I'm about to throw up... :(?

Question

I have these two bunnies in a cage in my garage, and I love them very much. I love to watch them play together.
---Recently, the female got pregnant, and I was so excited! I waited expectantly for days for the bunnies to be birthed.
---Today, the bunny finally had its kids! They were so cute, and there were 4 of them. I was as happy as can be. I saw the daddy turn around and lick its kids. It ws the sweetest thing I ever saw <3 <3
----But then something gross happened. The dad licked one of its babies INTO ITS MOUTH! It ATE ITS CHILD! It was disgusting, and blood dripped out of its mouth as I heard it crunch through the weak new bones of its offspring
----The worst part is that the mommy and the other babies paid no attention, they didn't even seem to care! (Well, the babies' eyes were still closed, so I guess they couldn't see :|) HOW COULD SUCH SWEET CREATURES BE SO CRUEL!?!

Answer 1

It is natural in the animal kingdom (espically among rodents) for the male to eat their young. Once the mother has its babies or right before, you MUST seperate the father and keep the father seperated until you have all the babies seperated from the mother.

Answer 2

You wrote: "But then something gross happened. The dad licked one of its babies INTO ITS MOUTH! It ATE ITS CHILD! It was disgusting, and blood dripped out of its mouth as I heard it crunch through the weak new bones of its offspring"

I'm sorry but you sound like someone trying to get off to writing sick stuff. You could be very young or immature, or you could be a serial killer in the making. Whatever the case, you seem pathetic. A person really having this problem would have written that their rabbit gave birth and the father killed the baby. What should you do. But you write "blood dripping...crunch thru the weak new bones.." lmao
I hope YOU are fixed. I pity the poor child raised in your house.

Answer 3

I hate to criticize after you've gone through a traumatic experience like that, but rabbits should be fixed. There's no need to be bringing more rabbits into the world when there's already so many who get dumped in shelters.

As far as animals being cruel, it's not possible. You're attributing a human characteristic to your rabbits that simply isn't there. Rabbits, and most other animals are driven by instinct...not emotion.

I would suggest seperating the mother and babies from the male though, his job was done as soon as he impregnated the female. Maybe you could take him to the vet and get him fixed while the babies get some safe-time with mom.

Answer 4

unfortunately this stuff des happen. I would move the dad to another cage. Do not handle the bunnies until they are grown because the mother will eat them too if there is a new scent on them. Also what may be part of the male bunnys problem is that he is malnourished. This is a very common way for them to get the nutrition that their bodies need. Unfortunately it is just a fact of life.

Answer 5

One never leaves the buck in the cage with a doe with babies. If you would read a book or seeked advice any of us here could tell you this.
He might kill the rest too. In the animal world many males will eat the babies so they can breed again with the female. There are also other reasons. When a child we had a tom cat kill all of a litter so he could breed with our female, got her spayed fooled that tom!
Anyhoo being a breeder is getting to know the critter you are breeding.....

BTW please note; there are many rodents that eat meat and are carnivorous, such critters are rabbits,hamsters,rats,mice there are more.....

Answer 6

well when i had bunnies male and female they had little baby bunnies and i knew when the babies were being born that you had to seperate the daddy from the mommy and the babies because the dad tends to get jelouse...especially when it comes to male bunnies being born...and when he knows its a male he'll eat them...while in the process i had just rememberd about spereation then all of a sudden i hear a wierd noise and i look over to see that one of the bunnies were missing and there was blood and it was a male that he had eaten...............and then when he was attacking another male i reached over almost getting my had ripped off i took the daddy to his cage and locked him up...ur just lucky he didnt eat the mom cuz usually they eat the mom after birth............remember that next time it was so awsum when i saw it but i didnt cry cuz its nuthing new to me...but i did throw up cuz u cud hear all those nasty sounds and then i cryed cuz it ate the baby rite when she was giving birth and i new it was a male cuz i looked when it was comming out...but its so sad imagine if humans did that ewwwww maybe not imagine

Answer 7

Animals are sometimes seen as cruel, but the fact is that the animal kingdom does cleanse the week ones out of the heard so to speak. In the wild, the animals always kill the weekest ones or sometimes just abandon them to die alone or be eaten by the predators out there. It is cruel, but the small one was probably going to die anyway as they see and sense things we do not. It is a sad thing to see and it looks cruel, but the cruelty would be to see this young one die after a week or so in agony as it most likely was going to do if the dad did not kill it right there. Sorry you got to witness this, but life in the wild is real and sometimes cruel as well to be kind.

Answer 8

Not sure what made you think bunnies are always sweet-- to the father, the offspring would be competition-- better put him in a separate cage or the other babies may meet a similar fate. Good Luck!!

Answer 9

Sorry, hon. I'm very, very sorry you had to watch that. I think the problem is that you're applying human standards for behavior to animals. They are them, and we are us. We are the only ones who understand why that is so horrifying, and that places a special burden of responsiblity on our shoulders. I wish cute little baby bunnies didn't have to be eaten by their parents. I wish a lot of things. Let's try to do what we can in the small circles of our lives to be sure no creature suffers needlessly, be it human or otherwise. Let's be different from that.

Answer 10

hopefully this is a serious question, not that i would want that to happen to a bunny. male and female rabbits are supposed to be separated. all the time except for when they are breeding. and at that time the female should go into the males cage. if the male gos into the females cage sometimes the female will attack the male.