Baby Bunnies

Thinking about breeding rabbits? Or maybe you already do breed rabbits but want to learn more about caring for the babies. We started raising meat rabbits in 2022 and have learned a lot along the way. We mainly raise New Zealand and Standard Rex rabbits. There will be some differences as to which breeds you are breeding and how you take care of them. Make sure your doe looks healthy before breeding her. She will struggle if she is having health problems and then you try to breed her.

When to breed?

Does can start getting bred at 5-6 months of age and can keep getting bred for 2-4 years depending on health. It is best for your does to have a schedule for breeding. By this I mean getting bred every month or every two month or something like that. We breed our does every other month. This is what has worked best for us and our rabbits. If a rabbit has a long period of inactivity of breeding it is harder on them when you want them to start breeding again. Fat can build up around the reproductive organs to the point where they can't even get bred.

When is she due?

For bigger breeds like New Zealand, Standard Rex, and Californian the gestation is 31 days. Our main breeds are New Zealand and Standard Rex. For smaller dwarf breeds gestation is 28 days. Make sure you keep track of when your doe got bred so you know when to give her the nesting box. But do not be alarmed if your doe does not have her babies right on 31 days. It can be a few days earlier or later. If a doe has a small litter she might be a day or two late and larger litters can be a day or so early. Some rabbits will pull their hair out right before giving birth and other will do it hours or a day before giving birth. They use the hair they pulled out to keep their babies warm and cozy in the nest. Some rabbits will pull a lot of hair and some will not pull very much at all. The hair in the nest also makes their babies smell like them so they know that it is their nest. Do not put hair from one bunny into the nest of another.

Nesting Box.

Because of this couple day range of kilting it is best to put their nesting box and materials in 3-4 days before their due date. If you put their nest in too early they might just use it as a litter box. We give our does their nesting boxes with some hay in it 3-4 days before they are due. We give they more hay outside their nesting box for they to make their nest the way they want it to be. Nesting boxes should be big enough for doe to comfortably move around but it does not have to be overly large. Our one rabbit was so overzealous in building her nest she had so much hay in it she could not fit very well (we had to take some hay out).

First Few Days.

Rabbits only feed their babies 2 times a day, once in the morning and once a night. Normally after dark at night and before it gets light in the morning. That is when they feel the safest to feed their kits. When the kits are first born they are all basically the same size. On day 2 they should have had their first meal and will have smooth round little bellies. A baby bunny that has not had enough to eat will be smaller then the rest and it's skin will be wrinkly. If you do not intervene it will most likely get dehydrated and eventually die. This might happen if there are too many bunnies in the litter and the doe cannot take care of them all. For us it seems like 8 is a really good number of kits for our does to have and be able to take care of them very well. Some of our does are overachievers and have and take care of 11 kits at a time. If a baby does not get its first meal it could also mean that there is something wrong with the baby and it cannot fight for its food and will not survive no matter what you do. It is always sad to see your little bunnies die but sometimes it is just nature and there is nothing you can do. Sometimes you can foster that little baby to another doe and it will survive.

Fostering.

We like to breed two or more does at the same time so they have babies at the same time. That way we can foster a baby or two if needed. If you are at day 2 or 3 since the kits were born and you notice that one is not as big and has wrinkly skin and no belly you might want to try fostering if you have another doe that just had less kits or you know how many she can take care of at one time. As stated above the hair from the nest is the mom's scent so when fostering you must make sure that the new bunny smells like everyone else so the mom will take care of it and not kill it and her own babies in confusion. The best thing to do is take the foster mom's nesting box out of her cage and then place the new baby (clean from all the hair from its birth mom) into the nesting box with its new siblings. Leave the nesting box outside the foster doe's cage for half an hour to an hour. This will let the new bunny take on her scent and she will not know the difference. Replace the nesting box into the foster doe's cage and hope for the best.

Eyes opening

At 10 days old you can start looking to see if the baby bunnies have their eyes open. By day 12 their eyes should be opened. Sometimes their eyes get crusted shut and you can gently open them and wipe them clean. Days 10, 11, and 12 we check them all every day to make sure their eyes are opening fine. If they are not opening and they have goopy eyes you might have to look into getting some antibiotic eye ointment or just use coconut oil and clean out their eyes frequently and apply medicine/coconut oil to help them.

Food

Once their eyes are open you can start offering them regular food. We place a small dish of food in their nesting box during this time because they are not yet big enough to jump out of their nesting box and reach their mom's food dish. Once they are big enough and are jumping around more we just let them eat from the mom's dish. Giving them regular food and greens like grass or leaves is a good idea especially if the litter is large. It will help them grow faster.

Weaning.

This is a subject that everyone has a different opinions as to what age is best to wean them. They can be weaned as early as 4 weeks and this is normally when we wean. Other people do not wean them until 8 weeks or longer. To determine when the best time for you to wean your young bunnies you would want to consider a few things. We rebreed our does every other month so by the time 8 weeks rolls around for her first litter she would be having her next litter. We feel like it is best for our does to be able to dry up and focus on themselves for a little while before thy have to take care for more babies. It lets our does gain back their weight without having to be producing milk for their young. Yes, they are growing more babies inside of them at this time but they can focus on that and themselves without having the stress of nursing their other litter. Another thing to consider is how much space does your doe have in her cage. Our does do not have enough space in their cages for a litter of 8 or more to be growing out to the size of 8 week old bunnies. We also notice that as the 4 week mark approaches the does are looking like they have had enough of their babies. They will hang out on top of the nesting box and run away from their babies to keep them from nursing all the time.

Why did all my baby bunnies die?

It is very sad and disappointing when you go out and find a whole litter of babies that died. But sometimes it does happen and here are a few reasons that it happened.

1. Stress. It actually is a big reason to consider with rabbits. Especially with does that are about to kindle. Stress could include moving your doe to a new cages before she kindles or changing her food slightly. We have learned especially with our one doe to never change anything right before she kindles. She is a very great mom but if she is stressed her babies will die.

2. Age. The older a rabbit gets the more likely they are to have problems with giving birth and having stillborns. Rabbits have the potential of having babies until they are 3-4 years old but if you notice that your one doe keeps losing her kits check how old she is and determine if she might just be too old to be having babies anymore.

3. Cold. If the kits get too cold they will die. We had this experience with our one doe. It was just too cold when she had them and we were not around to make sure they they all crawled to the back of the nest when they were first born and they all died. Our other doe had 11 kits a day before so we gave some of them to the doe that lost all of hers. It is best to have 4 or more kits in a nest so they can stay warm together. This is especially important in the winter time. Make sure that your doe has plenty of nesting material to build her nest. We give them hay for their nests.

There are more reasons that your kits could have die but these are a few that you have a little bit of control of and could possibly save a litter if you consider these three things. Tell us about your kindling problems and solutions so we can all learn together. Leave us a comment we would love to chat.