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<blockquote data-quote="Preitler" data-source="post: 336388" data-attributes="member: 3092">Honestly, &quot;not feeding until forced to &quot; sounds like too much meddling to me. Some does will not feed or even go anywhere near the nest as long as anyone is around, a good and normal instinct, and it can take up to 48h for the milk to drop.I would be disappointed if a rabbit wouldn&#039;t try to bite me when I force her to feed kits against her instincts.Rabbits don&#039;t have a cold. But stress can trigger sneezing, many or most have something dormant that normally ain&#039;t any issue at all, and occassional sneezes aren&#039;t a big thing as long as it&#039;s not persistent and consistently combinded&nbsp; with discharge.Not sure how much experience you have with different lines and different behaviours,&nbsp; but from what you wrote I wouldn&#039;t blame the doe for anything right now.Not sure if she&#039;s able to pick up normal feeding when forced for a week, but I would give it a try. Keep her in her enclosure, make it rather small, so there&#039;s not much more than her food, resting place and nest box, give her peace and quite and leave her pretty much alone for 24h and see if the kits got fed. Wildlife camera with just the nest in view can help.Showing the nest to her by putting her nose in there 2-3 times might help if she hasn&#039;t figured that out, but I would rather wait and see if she doesn&#039;t find it anyway to get rid of the milk, she did make a nest there after all.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Preitler, post: 336388, member: 3092"] Honestly, "not feeding until forced to " sounds like too much meddling to me. Some does will not feed or even go anywhere near the nest as long as anyone is around, a good and normal instinct, and it can take up to 48h for the milk to drop. I would be disappointed if a rabbit wouldn't try to bite me when I force her to feed kits against her instincts. Rabbits don't have a cold. But stress can trigger sneezing, many or most have something dormant that normally ain't any issue at all, and occassional sneezes aren't a big thing as long as it's not persistent and consistently combinded with discharge. Not sure how much experience you have with different lines and different behaviours, but from what you wrote I wouldn't blame the doe for anything right now. Not sure if she's able to pick up normal feeding when forced for a week, but I would give it a try. Keep her in her enclosure, make it rather small, so there's not much more than her food, resting place and nest box, give her peace and quite and leave her pretty much alone for 24h and see if the kits got fed. Wildlife camera with just the nest in view can help. Showing the nest to her by putting her nose in there 2-3 times might help if she hasn't figured that out, but I would rather wait and see if she doesn't find it anyway to get rid of the milk, she did make a nest there after all. [/QUOTE]

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