1 little bunny

by Stephanie
(Ft.. Pierce, FL USA)

My doe kindled the night of the 22nd. 4 babies; 3 stillborn; 1st litter; Netherland Dwarf. What went wrong? Will the one live? Will my doe take care of it? I live in Florida but it does get a little cold in winter sometimes and it is winter and it is getting pretty cold will it be ok?

I'm just sooo worried is there any thing I need or should do? When is the earliest I can re-breed? will this one be weaker than normal? I'm really worried about the one that is left. how can I increase the next litter? PLEASE RESPOND!!!!!!!

Stephanie,10

****Karen Sez****
Let's take a deeeeep breath, and figure this out.

Lessee...3 kits born dead. I don't know why - there is a chance they were peanuts (double dwarfs) - were they really tiny? Just a thought.

The one that is alive will probably be stronger, because it gets Mom all to itself.

The main worry, because it is winter, is temperature, only because there are no littermates to snuggle with. In this case, I might bring the nestbox in the house overnight. I might even leave the nestbox in the house all the time, and take it out to the doe for 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening, just so she can feed the little guy. You'll know it got fed because in a few minutes it'll get nice and round.

When the young'un is 2 weeks old, it can go into the cage with the doe, and you won't have to worry about the cold. You can also rebreed when it's 2-3 weeks old. (Don't rebreed so soon next time if the doe has a whole litter to take care of.)

So you see, no worries, really, just as long as you can keep the youngster warm. I'm sure you'll do a great job with it.