new rabbit mama and terrible nest

opie7441 · Feb 25, 2012

Our ND had her kit the other day, her first litter. Mama is just under a year old. Only one baby, her nest was terrible. We keep the rabbits in our garage, so its chilly but not exposed. The straw was long, she wouldn't use the nesting box, almost no fur pulled. So we used our undesirable angora wool and lined her nest with it, we have done this with other mamas often without problems. Day one went well, kit was well feed and in the angora wool but not covered from the top, so I covered it up a little more. Yesterday I noticed she ( i think) had gotten the baby on top of the wool again. I covered the kit and kept checking on the baby throughout the day. All was fine, pudgy little belly, normal baby behavior. This morning I found it on top of the wool again, dead, I'm guessing from being too cold.
any thoughts come to mind?

ladysown · Feb 25, 2012

singleton kits often have a tough go of it. best to breed two or three does at once if you can so you can foster over so that you have three or more kits in each nest.

curlysue · Feb 26, 2012

One or two kits get chilled too easy.I always breed several does and foster if theres only one.

opie7441 · Feb 26, 2012

We have only the one Netherland Dwarf but we have a few Mini Rex does, Do you think a Mini Rex Doe could foster a ND kit? Would size be a problem?<br /><br />__________ Sun Feb 26, 2012 11:41 am __________<br /><br />Boy, she isn't happy about the nesting box being gone. She seems to be looking for it on that side of the cage and if we put our hand on the side of the cage to feed her she is fine but reach to the other side where the box was, she jumps right at our hand

DianeVP · Feb 27, 2012

The size difference will be just fine. I had a litter of French Angoras nursed by two Mini Lop does without a problem. The Mini Lops didn't have their own kits, though, so I would watch out for size differences between kits on the same mom, it's possible the larger kits could block the smaller ones from nursing just because the smaller ones can't push the bigger ones out of the way. But in my case the small moms didn't seem to care (or even notice) that the new kits were bigger than normal.