Beekeeper10
Well-known member
Hello, I am new to this forum.
I am new to raising rabbits and hope someone here can help me figure out what caused this problem so I can try avoid this from happening again.
I have a doe that I bought a while back at a auction, I didn't know she was bred. So this morning I saw that she had started pulling fur. I put a nesting box in her cage and she pulled a lot of fur and made a nice nest on the hay I had provided her. About two hrs. later she started having babies on the wire not in the nesting box. I was close by while she was having them and as she had each one they did not move or make a sound. She did not try to clean them up or anything so I took each one out and wrapped them in a towel. She had seven babies but they all seemed lifeless. They all were nice sized for new born babies and I kept them wrapped up in the towel for about a hour but by then they were getting cold. I think they were born dead. The temperature was about 80 degrees when they were born, but it has been getting into the mid 90's here in the afternoons.
Could it be heat related? Could it be from stress this morning by getting the nesting box in late. I did notice that there was not much after birth on them when they were born so they did not suffocate from the after birth. She is supposed to be 3 yrs. old so I assume she has had other litters but that is all I know about her. This is the second litter that I have had. The first doe had them on the wire and it was fairly chilly then but I only lost one out of seven. The rest are about 4 weeks old and doing fine.
It is pretty tough to lose the whole litter. I just hope I can figure out what happened.
Any help would be appreciated. Hoping to find an answer.
Thanks, Tommy
I am new to raising rabbits and hope someone here can help me figure out what caused this problem so I can try avoid this from happening again.
I have a doe that I bought a while back at a auction, I didn't know she was bred. So this morning I saw that she had started pulling fur. I put a nesting box in her cage and she pulled a lot of fur and made a nice nest on the hay I had provided her. About two hrs. later she started having babies on the wire not in the nesting box. I was close by while she was having them and as she had each one they did not move or make a sound. She did not try to clean them up or anything so I took each one out and wrapped them in a towel. She had seven babies but they all seemed lifeless. They all were nice sized for new born babies and I kept them wrapped up in the towel for about a hour but by then they were getting cold. I think they were born dead. The temperature was about 80 degrees when they were born, but it has been getting into the mid 90's here in the afternoons.
Could it be heat related? Could it be from stress this morning by getting the nesting box in late. I did notice that there was not much after birth on them when they were born so they did not suffocate from the after birth. She is supposed to be 3 yrs. old so I assume she has had other litters but that is all I know about her. This is the second litter that I have had. The first doe had them on the wire and it was fairly chilly then but I only lost one out of seven. The rest are about 4 weeks old and doing fine.
It is pretty tough to lose the whole litter. I just hope I can figure out what happened.
Any help would be appreciated. Hoping to find an answer.
Thanks, Tommy
