Care of Baby Rabbits:

First Two Weeks of Life

1. Make sure that the mother rabbit gets all the food and water she needs. Don't let her feed run out, and don't ever let her water crock go empty. Since the doe will be doing all the feeding of the baby rabbits, she will need plenty of feed and water for herself and her bunnies in order to make plenty of milk for the hungry kits. The more baby rabbits she has, the more crucial is this tip.

2. To take the best care of baby rabbits, you'll want to check on the bunnies every day.
You'll make sure they stay healthy, well-fed, and free of health problems, such as eye infections.

You’re also checking to be sure no kits get isolated in a corner of the nest box. After one of our does gave birth, I found 2 of her kits down in the burrow where they belonged, and the rest of the litter in a separate little pile in a corner of the nest box. That night, the doe fed the two kits in the burrow, and ignored, or forgot, the entire rest of the litter! Since I was checking the litter every day, it was clear that most kits had not been fed, but the two bunnies in the burrow had enormous round chubby tummies. It was easy to put all the babies together into the burrow. The next evening all the kits got fed, and all was well.

To take care of baby rabbits during very cold weather, you’ll also check to be sure the burrow stays warm and that no kit strays away from the nest accidentally and gets chilled or frozen.







3. To take care of baby rabbits, you want to keep the nest box from getting too fouled with either urine or poop-balls.
It's not that the nest needs to be sterile, because the kits gain their gut bacteria from the mother's feces. But you don't want the nest to get damp with urine or excessively dirty.

Usually the doe stays out of the nest except for the 5-10 minutes it might take her to feed her babies. But some does like to lounge in the nest all day. That's when she may just pee and poop in the nest box. If you’ve still got days to go before the nest box comes out of the cage, you can either clean out the dirty spots in the nest box or completely replace all the bedding:

• Cleaning the nest box: A couple times over the last several years I had to empty the whole thing out and start from scratch. (See our Rabbit Nest Box page for a refresher on how to fill the nest box with bedding materials.) I save as much of the clean dry fur from the old nest as possible, and put it into the new nest, lining the new burrow so the kits will remain warm and comfortable. A rabbit nest box can get dirty in a hurry, if the doe is a ‘pig.’
  
  
• Much more often, I notice the poop-balls sitting in the front of the burrow (inside the nest box, but not down where the bunnies are sleeping). I pull the nest box out of the cage, and scoop them out. At the same time, I can determine whether or not the moisture level is rising. Has the doe been also peeing in the nest? If the shavings seem damp, I’ll scoop out the damp shavings as well. Then you can smooth out the bedding material, and perhaps toss a bit more hay into the nest box before placing it back in the rabbit cage. Add a handful of fresh shavings, if you need to. For this doe, you'll want to keep checking, and cleaning, the nest box every day until it comes out of the cage. (She's not going to reform, just because you cleaned it out.)

4. Taking care of baby rabbits -- The rabbit nest box comes out of the cage between Days 12 to 18, and no later. The best rule-of-thumb for removing the nest box: the rabbit nest box comes out the moment a bunny hops out all by itself.

This little girl was 15 days old when she hopped out of the nest box. One of her little sisters had hopped out as well-she was huddled on the far side of the cage.

Day 12 was the earliest any of my baby rabbits hopped out. In the summer, when it’s warm, you don’t need to worry so much about keeping bunnies warm once the nest is gone, especially if you do as I have - put a low-sided cardboard box with a few shavings and straw/hay into the cage.

A problem might arise if a youngster hops out too soon in the winter. But usually, during the cold, the kits tend to remain burrowed. It’s during the warm summer evenings that the smaller, hungry kit tries to get more of Mama. It’s the little kit you’ll find huddled outside the nest in the morning when you check on the animals. Or, it’s possible the little kit was latched onto a teat, and got pulled out when the doe jumped out of the box.

If the little guy jumps out on Day 12, I’ve been known to pop him back into the nest box. Almost invariably he’ll be out the next morning again. That’s when I put in the cardboard box with shavings and straw and simply remove the nest box altogether.

5. To take care of baby rabbits, don't be afraid to handle the baby bunnies a little each day.
Checking that their tummies are all full is a fine excuse. It is our feeling that as we handle the kits regularly at this very early age, they become better accustomed to human contact. Their transition to weaning is then that much easier, and their lives going forward more frequently even-keeled.

6. If the kits are still snuggled in the nest box by Day 18, evict the little buggers.

"Nest box eye" is an eye infection. Without a little attention, an eye infection can cause blindness, even death if severe. Terramycin opthalmic ointment works wonders for nest box eye.

• Good initial sanitation helps prevent eye infections. Before giving the nest box to the doe, clean it thoroughly with a 1:10 bleach solution. A pump sprayer works great. Let it sit for an hour. This will kill any pathogens (germs), and give the kits a good start at life.
  
  
• Germs still get into the nest box, of course. But if the nest box comes out after 2 weeks, the biggest source of germs goes away. If a kit starts getting a bit of pus in the eye, sometimes just removing the nest box is enough to give the eye a chance to clear up.

(Benebac is a perfect remedy for 'mild' bunny diarrhea.)

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Learn about raising baby rabbits to weaning age.

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