It seems to me, that the cautions are for owners of rabbits that stress the most easily. Although not stressing them at all probably improves growth somewhat, since just about everything seems to knock down growth rates.
I try to raise the babies in the same cage as the doe, and only separate when it's time to butcher. That saves me cage space and the fuss of having to move either kits or does. But...I'll move them if there is some reason
to...you know? Like if a doe has 12 kits there's no way they will all fit in the same cage with the doe until they reach 9 weeks.
Others breed back sooner and would need to separate them before that time.
I also frequently remove my kits from their cages, weigh them, sex them, or generally just pet and handle them.
It certainly causes some amount of stress, but I believe that selecting for animals that do not stress easily will help improve the lines immune response during and after stressful situations. By extension, this should improve one aspect of disease resistance. I need to subject them to some small amount of stress like that to observe which ones feel less stress when being handled.
There has been research that indicates that some animals become desensitized to repeated exposure to stressful situations, and some animals simply don't. It's the ones that become desensitized the most quickly that I'm looking for in brood stock. With the goal of not having to treat them like glass, and rabbits that will just naturally suffer less from routine handling.
As far as moving a doe goes, the answer is probably again "depends on the doe."
I've moved pregnant does as late as week before kindling and never had any trouble, but...I do avoid it just like I generally avoid moving the kits to new cages. That one feels like..."Why risk it, if at can be avoided?"
