What if the doe neglects the kits?

by Mary
(Griffin, GA, U.S.A)

What if the doe neglects the kits? I bring them into the house and care for them. Am I doing the wrong thing?


***** Karen Sez *****
Well, it depends what you mean by 'neglect.' My own does completely 'neglect' their kits for about 23 hours and 55 minutes of every day. But during those other 5 minutes, they are busy feeding their kits and taking good care of them.

Do your kits have chubby round tummies in the morning? Then the doe is not neglecting her kits. She's just being a normal bunny mommy, meaning ignoring her babies most of the time. It just looks like neglect if you're not familiar with proper bunny-mom etiquette. This behavior is what keeps rabbits and kits alive in the wild - the doe stays away from the burrow so as to not alert predators to the location of her nest.

If you bring the kits into the house, this is not necessarily a bad thing if the doe is not feeding the kits. But if they're well-cared-for, it is unnecessary.

So, make a determination as to whether the doe is feeding her kits or not, in order to decide how to continue caring for the bunnies.

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