Kits on an upper floor with ramp -- questions!

[LakeCountryBuns]

Hello!

I don't have too much time this evening, but I hope to be back around soon to participate on the forums!

Anyways, we have a girl in a HUGE bi-level enclosure who has her kits in a nest on the upper floor. There's a pretty big ramp -- the big buns are fine on it, but we're afraid the kits will tumble down. They JUST opened their eyes this morning and are starting to be rather active. I didn't expect anybody to wander out of the nest that far yet, but apparently they did today.

Today I found two kits all the way on the lower level of the other side of the cage (which is a REALLY long way for them to go -- I'm wondering if she maybe moved them there once they fell down... Not sure! Nobody looked hurt but I'm concerned.)

Anyways, I've blocked it off a bit with a blanket, which should keep them from just stumbling down but mom can still get up.

My question is this -- should I just consider moving the nest material into a kennel or something, along with the kits, and putting them on a lower level? I'm semi-concerned this might stress mom but I also don't want to risk them falling down the ramp. There are three other young flemish giants (mom and kits are mixed breed but much smaller) in the enclosure but it's a massive multi-level enclosure and everybody has lots of room; no aggression or anything like that and mom isn't really stressed at all when we check on or handle the kits, or really anything else. (All the buns are totally tame in this setup.)

Anyways, anyone have any advice? I don't really want to disturb them or risk another bun maybe bumping them over on the lower levels (though I'm not terribly worried about that; nobody's really that wild in the hutch or aggressive in any way to each other) but I think it might be riskier to have them in danger of falling down the ramp. Just don't want to risk moving the whole nest if it might mean mom will be upset enough to do something like stop feeding them or something. I can always put mom up there with them, but I think being isolated in a much smaller area than she's used to, and away from the other buns, might stress her more than possibly moving the nest. Looking for advice or experience.

Thanks!

 

[SableSteel]

If I were you, I'd take out the other rabbits, except the mom and babies, and move the babies to the lower level. I move the nests all the time, especially when they first open their eyes and start 'exploring' (which is when I flip the nestbox on its side).
I don't think the problem is falling down the ramp (baby rabbits are surprising resilient from that sort of stuff), but not being able to get back up. If only one ends up on the lower level, and it can't back up to huddle with its siblings, they can have a problem controlling their body temperature and get too cold (you were lucky two got out, so they had each other). And they can sure move quickly; the mother rabbits don't carry live babies, so they got there themselves. If the babies are on the lower floor, too, then that gives the mother a place to hide away from them a bit, at least until they figure it out for themselves.

 

[Preitler]

I had a similiar problem this year, nest on the top level, not in the nest box. I confined them to their nest with a wooden board the doe could jump, and put a pile of hay where they might end up if they get out anyway so they had something to snuggle into, it was quite cold some nights, but with two weeks their fur does it's job already.

After 2,3 days the question is moot anyway, since they are fast and everywhere and can climb better than adults. They are tough, but some hay where they might drop wouldn't hurt.

I moved a nest too, from an earth hole in the garden to the hutch, confined the doe to a quite small area around the nest box for a day and showed her the nest by putting her nose into it, wasn't a problem.

I almost never take the second doe out, except 1, 2 days around kindling when there are too much tensions, with my pigheads it's possible that one thinks the hutch is hers alone or it's time to usurp the Queens position, but with kits around they are much calmer than without. Never had a problem with the other doe around.
I'm not sure how mine would react when not learning to know the kits one by one when they start exploring but being confronted whith a whole bunch of whirlwinds that took over the place.

 

[LakeCountryBuns]

Thank you both very much -- we've compromised by putting them down in a little kennel on one of the lower levels but keeping the other buns in -- mom seems to know where they are and everybody's been pretty good all day -- a couple sniffs from the other buns at first but they're leaving it alone now that they know that's where the nest is -- and mom seems to be OK with everything.

As a side note, one baby screamed so loud in transit to the new nest box when I picked him up that I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood woke up -- amazing a teeny bun that small can yell so loud! Poor guy was fine; though, just startled. Everybody else just basically stayed asleep when we moved them, more or less.

I very much appreciate the advice -- kept rabbits for many years as pets but this is the first time we've done a litter on purpose. (Once ended up with a doe that came to us pregnant -- we didn't know until a month later baby bunnies came out from a hole in the firepit. Had the whole yard converted to a super bunny run in our house up north so she burrowed under the firepit without us knowing -- not that we were using it.) Not new at animal husbandry, just at preventing baby bunnies from getting into trouble!

Seems like a pretty good forum so far.

 

[Jack of all trades]

I am in the same situation, my kits are in the top of the hutch, I have 7 rabbits and a few holes have been dug so I believe I will have more kits soon, none of my rabbits seem to have any interest in t he nest boxes I provided??
My kits are 2 weeks old now, should I move them??