Having Babies!
The Decision to Breed
Baby rabbits are incredibly cute but care must be taken to only permit your rabbits to produce as many as you are willing to care for or that you can find homes for. To breed any kind of animal on a casual whim is irresponsible.
When you have made the decision to breed your rabbits, do so with a purpose in mind. Choose the individuals whith the best characterists to meet your purpose, such as showing in rabbit shows or wool production for angoras, or meat production for meat rabbits. Never mate rabbits that have obvious defects as the defects are likely to repeat in their offspring. Try to only breed rabbits that are quality purebreds.
Breeding
Make sure the mother (doe) is healthy before and during her pregnancy.
Check to see if the doe is ready to mate. Her vent should be bright pink and fairly swollen. If it is not, she may not be receptive to the male.
Always take the doe to the buck's cage. This is his territory where he is comfortable. If he is taken to her cage, he may decide it is more interesting to explore the cage before he is ready to mate.
Always stay and watch the pair while they are together. A buck may be too agressive if they are left together for a long time, or an agressive doe may mount the buck and then he may not want to mate with her. The mating may occur very fast, so it is important to stay and watch and make sure it happens. The buck will mount and breed the doe. Within a few seconds, he will fall over backwards. This is how you know that your doe was bred.
Some people try to hold the doe to make it easier for the buck to mate. This is not a good idea because it is possible to accidently cause the doe to break her back or a leg when improperly restraing her during breeding.
After the breeding, return the doe to her own cage. Some people believe that if you reintroduce the doe a few hours later in the same day that she will produce a larger litter.
Always mark each attempt on the calendar. It is possible for the doe to be bred without realizing what has happened. Gestation is about 30 days from mating to birth.
Is She Pregnant?
The most reliable way to know if the doe is pregnant is to palpate her abdomen and try to feel for the babies. About 10 days to two weeks after the breeding date, place the doe on a solid surface. With her head nearest to you, hold her ears and shoulders with one hand and reach under her abdomen. With your palm up, and feel just in front of the pelvic bones. Gently press upward with fingers and press in from the side with the thumb. The embryos will feel about the size of grapes.
You can also check the doe's vent. If she is in the early stages of pregnancy, her vent is usually small and pale. It will turn pink and slightly swollen at the end of her pregnancy when she is close to delivery.
Palpatate again on about the 28th day after breeding. If there is only 1 fetus, it may have been missed at 2 weeks. Another possiblity for not feeling any babies is that the doe may have resorbed her litter and is no longer pregnant. Even if you think she is not still pregnant, leave a nestbox with the doe just in case she IS pregnant.
Preparation for Babies
About a week before babies are due, put a nest box in with her and give her plenty of hay or straw to build her nest.
You will be able to tell when she is nearly to deliver because she will start picking up the hay in large mouthfuls. Right before she is to deliver she will pull out the hair on her tummy to line the nest. This also exposes her teats for the babies so they will find them easier.
The babies are born with their eyes closed and nearly no hair.
Cut the wool she has lined the nest with into small peices with a sissors. Angora wool can be very long and a piece of it get wrapped around a baby and strangle it or cause the baby to loose a leg if wrapped around it.
Problems
If it is very cold you may want to bring her cage in the house if they are outside. We have lost babies when the mother delivered during a cold spell. If that is not possible then bring the babies inside in their nest box and bring the mother in several ties a day so she can nurse them. Rabbits normally dont spend a lot of time with their babies except to nurse them now and then, so this will generally be successful.
Sometime babies come too fast for the mother and they are born on the cage floor rather than in the next box. They become cold and die. If possible, try to be nearby so you can check on the mother when it is time to deliver.
If babies are born outside the nestbox and have gotten cold, and not too much time has elapsed, it is possible to warm them up. Holding them close to your body, under your shirt will sometimes work. Some people are successful holding their bodies in wrm water until they warm up or on an electric hotpad set to medium or low temperatures.
If the mother should die and you have another litter, the other mother will often accept the orphans. If this is not possible, try purchasing baby kitten formula at the pet store and a pet nursing bottle to try and feed them.
Sometimes a mother has more babies than she can care for. The smallest and weakest are not able to get to her teats and will normally die. You can try giving a suplemental bottle, or if you have another nursing doe, put some of the babies with her, or try holding the doe on your lap and hold the weakest kits on her until they are able to nurse.
Always check all the kits to make sure no fur has wrapped around them making a tourniquet and causing a leg to loose circulation and be lost.
Maturing Kits
Babies are born naked and very helpless. They need their mother's fur covering them to keep them warm, especially on cool days. When it is warm the moother knows just when to remove the hair and uncover the kis so they dont become overheated.
Babies open their eyes at about one week.
