Phantom Litters

[Truckinguy]

Well, Murphy's Law strikes again. Now that I have a couple of good steady rabbit customers the rabbits stop breeding. Lucille has made two beautiful nests in the last three months but no babies in sight. They are good nests, deep in straw and lined with fur but... nothing. Now the bunnies in the other half of the colony, Fred and Lucille's two kits from the last litter, a buck and a doe who I kept together too long (bad Truckinguy!) along with Lucille's sister, Black Doe, who chewed the wood around one screw and pushed her way through the wire into the other space, have also built a nest a couple of weeks ago but... again, nothing.

I have rats here and have been catching one or two a week since early summer and I know they will go after baby rabbits but would they carry away an entire litter leaving no trace of blood anywhere?

The few weeks leading up to and including Christmas were not good weeks here for a few reasons and I have not given the rabbits the attention they should have and I know that's on me. I have some renovation plans for the colony and I might introduce a new doe from elsewhere to add new blood to my "family" so that might help. Otherwise, I'm at a loss as to why a doe would build a perfectly good nest and not have a litter.

 

[HansenHomestead]

I am not an expert on the situation, but it may be possible for a rat to just drag off a kit. I think it would have to be bunch of rats to drag off entire litters though.

 

[Truckinguy]

I am not an expert on the situation, but it may be possible for a rat to just drag off a kit. I think it would have to be bunch of rats to drag off entire litters though.

That's what I figured. I am still catching a rat every three or four days and the last couple I have caught have been younger so I am assuming that they are established here now. However, there is usually blood on the straw from the birth and I can't find any. I've had rabbits since Feb. 2008 and I can't think off the top of my head about any does that have made a nest and not had a litter, even if the litter had issues or didn't survive, there have always been kits after a nest has been built. Now the rabbits in the other half of the colony have built a nest and no litter there either. I'm scratching my head here.

I have plans to renovate and improve the colony so I'll have to include making it more rat proof, if that's possible.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[HansenHomestead]

I do know that false pregnancies happen. My does had quite a few of those when they first started out. They'd built a great nest, line it with fur, and then nothing... Trust me I was ready to pull my hair out, haha. Then I did notice a difference when they actually were bred. They'd build a nest anywhere from day 28-30, but would not pull any fur until they were a few hours-minutes from kindling. So I figured if I catch my does building a nest them immediately pulling fur, chances are it's a false.

I also learned with palpating I can not feel a dang thing with the normal palpate at day 14, BUT if I wait until about 25, and I gently cup my hand around their bellies, I can feel kicks, and the kits rolling around in there. Once I do a breeding I write down who was bred to who, and I actually write for the day after the actual breeding. So if I breed on say, Jan 1st, I write it down for Jan 2nd. Then mark down, palpate Jan 27th (day 25,) Nest box on Feb 1st (day 28,) and Kindle Feb 4th (day 31.)

It may be possible that the does are disposing of the kits. I had a kit that pulled out of the nest on a teat, and I actually caught the doe chewing on it's foot. (Kits was still alive, but not very.) So I took that kit in, and warmed it, cleaned it's foot, and kept a close on it. The kit is doing great, and is now named NoToe, haha.

She may have also reabsorbed the litter due the stress of the rats, but with her hormones still going wild built a nest anyway.

I had all my does, but 1 go through at least 4 false pregnancies before they actually produced any kits.

 

[a7736100]

Perhaps having the doe in the house will allow you to determine if a litter was carried away or if there was no litter.

 

[Truckinguy]

Perhaps having the doe in the house will allow you to determine if a litter was carried away or if there was no litter.

I thought of that but my does are all outside rabbits, being in the colony is all they've ever known. I think bringing them into the house might stress them out too much. I"m planning a major renovation of the colony and eventually a full rebuild to I'll have to build it tighter and hopefully critter proof.

I also got a quick glimpse of another critter out there the other night, a bit bigger then a rat with a more furry tail so I have the live trap out along with a couple of snap traps so we'll see what I come up with.

 

[GBov]

We had the same thing at 4H one year, lots of nests but no babies. Signs of rats so poison was put down.

MANY dead rats later, live babies in nest boxes.

So, while I cant prove the rats were taking away entire litters, as soon as the bulk of the rats were dead, we had live litters again.