My second doe had 5 kits yesterday. She had them all in the nest box but were very cold. I brought them in and warmed all of them. Surprisingly they all came back. Then I noticed that she had ate the leggs of of 2 of them so I had to put them down. That left 3 healthy ones. I took them out to her and she seemed to do okay but didnt nurse. I left them out with her and this morning they were dead. Seems they got to cold but there was plenty of hay and she pulled tons of fur. This has been discouraging 2 does and lost both litters. Well I have 7 more does due and they all have had litters before so hopefully we will end up with some live kits.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), January 19, 2002

Answers

Thanks everyone, It has been so cold here. I am sure that is part of it. As far a predators go, We have plenty of barn cats but the rabbits are used to them so mice and rats arnt a problem. It was her first liter. She is rebred and has another chance. I am keeping an eye on the rest that a due today and tommorrow.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), January 20, 2002.

Tracy... If you are using hay, I would consider possibly changing over to straw, instead. I don't know which ones, but I do know that some hays will emit noxious fumes when wet! Likewise, because straw has hollow centers, it conducts heat much better.

I don't know how cold it is where you are, but I do remember a couple of years of very severe cold weather where I live... down to 0 degrees and below at night. We labeled each nest box with the cage number and ran them into the house overnight, stacking them next to the heater vents. They were returned to their appropriate cages the next day.

Also remember... each doe is different, and some tend to take a bit longer for their instincts to fully kick in. Breed her, again, within 3 days from losing her first litter. It is also a possibility that her milk simply didn't "come down." It happens occasionally. Or, if the kits appear to have been stomped on... you have a problem with her location wherein she feels "threatened."

The eating of the appendages tells me she either had a somewhat difficult delivery and tried to help to pull the kit out, or sometimes, first time does will do this, but will learn from it. Her teeth are just too sharp for this task.

Sorry to say, but you're sure getting a real taste of the realities of raising rabbits... as in "mortalities!" Bummer! Don't give up! It'll all come together before much longer.

Pat Lamar

-- Pat Lamar (fuzyfarm@3-cities.com), January 19, 2002.

Try not to be too discourged, Tracy. Around here, it seems to go in waves. Right now, my rabbits are doing amazingly well - producing like crazy. But over the last summer we lost several litters, and had a hard time breeding due to the heat. Just hang in there! It'll get better!

-- Cheryl in KS (cherylmccoy@rocketmail.com), January 20, 2002.

The same thing happened to me last winter. One of my rabbits had a litter and I didn't even know until I found pieces of baby. She ate the entire litter. She did the same thing the with the next. The third time she had them outside the box and they all died. I caught her early and removed them before she could eat them. I did not give her another chance! It was SO furstrating, especially when I only had 2 does!

-- buffy (buffyannjones@hotmail.com), January 20, 2002.

Tracy; sorry to hear they didn't make it, as I told you earlier its worth a try but most times after they get too cold they just can't make it. Sounds like this is her first litter, may be she just didn't know what to do. Give her another chance, but if it happens again then she may need to be culled. There are several reasons for a doe to chew legs off. She may have just had a hard time haveing them and bit too hard if she had to help pull them out. Another reason is it is instinct if there was one that was dead they will eat it to keep other predators out of the box. Sometimes they eat parts of live ones as they are more worried about preditors than what they are doing and can't see very well what they are eating. this may be a sign you have other things in the barn like mice or rats etc, check and make sure there isn't anything that might be upsetting her. surely the next 7 litters will go better.

-- Ricky Jenkins (rjsjrj@yahoo.com), January 20, 2002.