Okay so you've read my blog to breed or not to breed (If you haven't please read that one first). You've decided you can handle these possibilities... then keep reading!
Firstly have a backup plan!!! Before you breed think about all the outcomes and be prepared! If the birth goes wrong do you have the money for the vet bills? Do you know how to tell the gender of the babies? If not you'll need the money to take them to a vet to be checked. If the babies don't sell do you have somewhere to put them all as they can't stay with mom too long. TIP- Don't forget at 8 weeks old if they haven't sold you'll need to split the boys and girls up too. Have you done your research? Can you afford to house them before they leave, extra bedding and food? Do you have spare water bottles and bowls to hand? Do you have someone you can turn to to ask for help and advise?
If your happy with all the above and wish to continue to breed its not as easy as people think, you can't just put them together and leave them together until the babies are born. There are ways you will need to do things to mimic wild rabbit behaviour. In the wild the male rabbit will never enter a females burrow hole. Female bunnies are extremely territorial and will fight for the privacy of their personal burrow hole. When you want to breed the pair always take the Doe to the Bucks cage. TIP- Use the bucks cage rather than a neutral space as the Buck can become distracted by scent marking the new territory. Never keep pregnant does with other does as they will start to fight over space and food. The Doe being bred will need her own personal housing.
Once you've placed the doe in the bucks home do not just leave them to get on with it. Wait a while to make sure they don't fight. If the female doesn't want to breed, she won't! If she's running around climbing the walls and avoiding the buck shes not ready to breed. You must remove her straight away or you risk frightening her to the point where she will always refuse to breed. If she's calm or they are chasing eachother in a circle these are good signs. You will need to hang around to insure a successful breed. Your looking to gain 3 'fall offs'. This is where the Doe will lift her bottom up in the air and move her tail to the side the male will then do his thing and literally fall off the doe. This can look like your buck is dead which can be scarey when you first see it. After the first time it becomes rather comical. The buck can fall off in different ways the most common ways are they fall backwards (sometimes while still holding onto the doe so she fall with him), they fall to the side (they may stay in this position for a few minutes) or they fall downwards and become a dead weight on top of the doe (so she can't move). When he falls he will often make a grunting noise, sometimes loud, sometimes quiet but also sometimes no noise is made. Once he's chilled for anything from 1second to 2 minutes he will get up and start thumping the floor and may keep nudging and jumping over the doe. He does this to warn other bucks off and keep the doe where he wants her. As soon as he's ready which can be anything from straight away to 5 minutes later this cycle will happen again. If the doe starts to flatten her body to the floor, back into a corner, climb a wall or run off... she's doesn't want to breed again and must be removed from the bucks home. You want to aim for 3 fall offs as a minimum when possible. Once you have seen/ heard 3 falls offs or can tell she's doesn't want to breed again remove the doe and place her in her own home. Leave her alone now to be calm. I will repeat all of this 12 hours later to heighten the chance of catching and having larger litters. Interesting Fact- Female bunnies do not have a heat cycle the act of breeding causes the doe to ovulate (produce eggs) this usually happens between 12 and 14 hours after breeding therefore rebreeding 12 hours later will heighten chances of bigger litters. Please note that some does will not breed the day after and should be removed straight away.
Once you have had 1-3 fall offs note down your date. Your Doe will give birth between 29 and 33 days after. From experience mine have always been day 30 or 31.
On day 28 of her pregnancy spring clean her home. Remove her, use pet friendly disinfectant and clean the home, bowls and bottles (I use Milton to sterilise my water bottles and food bowls monthly as well as day 28 for pregnant does). I always give a combination of meadow hay and straw on this day as it gives the mom choices to build her nest. I tend to find they will use meadow hay as a base and build the sides with straw. You will find that the pregnant doe will likely start nesting straight away. Don't worry if she had already built a nest, she will rebuild it! It is important to ensure the nest is clean fresh straw as if it is old soild straw it can be hard for the babies to move around inside the nest which can lead to broken limbs. However If she has pulled fur out collect the fur before cleaning and place it back in the same corner once you've cleaned the cage out.
Your doe may pull fur days before birth, minutes before birth or even after birth. On extremely warm days I've known them not pull any at all. If they don't pull any fur after birthing. Hold your doe gently and pull a few tufts of fur from her tummy (edges are usually the easiest) and place it ontop of the nest. This can trigger her to continue. Fur pulling is usually the trigger for the milk to flow. If she still doesn't pull fur out. Ask someone to help and gently lay her upside down on your legs and trim some fur from around her nipples. This helps babies get to the nipples better and you can place this fur in the nest for extra warmth for the babies. If the doe gets too stressed stop and leave her alone. Try again the day after if she hasn't pulled any fur still. If this is happening you may want to be sure your new babies are feeding so try this...
(This should also be done once after birthing to check the babies are all alive and well, minus the weighing part. However I do this daily including weights with all my litters until 2 weeks old and then weekly until 7 weeks) Weight the babies at the same time daily. But...You cant just go ahead and take the babies out the nest there's a way to do it!!! Firstly wash your hands. Then remove mom, place her somewhere she can't see you. When you remove her rub your hands on her fur. Now get a tub or box and line it with a thin layer of clean hay/straw. Gently take the top off the nest and place it to the side. Take each baby out individually and place it into the box. Once your sure the nest is empty, check around the rest of the does home to make sure no one has escaped. Personally I take the babies inside now to carry out the checks as you don't want them getting too cold.
Checking the babies- Check each kit make sure they have no bite marks, both ears, 4 legs and the tail. If they have any feet missing the chances of survival is slim to none, the pain will be too overwhelming and at this age vets can't do anything to help them. đȘ The best thing to do in this case unfortunately is to keep them separate in a carrier box and allow them to die peacefully. If its just a scratch or an ear missing these kits stand every chance of survival, clean the wounds with extremely watered down tcp and an ear bud. Take care not to get it inside ears, nose, mouth, eyes or private areas. Once clean and free from fur and bedding apply a thin layer of sudocrem this helps it to heal faster whilst the tcp kills infection. (Keep doing this twice daily until it is completely scabbed over.) If any babies are feeling lifeless and cold, warm them on a heat pad or hot water bottle with a towel or blanket ontop (if you have young children place the kits that need warming inside a nappy and place ontop of the heat pad the nappy holds the heat). You should see the baby start moving about more. Once your happy they are moving slowly put them back with the other babies and they should be fine. If the baby isn't warming up and isn't moving after 3/4 minutes of been on the heat pad the chances are they are already gone. PLEASE NOTE- SOME BABIES WILL BE COLD AND LOOK DEAD BUT IF YOU GENTLY PULL A LEG OUT AND THEY MOVE IT BACK TOWARDS THEM (EXTREMELY SLOWLY IN SOME CASES) THEY MAY BE BE ABLE TO BE SAVED BY PLACING THEM ON THE HEAT PAD).
Once your happy with all the kits put them back in the nest and replace the top, put 5 black oil sunflower seeds ontop of moms food bowl and then place her back in next to the bowl. She will usually be more interested in eating the seeds then will likely go check her babies before chilling out again. Never give too many Black oil sunflower seeds as they are high in fat, however they are good to support lactating does as rabbit milk is super high in fat!
If your not weighing the babies daily it's worth checking them every few days. If they look wrinkly they aren't being fed. If one looks wrinkly it's not getting past the others. In this case you may need to interveen. If you feel you need to interveen read the post in the forum titled 'breeding tip'. If weighing baby's you only need to interveen if they have lost weight 2 days in a row.
I hope all this information helps. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below and I'll do my best to answer them. Please remember I'm not a vet and have no qualifications my blogs and forum posts are purely research and experience based information. However I will never post anything that I have not gained an understanding of from my own experiences.
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