Hi. I'm Ted and just found this forum. Looking forward to learning a lot from you all.

[Ted in Pa.]

I have a question. I know sometimes Does eat the young. I have two Silver Fox does. One doe had her first litter about 4 wks. ago. The other doe had her 1st litter 2 days later. One had 9 kits and the other had 5. They both appeared to be excellent mothers. I noticed one kit laying dead in the cage about a week ago. No sign of why. All the kits from both does seemed to be very healthy and happy. Then I noticed a kit missing from both moms here and there over the next few days. Last night, one mom had 4 kits missing. Other than few bits of fur and flesh under the cages, no sign of anything. Long story short, out of 14 kits combined I'm down to six. Both cages are store bought 36x36 wire cages, still tight as a drum. All are fed very well with hay and pellets. (16%) I can't understand how one mom could eat 4 1month old kits n one night and no sign of it. Has anybody had anythig like this happen? I mean, other than a few bits of fur under the cages, no bones, nothing.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

Hi and welcome. I don't think the mothers are the problem. It's probably a snake or rat or other predator. I just 'snake-proofed' my maternity cage because we have a huge corn snake that has developed a taste for eggs, and I'm afraid he will decide he likes baby rabbits too. It seems to me that you need to either predator-proof your cage, or bring them inside until the kits are old enough to be hard to swallow, although 4 weeks is pretty big. You say 'store bought' but how much space between the wires? I don't think rabbits eat their young after the first few days. I've never had a rabbit with cannibalistic proclivities, so I don't really know, I'm sure someone will jump in with more info. But I would definitely suspect some sort of predator.

Again, welcome aboard, there's a lot of knowledge here

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I just noticed the date was a week or so ago. Have you found out anything else about your problem?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Sounds pretty unlikely that the mom ate them

 

[Ted in Pa.]

I just noticed the date was a week or so ago. Have you found out anything else about your problem?

I've secured the cages better and got them up higher also. So far, so good. The remaining kits are doing well. Thanks for asking and thanks for your input.