How many is too many for a first-time mom?

[Edna's Acre Rabbitry]

Hi everyone,

I have two NZ does that just gave birth to their first litters. The larger doe had 12 and the smaller had 6. They gave birth Wednesday and Thursday respectively. I just checked on them today and did a true head count as I didn't want to stress the new moms too much (they aren't very friendly). All of the babies were warm and wiggly and seemed to be full. But I was wondering if I should move a few or just leave them. What do you think?

Thanks!!

 

[Lizardslaps]

you can foster some of them from the larger litter to the smaller litter when I do it I usually put a little vanilla extract around to mask any scents

If everyone is plump and happy looking you should be ok though just watch for mastitis

 

[akane]

Depends on the rabbit. I've had some that couldn't handle over 5 and trying to foster to them just caused kits to die until they had 5 again. Then I had checkered x nz who raised 12-14 from litter one and didn't hardly lose any. I've decided not to try to even out first time litters. Often the number the doe has is the number she can handle. I wait and see how they do with the size of litter they had before determining what to foster in future litters. It may be that one doe can handle all 12 and the other can't handle 6 or much over it. You might just end up killing kits off by trying to foster. It's a risk. At minimum I'd wait a couple days and see how fed the kits in each litter are before trying to foster.

 

[Zass]

Akane is probably right.
Wait, watch move them only if you need to. My first thought is to swap two from the big litter into the smaller one to make the litters a bit more even. But...it really depends on their nursing ability. One former SF doe of mine would have 8-10 kits per litter, and only ever managed to nurse 6. Fostering to her would have been pointless.

I have never bothered with vanilla, and have never had a doe attack or reject a foster kit. If I'm worried about it, I'd usually just remove the nestbox for a bit to allow the new kits some time to pick up the scent of the others before returning them to the doe.

 

[HoppyMeal]

I have rabbits that raise 12 on a regular basis. I try to breed at least 2 buns at a time that way I can foster off onto another mom. I have put Vicks vapor rub on the nose and have had no problems losing any kits and this last time I didn't put anything on the mommas nose.