How to deal with newborn rabbits

The birth of rabbits is quite an exciting moment. Baby rabbits are born completely naked, blind, and require a lot of attention and care from the mother. But at the same time, the rabbitry should carefully monitor the behavior of the female and newborn babies, monitor the breeding of young. Earwigs are very gentle animals, which can have problems with both protection and the development of young. Breeders must know how to handle newborn rabbits, what is safe and dangerous to do, and be able to quickly solve problems.

How rabbits spend their first days

Labor in a rabbit begins approximately on the 27th-32nd day after mating. The birth itself lasts no more than 1 hour. With a successful birth, offspring are born – up to 10-15 pieces per litter (depending on the breed, season, age of the female).

Pink newborn rabbits look very fragile and helpless. The weight of a newborn rabbit is about 50 g. But you should not be afraid of such miniature sizes. Literally from the second day, the animals begin to grow actively and become covered with fur. And month-old cubs already fully acquire the outlines of adult rabbits and gain weight up to 0.5-1 kg (depending on the breed).

How rabbits develop day by day

Physiological development of rabbits according to age

• 1 day. Rabbits are born bald, blind, and cannot hear anything. But at the same time, they already have 16 milk teeth. The weight of a newborn is from 45 to 90 g.
• 2 day. The weight of the rabbits doubles. The first down begins to appear.
• 3-7 day. The spines of the fur begin to appear noticeably. Rabbits continue to actively gain weight. From the 7th day, hearing begins to break through.
• 8-10 day. By the 10th day, with normal development, the rabbits begin to open their eyes.
• 11 – 14 days. At two weeks, the cubs try to move, crawl out of the nest. The weight of the body becomes 5 times more compared to the weight at birth.
• 15-20 days. Eared children actively examine the cage, feeders. They try to play, run. Actively overgrown with fur. After 18 days, teeth begin to change.
• 21 days. Ears completely leave the queen. Actively run, play. They eat adult food. They become similar to adult relatives.
• 1 month. Rabbits reach a weight of 500-1000 g. They eat from the feeder together with their mother. The coat grows back completely. The first shedding begins.
• 2 months. It is believed that two-month-old rabbits are already quite independent and are weaned from their mother. They eat well, respond to the owner. In earwigs, it is already possible to determine the gender without any problems.
• At 3-5 months, a rabbit at home can weigh from 2 kg. Intensive growth is noted up to 4 months. Three months of age is the beginning of puberty in eared dogs.

Eye opening time

Rabbits open their eyes on the 11-12th day after birth. A two-week-old rabbit already sees the surrounding world well, but it is necessary to control the activity of the offspring. Babies can still easily get lost and not find their way to the nest, or accidentally bump into the sharp corners of feeders or drinking bowls.

How to behave after the birth of rabbits

Before giving birth in a rabbit, the breeder should ensure that there is a queen in the cage. The family house should be comfortable, roomy, without sharp corners, cracks, and holes. Be sure to observe the behavior of the female before the intended escape. If she does not start building her nest and plucking fluff from her belly, the future mother will have to help prepare a place for the cubs.

An important aspect is cutting the nails of the expectant mother. They should be cut in advance, so that after mating, the female cannot injure the offspring with them.

Females can give birth to rabbits in almost 10 minutes. Sometimes this process can take up to 1 hour, especially for first-borns. During childbirth, it is important to leave the rabbit alone and not interfere with the birth unnecessarily.

Nature has set it in such a way that the female copes with everything on her own: she helps the future baby come out with her teeth and licks them off the litter, eats the placenta, bites the umbilical cord. In the normal course after childbirth, the rabbit leaves the nest with the offspring for a while: it rests and watches the baby. It is at such a moment that it is important for the owner to inspect the droppings. Further, all care is reduced to monitoring the physiological process of growth and development of cute fluffy animals.

Among the recommendations, the following are noted:

• The cage with the queen should be placed in a quiet, calm, shaded place.
• Look into the nest no more than once a day (frequent peeking will scare the already timid female, and aggressive mothers will only get more annoyed).
• In case of mixed housing, exclude the access of males to the mother and queen.
• In winter, it is necessary to maintain the optimal temperature in the nest. If necessary, an infrared lamp is turned on for the babies, heating mats are placed on the floor, or bottles of warm water are simply placed.

When you can take the rabbits in your hands

Newbie rabbit breeders are convinced that after the birth of the rabbits, it is forbidden to touch the womb. They claim that a female rabbit can abandon or eat newborn offspring due to human intrusion.

Experienced breeders surely know that it is necessary to inspect the queen in the first 48 hours after farrowing. This revision helps to detect the condition of newborns (remove crippled and dead ones, place rabbits from other litters, warm them) and, if necessary, repair the nest.

Sometimes babies can be born infected. But it is almost impossible to determine this before opening the eyes. Here it is also important (especially in the first days) to monitor the animal’s stools, and in the case of very loose stools, to involve a veterinarian.

Inspection of the nest after hatching is carried out as follows:

1. The female is separated by a partition or transferred to another cage.
2. Hands are washed with household soap, and all subsequent manipulations are carried out exclusively in gloves, so that the human smell does not remain on the animals, and the rabbit does not abandon the children.
3. Check all the cubs in the nest (dead ones must be removed immediately).
4. If necessary, the nest is repaired and the offspring are well covered with fluff.
5. After the inspection of the nest, the mother can be allowed to visit the rabbits.

Be sure to ensure that the female feeds the children after some time after birth. If she does not feed them in the first 12 hours, they will die.

If the rabbit does not feed the rabbits

Sometimes rabbits refuse to feed their babies. This behavior of animals can lead to the rapid death of rabbits. To prevent this from happening, experienced breeders advise:

• Keep the rabbit’s house and brood box clean and tidy.
• Maintain optimal temperature, humidity, ensure that there are no drafts.
• Monitor the availability of clean drinking water in drinking fountains.
• Feed animals properly.
• Timely replace litter in cages.
• Protect animals from noise, do not disturb them unnecessarily.

Suddenly, after all, the newly born mother refused to breed, she has no milk or the female died during childbirth, you should not despair. After making an effort, offspring can be raised in other ways:

• force the rabbits to the mother,
• transfer them to another sukrol female,
• resort to artificial feeding.

Mating to another female

This is one of the most optimal ways. A more experienced rabbit with a pronounced maternal instinct will easily be able to feed her and “other people’s” children without even paying attention to the change in the number of offspring. In order not to frighten the female, it is better to carry out the replacement procedure when the mother is not in the nest.

Rabbits are transplanted into the nest with clean, washed hands in gloves, preventing extraneous odors from getting on their skin.

Forced feeding

If the rabbit has milk, but she simply does not feed the cubs due to inexperience, then you can first forcibly carry out lactation. In this case, the rabbitry needs an assistant. It is most convenient for one person to put the female down for feeding, hold her, and another to put the rabbits to the teats.

As babies get full, their bellies swell a little, their bodies become more elastic. This signals the saturation of the animal. Forced feeding is recommended until the rabbit takes the initiative to feed the children.

Artificial feeding

Of course, artificial feeding is a very time-consuming method. It is resorted to only as a last resort, when there is no possibility to use other methods. It is worth remembering that not all milk is suitable for rabbits. Special substitute mixtures for rabbits or goat milk are considered the best.

Food should be fresh and heated to a temperature of 37-38 oC. The diet and dosage of food, the volume of which is increased according to age, is mandatory. Rabbits can be overfed. The owner will constantly have to massage the abdomen to establish peristalsis.

When the rabbits leave the nest

All baby rabbits start to leave the nest at the age of three weeks. Acquaintance with the “adult” world involves some nuances:

• From this moment, acquaintance begins not only with the external habitat, but also with “adult” food – the rabbits try food from the mother’s feeder, which should only contain products that are harmless to babies. Gradually, the earwigs will switch from this supplement to the normal diet of adults.
• During this period, it is necessary to change the litter in the cage so that dust does not get into the eyes of miniature rabbits. The best option is to temporarily cover with a clean, dense cloth or towel.
• Breeders conduct a control examination of the physiological development of the offspring. If it is found that the rabbits are not growing well, then the rabbit’s menu is immediately revised or the rabbit is transplanted to a female with more caloric milk.
• If there is a weakened rabbit in the brood, it is better to remove it from the nest, so that the rabbit does not begin to notice the difference among the cubs and does not abandon the entire brood because of this.
• From the 28th day, rabbits begin to be vaccinated against diseases according to the approved vaccination calendar.

Why do rabbits leave the nest before the deadline

When a mother rabbit throws her cubs out of the nest or the rabbits start leaving before the age of three weeks, there may be several reasons for this behavior:

• Lack of milk in females. A decrease in the amount of rabbit milk or a decrease in its nutritional properties indicates that the rabbit is not properly fed. In order to restore normal lactation, the mother’s diet should be revised, make it more caloric, adjust the mode and amount of food.

Good care of a rabbit is the key to obtaining healthy offspring from it. If it is not possible to restore lactation, then the offspring are moved to another lactating rabbit or begin to be fed artificially.

• An increase in air temperature in the uterus. In order for the rabbits to feel comfortable and cozy, you should control the temperature in the nest. When it becomes very hot and stuffy, the problem can be solved by moving the cage to a cooler room or to the open air under a canopy.

It is important to remember that baby rabbits should not get out of the mother’s nest earlier than the due date. If this problem occurs, you should quickly find and eliminate the cause, otherwise you can lose the brood.

When can selection be made

Adult rabbits are recommended to be weaned from their mother no earlier than 1.5-2 months of age, provided that they are already fully eating adult food, do without milk, and are not sick. The weaning procedure is carried out gradually, weaning 2 rabbits from the litter every day. In this way, the female will physiologically and painlessly stop lactation.

Usually, females are placed in cages of 3-4 individuals, and males are castrated or transferred to individual cages (provided they are kept for reproduction).

After selection, the most important aspect is the diet of the young. They should eat high-calorie food rich in proteins and carbohydrates. It is recommended to enrich the composition of food with mineral and vitamin premixes. If a 3-4-month-old youngster gains weight well and quickly, it means that the transition to adult food has gone well, and the selected nutrition fulfills all the nutritional needs of actively growing organisms.

When to start offering rabbits to eat on their own

The first acquaintance of rabbits with new food begins after 21 days from birth, when the young leaves the nest and begins to actively explore the territory, including the mother’s feeder. During this period, the menu in the rabbit is carefully controlled. In the feeder, it is advisable to put crushed hay, pellets, which will be able to grow small ears.

The transition and adaptation to adult food in rabbits should be carried out very carefully. They begin to feed gradually – in small portions. Tender and sensitive ventricles of animals must gradually get used to new solid food.

When the first complementary feeding was successful, and the condition of the ears is satisfactory, you can gradually increase the amount. But when the rabbits begin to have diarrhea, the introduction of supplementary food is temporarily limited.

There should always be clean water in the drinking bowls so that the rabbits have the opportunity to quench their thirst and drink their food.

During the transition to adult food, it is determined whether the rabbits are growing well. If they are very large according to their age and breed characteristics, then they are obese and overeat, and if they are small, then they do not have enough food. In both cases, it is important to review the approach to nutrition, and try to correct the situation by adjusting the diet.

Breeding rabbits has always been considered a difficult occupation. Pedantic is the period of birth and the first months after it. If you follow the recommendations of experienced rabbit breeders and devote time to care, you can raise completely healthy rabbits without any problems.