Questions about Kits and Mother

[sully022]

Hi All,

I have a couple questions as I am new to rabbits and if you have time to throw in some input I would appreciate it.

1. I have a pure californian rabbit that had 7 kits. They were born on May 29th so only a little over 3 weeks old. It seems like all of them are going after the moms pellets and are eating the grass that we put in for the mom. Is this okay it seems a bit early from what I have read but not sure how to prevent it except remove the mother and feed her in another cage and then put her in with babies for stretches to nurse. Any thoughts on this?

2. She seems to be getting annoyed with a few of them and how they chase her around constantly trying to latch on. This might only be occurring on a smaller basis that I observed or may be happening all the time. I left the nesting box in even though none of the kits are in there so she would have a place to escape the them on top of the nesting box. However a couple of kits seemed to have claimed the top of the box for themselves so she doesn't have any real way to escape them. I read that if she is ready to be done nursing them she will get more aggressive toward them. Have any of you experienced this?

Any other thoughts on this would be great.

Thanks all,

Sully

 

[akane]

If you use hay or straw they will start eating stuff in the nestbox about the time their eyes open. In situations where it was absolutely necessary I've had some wean at 2 weeks to softened pellets and hay. If the doe has been rebred she will often wean them at 4-5weeks. Otherwise most wait until 6-8weeks to remove them. They can immediately start nibbling on what food mom has. It will help develop their digestive tract slowly since they start out nibbling stuff and move on to fully eating it through the 2nd to 3rd week. I usually remove the boxes sometime after 2 weeks depending on the weather because once the kits can get up there it's just taking up needed space. How big of cage do they have?

 

[Zass]

Your doe and kits sound completely normal. I wouldn't wean early unless you see true aggression.
Honestly, I wouldn't keep a doe who was aggressive towards weanlings, and I wean much later than most on here do.
(Males are weaned between 6 and 8 weeks(depending on litter size), females between 8 and 12 )

4 weeks is the standard minimum, although it can be done earlier.

It's normal to nibble solid food long before they are actually weaned and I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[akane]

I give them one litter of being slightly aggressive. Not to the point they actually injure a kit though. If they don't improve with the 2nd litter then I get rid of them. I have had some that were rather confused the first litter but went on to raise litters perfectly fine and their offspring raised litters fine.