peeing on litter

[MatSuAK]

Ashes, 1/2 Satin, seems to be peeing on her litter.
Her first litter she seemed to be doing a great, but only had a singleton and it froze. Bred her back right away and got no kits. Waited a bit due to a barn full of litters. Gave birth to her second litter and 4 alive out of 8. Didn't get them all in the back of the nest box and those were already stiff when I got home. She seems to be nursing the four, we are on day two, but she is a very flustered nervous mom. I believe she is peeing on them.
I am considering removing nest box and reintroducing only for nursing time, but I would really like this doe to get the hang of being a "good" mom if possible.

Any reason why does urinate on kits?? Wish they could talk sometimes :lol:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Her box may be too large or you may have placed it in her chosen pee spot in the cage.

I would remove the box and replace the bedding, saving the fur if possible. If the kits have pee on them I would also give them a little "bath".

First warm a towel in the dryer, and then fill a small bowl with warm water. Dip the kits in the water, pat dry with a rag or paper towel, and then place in the heated towel and cover with a flap of towel. I always just leave the towel in the dryer with the door closed to retain heat.

The kits will be completely dry within moments- by the time you finish with the last one the rest will probably be dry already.

***I would not recommend this for kits that are more than a couple of days old because with fur they will take much longer to dry and it may do more harm than good. In that case, I would simply wipe them with a warm damp cloth so they do not get wet to the skin, and follow the above procedure for drying them.

When you return the nest to her cage, try placing it in a different location. If she pees in the box again I would remove it and bring it to her for feedings only.

 

[MatSuAK]

I'm going to try moving to a smaller nest box. She is peeing and pooping in the front, kits have crawled/ been pushed to the back. Covered with lots of fur and look fed, so hopefully smaller box will work. <br /><br /> -- Sat Aug 22, 2015 7:44 pm -- <br /><br /> As an update, Ashes continued using the smaller roofed nest box as a litter pan however, I put the original nest box back in with some shaving and hay...perfect hiddy hole and litter pan. Not ideal but at least the kits are clean and fed and it will be easy to clean her cage pan for the next bit. Since she has decided she wants to be a litter trained rabbit ancake: