New Born Rabbits

by Mandy
(NSW, Australia)

Firstly, thank goodness for your website. Our beautiful rabbit just gave birth last night for the very first time. She built a lovely nest of bedding and with heaps of her own fur. So far she has 4 healthy babies (checked using your website method). There is a lot of fur and we can't see the babies under it, should I remove any fur or just let mother rabbit sort it out?


***** Karen Sez *****
You should always see all the babies and the entirety of the nest and 'burrow.' The reason is to ensure that all dead babies or forgotten placentas are found and disposed of. We don't dismantle the nest entirely, of course, but we'll move aside anything we need to in order to make sure the nest will be clean and sanitary for the kits.

You can do that too, and then put stuff back the way you found it.

Since it's summer in Australia, do you think the kits need all that fur? You shouldn't be able to see any kits, but sometimes the doe half denudes herself putting fur in the nest. If the quantity of fur is really over the top, you can remove some, so the kits don't cook in their burrow. And then save it, in case the doe is loathe to part with a scrap or two of fur in the winter. (Yeah, some does are funny that way!)

Enjoy your new litter!

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