I feel awful, but I had no idea

by Samantha Lee
(West Midlands, England)

We had our rabbits in May this year from the same litter. At the time, we thought they were both girls, despite calling them Boris and Doris! They were together in a 2 storey cage and always followed each other around. In August, literally hours before I was due to go on holiday I was quite horrified to see that Doris was actually a boy. There was nothing I could do at such short notice so I went in holiday fulling expecting a litter of babies a month later. When we returned we bought some wood and separated the hutch in to two separate hutches. A month on, no babies.

We kept the hutch separated so Doris wouldn't keep pestering Boris, but we do let them play out together, but never really seem them mating.

Today I have gone outside to get them out of the cage to find a dead baby in the bed area. There is only one, which I find strange, but I am guessing it has died because it is cold and it didn't have a proper nest. I didn't know she was pregnant.

I feel terrible as I know I could have done more to help if I had been more observant.

Now I'm concerned in case it happens again, especially with the winter months coming up.

Would it be worth building a nest box and putting it in the cage just in case?