caffeine deprived. LOL

I'd definitely keep them indoors until the kits are fully furred and have their eyes open and I'd make sure they have a warm place in the outdoor hutch to retreat to. A cardboard carton closed up with just a couple of kit-sized "doorways" works well. You can put hay or straw or wood shavings in it for bedding. Try to pick a nice mild spell to put them out again.

:good-luck: