My New Zealand doe gave birth this morning. It's her 2nd litter and it seemed like she did it all right: pulled lots of fur and had them all in the nest box. I peaked in this afternoon and counted 10 warm wiggly kits. I peaked in again this evening and noticed one wasn't moving so I looked around a bit. 5 of the 10 are dead. What happened? My other doe isn't showing any signs of labor but it's day 31. It's her first pregnancy so I'm not expected a good outcome.
Why are kits dying?
- Thread starter MamaDani
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coffeenutdesigns
Well-known member
What are the temperatures like? Could they have gotten too hot? Are there any pests around? Rats or ants? You might want to bring the nest box in away from her and only take it out for feedings.
Whipple
Well-known member
Hmm, temperature? Stomping if something is freaking her out is the only other thing I can think of.
It's around 80-90 during the day and 60-70 at night. When and for how long do I return the nest box to her?<br /><br />__________ Wed May 29, 2013 10:22 am __________<br /><br />We have noticed mice and are trying to get rid of them (they seem too smart for our traps) but the cages are made with 1x.5 inch hardware cloth. There's no way the mice are getting in.
MamaSheepdog
Well-known member
I would suspect a "nestbox lounger" as well.
I have a broken blue doe that smashed her first litter. I rebred her at one week (which was when she finally killed all of them), and she had a litter earlier this week. She only had four, and there is only one still alive.
She will be culled from my program due to this behavior.
I would suggest removing her nest, and only bringing it out in the morning and evening. She should hop right in and feed, but if not, leave the box in there as you do your rabbitry chores.
This is what I did with Speck for the first week, at which point I thought it was safe to leave the box- but clearly, I was wrong- so you might need to continue until the kits are closer to two weeks old before chancing leaving the box with her.
I have a broken blue doe that smashed her first litter. I rebred her at one week (which was when she finally killed all of them), and she had a litter earlier this week. She only had four, and there is only one still alive.
She will be culled from my program due to this behavior.
I would suggest removing her nest, and only bringing it out in the morning and evening. She should hop right in and feed, but if not, leave the box in there as you do your rabbitry chores.
This is what I did with Speck for the first week, at which point I thought it was safe to leave the box- but clearly, I was wrong- so you might need to continue until the kits are closer to two weeks old before chancing leaving the box with her.
Thank you all for the advice. I've taken the nest box out and will bring it to Mopsy (mama rabbit) this evening. Now that I think of it, the heat might very well be a factor. The kits are under a good 2-3 inches of fur!
Here are the 5 remaining kits:
Here are the 5 remaining kits:
WildWolf
Well-known member
I've never bred before, so there will probably be something wrong with my suggestion... but, if the heat is the issue (and I would think that they would get overheated in all that fur!) couldn't you remove some of the fur from the nest box?
A little update: I returned the nest last night and Mopsy didn't want anything to do with it. She kept pushing it away. I was worried b/c someone had told me that we lost the 5 b/c I had touched the kits. After waiting for her to nurse while I tended to the other rabbits, baby chicks, gave our hens some free range time and weeded the garden/harvested strawberries, I assumed she wasn't going to nurse them. I remember reading on here that you can bring kits to mom to nurse. So I rolled Mopsy on her side and one by one placed a kit on her belly. All but one latched on immediately and nursed a little. Not enough for nice full rounded bellies but a little is better than nothing, right? This morning I returned the nest again and Mopsy immediately jumped in and nursed them. Once inside I peaked at the kits. All had nice round bellies and were sound asleep. The one that didn't nurse last night didn't have as big as a belly but it did eat b/c it's belly is a little round. I'm definitely breathing a sigh of relief today!
Mopsy nursing:
Full belly!! And one of the runts too!
<br /><br />__________ Thu May 30, 2013 9:01 am __________<br /><br />
I had thought of that. I even thought of leaving the nest box in over night but with the chance that the others were killed by Mopsy sitting on them, I'd rather avoid that risk. I'd hate to loose the rest of the kits.
Mopsy nursing:
Full belly!! And one of the runts too!
WildWolf":zz3nfejt said:
I had thought of that. I even thought of leaving the nest box in over night but with the chance that the others were killed by Mopsy sitting on them, I'd rather avoid that risk. I'd hate to loose the rest of the kits.
WildWolf
Well-known member
Cool, sounds like they are improving!
ColdBrook
Well-known member
I've experienced something very similar recently and it turns out, my Silver Fox doe hops right in every morning and feeds the kits on her own but wants nothing to do with evening feedings so I'm going to just start taking them up to her once a day since they seem to be thriving with just that once a day feed and it was stressful on all of us with me flipping Summer over and making her feed in the evenings too. Sounds like things are heading in the right direction with your litter!
I may not have read all the posts and be understanding everything, but it seems to me that she may have just not fed them for a day or two. This isn't real uncommon for a first time doe. Since it her second litter,though, one wouldn't expect that.
How did she do with her first litter?
How did she do with her first litter?
The ones that died, died less than 12 hours after being born. Her first litter did not have a good outcome. She had 9, didn't build a nest, didn't pull fur, didn't feed the kits and then used the nest box as a potty. All the kits died within a couple days.
