First litter and all dead :(

We have a male and female mini lop and they have always lived together since they were only 6-8 weeks old (not siblings) We obviously knew we would be probably getting some babies eventually and I have been doing my homework and knew she was probably going to be having her babies soon, but was waiting for her to pull her fur and show some sign of giving birth. I checked on her daily and now with it getting cold I let the two back together yesterday to keep each other warm.


Of course I forgot to separate them before going back inside (they have only been separated for about a week) and I just went outside and there were 3 frozen dead babies scattered around the cage! It was so sad, they weren't even in her nestbox and the hair she had to have pulled RIGHT before was scattered all over the cage, not in the box. Is this normal?

****Karen Sez****
So sorry. No, it was not normal, but if it is any consolation, is not uncommon in some first-time does. Add the buck into the mix, and perhaps the doe felt disrupted somehow. There's the chance something else startled her in the environment - a nearby predator or something. Perhaps the buck was chasing her around trying to rebreed her.

And now that you put the two together again, you'll have to plan for another litter in 31-32 days or so.

Rabbits do fine in the cold, even down into the single digits. I don't know where you live, but if it is getting very very cold at night, you can stuff the cage with piles of extra straw, that will provide extra insulation against the cold.

Good luck next time, and God bless you,
K

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Comments.

Protected by Copyscape Plagiarism Check Software

Double-Value Guarantee

Our policy is to always OVER-deliver on value,
which is why your purchase is fully covered by our
Double-Value Guarantee.

Go ahead - take any of our e-books for a test drive. Peruse our detailed informational and educational e-books. Examine our plans for building rabbit cages, runs, or metal or PVC hutch frames. Check out the Rabbit Husbandry info e-books.

If you aren't completely satisfied that your e-book purchase is worth at least double, triple or even quadruple the price you paid, just drop us a note within 45 days, and we'll refund you the entire cost. That's our Double-Value Guarantee.

Note: When you purchase your e-books, they will be in PDF format, so you can download them to any device that supports PDF format. We advise making a back-up copy to a drive or cloud account. If the books are lost, you can also purchase another copy from Raising-Rabbits.