My rabbit had babies tonight, its four of them. But when i feel her belly there is at least two more babies,?

Question

and they seem alive and moving and fully grown. Will birth go on longer than a day? Is it separate pregnancies?

Also the babies have very different sizes, two are huge and two are small. The smaller ones seem much colder, will they die? Also they seem to not have gotten food, i know rabbits dont feed their babies often, but they seem dehydrated (the colder ones) and wrinkley. If i touch them they will immideatly look for food and make noises, the bigger ones seem content.

The mother has not made a nest until now, the day after, and she seem confused somehow, she does not keep the babies in the nest, they are spread out all over the cage, while she herself sits in the nest that she made.

My rabbit is very tame, she lets me hold her, and she comes to me, and she do want to protect her kids. If the cold babies get worse, is it possible to hold her and let it eat? its desperatly trying to. Or should i just let nature take care of it, and it possibly dies?

Answer 1

Well first if this is her first birthing than she's going to be confused, try getting all the kits together towards her and see if she'll allow them to feed from her in the nest. As for the babies still in her give it a day if nothing happens call your vet and you're there get emergency feeding kits from either your vet or your pet store. is an Esbilac Emergency feeding kit. It is a milk replacement pack that can work for a number of animal types, including baby rabbits.

I would also pick up Bene-bac pet gel as well, as this contains healthy live bacteria that the rabbits will need to have 'take up house' in their GI tracts to help them be able to eat properly and produce proper hard and soft pellets (and avoid diarrhea). You could also get some acidophilus capsules and give that to them when they hit several weeks old and start trying out solids.

For now, basically you can leave them in their nest mama made (hopefully) of her fur and hay. If not they need to be in a nest like that, or if there is nothing left, a nice box and make a nest of t-shirts or warmer/softer items you have around - you don't have to bury them, but they should be partially covered and they should be next to each other as much as possible (snuggly) to share body warmth. They won't move too much, but you will need to check on them regularly to make sure one hasn't been left on their own and gets too cold and dies.

Answer 2

Having babies in the womb hours after most of the litter is unusual. Give her some time alone; she might have gotten nervous and stopped temporarily. If your rabbit doesn't give birth to the remaining kittens in a few hours, it's time to go to a vet who knows rabbits. Pregnancy is very dangerous, and anything odd like this is a bad sign.
Is your rabbit a dwarf breed, like a Netherland Dwarf or Holland Lop? If so, that would explain the two different sizes in the litter. The two huge ones would be normal-sized rabbits, and the small ones would be dwarfs.
Another possibility is that the doe became pregnant in both horns of her uterus, and one litter is a different age than the other. Always keep the buck and doe separated after the first mating so this won't happen.
Do your best to keep all the babies in the nest, where they will be warm. It's best not to touch the doe at all her first day, but since yours is apparently clueless, she might need a little micromanagement. Is the nest box too big? She might have decided it's too comfortable to leave to the litter.
In the wild, rabbits nurse their young once or twice a day. Otherwise, they stay away from the nest, eating so they can make milk.
You can build a nest in the box, then gently set the doe in it and hold her there. You might need to guide the weaker kittens to her nipples. When all the rabbits can find milk for themselves--because the weak ones got stronger or died off--you can try putting the nest back with the doe full-time.
Don't try feeding the babies yourself. You're just going to drown them. It took me at least a dozen tries to figure this out. If they need help, keep them warm, at around 98 degrees, until the mother is ready to nurse.
You will probably lose a lot of the litter. First-time does like yours simply don't know what they're doing, and rabbit kittens are born very fragile. Keep an eye on the doe, and get her to the vet early if you're willing to pay for a possible C-section; still having kittens in her womb is very worrying.

Answer 3

It sounds like she is having trouble taking care of her litter. It is possible for part of her litter to still be inside her, but that is a rarity. How high of a front do you have on the nest box? You should have at least 4-6" so the babies can't jump out. The front of the nest box should be about 2-3" higher than the nesting straw inside. Straw works best because it has little odor. Beddings that have odor don't work well for nestboxes because the does will often scatter the litter due to the smell. Never use moldy or musty smelling nestbox bedding. Dig kind of a little hole in the center of the nestbox and pull fur out of the doe if she hasn't pulled fur like she should to cover the babies. She shouldn't be sitting in the nestbox all the time. She should be doing that very rarely. If she is sitting in the nestbox all of the time there is a problem or you put the nestbox in too soon. They only feed their babies about once or twice a day. Most likely she is not producing enough milk for the runt babies. Many breeders will kill off the runts so the rest of the litter will do better. Breeders that raised marked breeds will kill off a number of the poorly marked babies before runts start becoming evident due to the babies not getting milked properly. Normally a breeder can tell or keep track of how many babies a doe can handle. If any of the babies die, remove them ASAP. The stench may cause here to quit milking them.

Also, you don't want to put the nestbox in too early. No more than 2 days before she is due to have them. Putting it in too early can cause here to pee and poop in it and to want to sit in it all the time, which she shouldn't. The warmth of the babies laying together under ther mother's pulled fur is what should keep them warm, not the mother sitting on top of them.

The nestbox floor should have holes in it to allow any urine that the mother pees in it to drain out. The build up of urine in the nestbox can cause ammonia to build up in the nestbox, creating a stench an possibly causing the mother to not milk like she should. Pegboard works great as a bottom for nestboxes.

To help her milk better, you can try adding a tablespoon of Calf Manna a day to her rabbit pellets. It will provide her with more protein and help her to milk a little better. Calf Manna is given to cows and you can probably pick it up at your local Co-op or feed store.

Answer 4

She is an animal and knows what she needs to do to guard her youthful. If she does not choose a nest, she won't make one. there's no longer something you're able to do to alter that. she will guard her youthful. basically relax somewhat and permit nature take it quite is direction. Please look at my YouTube channel for destiny reference.