New moms and dead kits - what's normal vs sign of illness?

[averydeadbird]

I bred 3 girls at 6 months old. They are sisters and live in a colony. 2 kindled last week and the third this week. All 3 did a good job at pulling fur and making nests.
Litter #1 (Himalayan): 10 kits, 4 dead when I found them, 4 looking weak and underfed, 2 looked okay. The living ones died off one by one, except for 1 who is still developing but never seems fully fed. They kept getting separated from each other in the nesting box, which probably contributed to the feeding problem.
Litter #2 (Black): 6 kits, all dead when I found them.
Litter #3 (Steel): 5 kits, 4 dead and 1 actually fed as of this morning.
About half of the dead kits had diarrhea - fur was stuck all around their bums and sometimes smeared on their legs.

I know that it's common for first time moms to not do very well at raising kits. I'm wondering if this death rate and the diarrhea are signs of an illness or just par for the course. Is there anything I should do when I rebreed them to improve chances of survival?


(Please note that I'm not looking for advice on how to handle the remaining kits or interventions that could have helped earlier. A family emergency has kept me from being hands-on with the babies' care.)

 

[michaels4gardens]

make sure the nesting area , and nesting materials, are dry and cool.
try to have some allium family plants [onion, garlic, garlic chives] available to all, to nibble on, in case you are dealing with Coccidiosis, or EC -- allium also helps with enteritis causing bacteria..
First time moms often have troubles, .. but, for all three to have this trouble, is unusual..
most likely something else is going on.

 

[averydeadbird]

Thank you for the advice. The nests are dry and clean of urine/feces but hot, as we're experiencing heat waves of 90-100 degrees. Could that also be part of the problem?

I was just reading the other day about alliums and coccidiosis. I will definitely purchase some to let the moms eat, and continue feeding through the next kindling period.

 

[michaels4gardens]

nests of babies under fur get overheated real fast.. it is a big deal...and something I have struggled with in the past...

 

[squidpop]

I was looking up some info on my older posts and came across this post and thought I would chime in. I was a newbie here way back in 2012. So I started breeding rabbits 7 years ago. I think with your babies dying its either the heat, or they have bacterial enteritis or coccidiosis- if you haven't treated your colony for cocci maybe you should before you breed again, cocci is a common parasite. With bacterial enteritis— I think you need to get a prescription antibiotic from the vet for that. Also want to add, my first-time-mom rabbits, over 7 years, have never not fed young, or abandoned babies, and non of my first-time-mom litters have died or been abandoned by new moms. I think it's a myth that fist time moms are more likely to lose litters- so something else is usually to blame.

 

[golden rabbitry]

I would have waited for the does to be a year old personally. But I don't think this is illness more just terrible luck with first time litters. My doe had 3 babies her first time and 1 died cause she had it in the litter box so