Experts believe that the main reason that the queen kills her rabbits is her lack of milk. And this, in turn, becomes a consequence, first of all, of improper feeding. At one time, a female rabbit can bring up to 16 cubs. Consequently, during the gestation period she simply needs great amount nutrients. Therefore, the animal must receive crushed barley or oatmeal, root vegetables and hay in sufficient quantities. Of course, all food fed to a pregnant female must be of high quality and fresh.
Another reason that a female rabbit ate baby rabbits could be such an unpleasant disease as mastitis. The uterus is always in a state of stress after giving birth. And any discomfort can cause aggressive behavior. Experiencing pain when feeding, the animal simply gets rid of its source. To prevent this from happening, the farmer needs to carefully monitor the cleanliness of the cage. The bedding of a pregnant and lactating rabbit should be changed as often as possible.
Very often, the answer to the question of why a mother rabbit eats baby rabbits is the lack of water in the drinking bowl during childbirth. During birth, the queen drinks a lot. Lack of water often causes aggressive behavior. In addition, without a sufficient amount of fluid, the uterus may not lactation. It is not difficult to determine that a female rabbit will soon begin labor. You need to fill the drinking bowl with water and add another one immediately after a lot of fluff appears in the cage. Its presence is the main sign that the female rabbit will most likely have offspring by the morning.
Rarely, but still sometimes a female rabbit eats baby rabbits also because of the loud noise during childbirth or immediately after it. Rabbits are shy animals. They tolerate sharp shocks especially poorly. loud sounds. Frightened and losing control of herself, the rabbit may temporarily lose maternal instinct and just get rid of the babies.
It also happens that the queen gnaws the litter due to an unfamiliar smell. For example, an animal can eat its offspring if its cubs are touched by a person unfamiliar to it. Therefore, only the farm owner himself should check the nest after birth. That is, the person whose responsibilities include feeding the animal. Sometimes queens get rid of rabbits because there is a cage with another female nearby. Rabbits with litters have a very strongly developed territorial instinct and the smell of someone else's womb will certainly cause aggressive behavior.
The queen can also bite her rabbits if she feels that there is too little space in the cage for her and the babies. Rabbits do this rarely. But sometimes this still happens. Therefore, the farmer must follow the rules for keeping animals regarding the size of their cages. Also, the reason for eating the cubs can be a lack of food. Rabbits are smart animals, and in nature they instinctively independently regulate the size of the herd. The same thing can happen in a cell.
Owners of rabbit farms sometimes become eyewitnesses to the fact that a female rabbit has eaten baby rabbits. They are perplexed why this happens, because it is known that these animals have a well-developed maternal instinct, and cannibalism for them is rather the exception than the norm. It turns out that there are many reasons why a mother rabbit eats, crushes, or scatters her babies. They will be discussed in this article.
Reasons for eating newborn rabbits
Immediately after giving birth, the mother rabbit usually licks her cubs and begins to take care of them - feeding them milk. However, in some cases, the female may eat the offspring or part of it. Let's look at the reasons why this happens:
- Thirst. After birth, the animal needs large quantities water. If she is not in the drinking bowl, the female rabbit eats the babies. In this way she quenches her thirst.
- Lack of vitamins in the body. If during pregnancy the female did not eat well and lacks nutrients, she may eat the offspring.
- Poor diet or lack of food after birth. The female cannot feed the offspring if she herself does not receive food in the required amount, then she destroys the entire offspring or part of it even 3-7 days after birth.
- Stillborn or weak cubs. If the rabbits have no chance to survive or are born dead, the female eats them. It's an innate instinct.
- Great shock. Rabbits are sensitive animals. If a female has her first birth, this is a huge stress for her. Due to inexperience, she may eat the offspring to get rid of the smell of the rabbits in the nest.
- Heavy birth. Rarely, but still occur in rabbits difficult birth. Then the female helps the cubs emerge from the birth canal with the help of her teeth. She literally pulls them out. If a baby rabbit has no ears or limbs, this indicates a difficult birth.
Attention! Some animals eat their babies after the first birth. Usually this does not happen in the future. If the situation repeats, such a rabbit is discarded.
Why does a mother rabbit crush her babies?
Some farmers notice that one or more crushed cubs lie near the female rabbit after giving birth. Typically, this situation occurs if the cage is too crowded for a mother and children or there is no nest equipped. Severe fright often leads to the female trampling her rabbits. Trying to protect her offspring from attack or other danger, the mother rabbit leans on the babies and crushes them. As a result, some babies may die.
To prevent this situation from recurring, it is necessary to provide the pregnant female with a spacious home and help her equip the maternity ward, a nest where the offspring will be located after birth. The rabbit family is protected from loud, sharp sounds; other animals are not allowed near the cage - cats or dogs, which could frighten the new mother rabbit.
How to prevent eating?
If once a mother rabbit killed her babies, this does not mean that this will happen all the time. This problem can be prevented in the following ways:
- At the final stage of pregnancy and after giving birth in a drinking bowl, the female should always have access to drinking water. It must be changed regularly for a clean one.
- During pregnancy, the animal is provided good nutrition, including vitamins, minerals and trace elements. A poor diet affects the health of the rabbit, which can subsequently lead to the birth of dead babies or their eating.
- It is important to monitor the female’s nutrition even after giving birth. Lack of food leads to decreased milk production. When a mother rabbit eats her babies, she not only makes up for the lack of food, but also regulates the number of babies, leaving as many as she can feed.
The problem of the female's inexperience will go away on its own. Most likely, during the next birth, the animal will take on maternal responsibilities and begin to care for the offspring. If in the future she begins to destroy cubs, it is better to cull her and not allow her to mate.
The farmer cannot help if the birth is difficult. In this case, the animal independently helps itself, acting as its natural instinct dictates. If a female rabbit injures babies during childbirth, when she pulls them out of the birth canal with her teeth, this does not mean that she bad mother, because she doesn’t kill her rabbits.
Why does a mother rabbit scatter her babies?
Scattering of baby rabbits is another common problem faced by farmers. In this case, the cubs are not destroyed, but are left without maternal attention and care. The mother rabbit simply does not want to feed them and throws them out of the nest. For what reasons does this happen:
- First litter, inexperience of the female. She cannot understand her new role.
- Changing the cage shortly before birth.
- The rabbit did not have time to prepare the nest.
- After giving birth, the female went into heat.
- There is not enough milk in the mammary glands.
- Pain during feeding. This happens with mastitis.
- Someone picked up newborns. The animal senses a foreign smell and does not recognize its rabbits.
- Stressful situation. After the first birth, the animal experiences stress, which can affect her maternal feelings.
- The birth of stillborn or non-viable babies.
How to solve a problem?
Having noticed that the rabbit throws the cubs out of the nest, you need to make sure that they are alive. Dead individuals are removed from the cage. If everything is fine with the babies, then it is worth examining the rabbit to see if she is sick or has developed mastitis. If inflammation is detected on one or more nipples, the animal must be treated.
Attention! With mastitis, the nipple increases in size, turns red, becomes hard and painful, and pus is often released from it.
Arrangement of the nest
If at the time of birth the nest was not equipped, help the rabbit with this. Otherwise, she will take care of the arrangement herself, dig hay, rush around the cage, and as a result of such actions, the offspring may suffer. Hay and mother's down are placed in the compartment for babies. If the female did not have time to pinch it, do it for her.
Newborn rabbits should not be handled, otherwise a foreign smell will remain on them. If there is a need to take them, wear gloves. You can return the babies to the nest without fear if you rub them with mother's fluff first.
Reference. Some farmers suggest rubbing wormwood on babies. The aroma of this herb can muffle all other odors.
The rabbit is in the hunt
A female rabbit scatters her babies if she is in a state of sexual arousal or hunting. This is easy to determine: inspect its loop. If it's bright pink and swollen, that's it. Other signs of excitement:
- throwing around the cage;
- loss of appetite;
- arching of the back when touched;
- aggression.
Observing a similar picture, it is better to place the female rabbit next to the rabbit. After mating, she will calm down and begin to fulfill her maternal duties. During her absence, caring for the rabbits will fall on the farmer's shoulders.
Force feeding
Experienced rabbit breeders recommend trying to force a mother rabbit to feed her babies. To do this, babies are applied to the nipples one at a time, holding the mother on her side. Most often, after 3-4 forced attachments, the female accepts the babies. However, sometimes no measures help solve the problem.
Finding a wet nurse or feeding yourself
If the mother rabbit stubbornly refuses to accept her cubs and feed them, then the farmer has 2 options:
- find a nurse for newborns among other recently born animals;
- feed the rabbits yourself using a pipette or syringe without a needle.
In order for the nurse to accept other people's cubs as her own, they need to be placed in the nest correctly. To do this, the foster mother is removed from the cage for a while. They take its fluff and rub it on the abandoned rabbits. Then the fosterlings are placed directly in the center of the new nest, with their own rabbits. After 30-40 minutes, you can let the foster mother into the cage. If she doesn’t discover the catch, she will feed other people’s rabbits.
If a wet nurse could not be found, then the farmer will have to take care of the newborns. They must receive milk within the first 24 hours after birth, otherwise they will die. What to feed them:
- goat milk;
- dry milk mixtures for dogs or cats;
- cow's milk with the addition of 30% condensed milk.
So, rabbits eat their babies, crush them or scatter them around various reasons. This behavior does not always indicate a lack of maternal qualities in the animal. In most cases, this occurs due to poor nutrition, lack of water, physiological characteristics of the animal’s body, or some instincts. To avoid such problems, it is important to provide the female rabbit with normal living conditions during pregnancy and after birth and help her in arranging the nest.
When breeding rabbits, novice farmers are often faced with a situation where the female begins to eat or trample her offspring. It would be useful for any rabbit breeder to know why a mother rabbit eats her babies.
Like all animals, rabbits have maternal instincts. Approximately 3-5 days before giving birth, the female begins to build a nest. To create it, she uses grass and even plucks her own fluff. To help her in this difficult task, livestock breeders often put an additional portion of grass and dry feathers in the cage.
When the birth begins, the female rabbit helps the newborns free themselves from the amniotic membrane, and also bites their umbilical cord. After the birth of the cubs, the female rabbit may be indifferent to small squeaking lumps during the daytime. She behaves in such a way as not to attract unnecessary attention to the nest.
You can make sure that the female does not intend to start cannibalism by appearance kids. If newborn rabbits are hidden from prying eyes in a nest and sleep all together, this indicates that they are well-fed and do not need anything.
Hungry babies will squeak and crawl around the nest. At the same time, their bellies will be empty and their skin will be wrinkled. Well-fed babies look like inflated “balls”. Their skin on their bellies is straightened and smooth. Fed offspring most will sleep during the day.
Why does a mother rabbit eat her babies?
Despite the presence of maternal instinct, it is not uncommon for rabbits to eat their own rabbits. A female may eat her babies for a variety of reasons. Most often, the reason for cannibalism lies in the fact that the rabbit is in unsuitable conditions for raising offspring or is under severe stress. Also, the answer to the question why a rabbit eats its young may lie in the following points:
- the female’s body lacks water or nutrients. In order to give birth and feed offspring, the animal must receive all the necessary substances and water;
- The female rabbit bears offspring for the first time. In this case, she is too diligent in caring for the babies. If in the process of grooming she even slightly damages the delicate skin of the cub, the mother can eat it at the sight of even a small drop of blood;
- the birth of a large number of babies (more than 8 pieces). In this case, the female can eat several cubs so that the remaining ones have the opportunity to fully feed;
- disruption of milk production. It can be either little or much. In the latter case, the nipples become rough and mastitis may develop. Moreover, this happens even if each little rabbit actively sucks the nipple.
If the mother ate only part of the rabbits, then they may have been born dead. Animals eat dead offspring so that the smell of decomposition does not attract the attention of predators.
To determine the reason for the inappropriate behavior of the female rabbit and prevent the death of the babies, the female must be constantly monitored after giving birth.
Why does a female trample and scatter her rabbits?
If the mother rabbit does not eat the babies, she may push them off the edge or throw them. She may also begin to throw them out of the nest and trample on them.
The female rabbit begins to scatter her offspring around the cage or trample them due to the fact that these animals are ready for mating immediately after giving birth. This inappropriate behavior is a consequence of hormonal imbalance, which leads to the release of certain hormones into the blood. As a result, the female, instead of the maternal instinct, experiences a desire to reproduce.
To normalize her behavior, the female rabbit is placed with a male. Otherwise, her offspring may suffer greatly, or even die. After mating, the mother’s behavior becomes adequate and she begins to care for her children.
A young rabbit who has given birth for the first time can also begin to behave inappropriately. The animal can be very stressed due to a change in environment, increased attention from the owner and the appearance of small squeaking lumps in the cage.
Knowing why a mother rabbit eats her babies or tramples them, you can try to correct her behavior and save her offspring from death.
Breeding rabbits is considered very profitable from the point of view of their high fertility, rapid growth and high cost of rabbit meat. They are often very peaceful and friendly animals. However, there are cases when the cruelty of the eared ones is simply amazing. If a female rabbit ate baby rabbits, this confuses many novice farmers, although cannibalism in long-eared rabbits is a fairly common occurrence. The causes and methods of dealing with the problem are described below.
Why does a mother rabbit eat her babies and how to deal with it
Probably everyone who has encountered a problem has thought about the reasons for its occurrence. Why do rabbits eat their babies? Most likely, the first thing farmers pay attention to is the diet of their charges, and this is absolutely correct, but there are other nuances. If the rabbit ate the baby rabbits, the reasons may lie in the following:
- Poor nutrition and poor care- the main explanation for why rabbits eat their babies. After giving birth, the mother becomes very thirsty and also needs a lot of minerals and protein. If the owners forget to supply water or replace it with fresh water, the female can quickly make short work of her children.
- Lack of milk from the nursing mother or insufficient quantity. The female can immediately reduce the number of children in order to survive the remaining ones.
- The last and also very common reason why a female rabbit eats baby rabbits is disposal of dead cubs. Long-eared rodents, being very timid animals, give birth at the quietest time of day (at night or early in the morning). In this regard, the farmer may simply not find out about the birth of dead animals, but record the fact of eating the young
Methods to combat cannibalism in rabbits
In addition to obvious cannibalism, rabbits can eat different parts of the body of their relatives; for example, they quite often like to gnaw each other’s ears. To prevent rabbit cannibalism, you must strictly adhere to the feeding regime and diet. If this does not help, then fumaric acid is added to the food - 100 kg per 1 ton of feed mixture.
Rabbit with rabbits
Why did the mother rabbit scatter the newborn rabbits?
In addition to eating babies, female rabbits very often scatter their newborn babies. This is often accompanied by a lack of appetite adult. The main reasons why a mother rabbit could scatter her newborn rabbits:
- poor conditions for living in a cage;
- the female determines that the babies are sick and will not survive;
- the mother is young and inexperienced;
- mastitis began;
- the female continues to estrus;
- little milk;
- problems with psychological state;
- the rabbit believes that the owners are behaving incorrectly towards her;
- The cubs fall out of the nest after finishing feeding.
Important! You should not touch small rabbits with your hands; a human smell will remain on their fur (fluff), which the rabbit does not like, and as a result, she may throw the baby rabbit away.
If we consider these reasons, then first of all you need to pay attention to the microclimate in the cage. According to the animal, it can be very dirty, hot or cold, humid, and dangerous.
Low temperature in the cages contributes to the development of mastitis in the rabbit. Due to this, it is painful for her to feed her rabbits, and she may refuse to feed them altogether. The same situation arises when the mother has little milk and the rabbits suckle her for a long time. As a result, the nipples begin to hurt, and as a result, the mother may throw the babies out of the nest.
In addition, newborns may be affected by low temperature. They become passive, move little, and the mother, in turn, considers them incompetent and begins to weed them out from the general litter. However, sometimes the rabbit deliberately weeds out the obviously weak babies, and continues to carefully care for the rest.
A few days after giving birth, the female rabbit may begin to estrus. At the same time, she loses all maternal instincts, and, as a result, the rabbits are left without care and are simply scattered around the cage. Signs of sexual heat are marks, being in an excited restless state, moving the butt back when touched, etc.
The above signs of rabbit scattering can be eliminated or cured. But if the problem is in the rabbit’s psyche and she begins to behave inappropriately for no reason, then there is only one way out - to kill the animal, because she will only bring harm to everyone in the cage with her. As a rule, nervous and mentally unbalanced individuals are identified even before birth, which allows appropriate measures to be taken. It is better to immediately remove nervous female rabbits from the list of mothers and not allow them to reproduce.
If the nursing mother is in heat, you can place her with the rabbit or separate her for a day from the offspring. After that, return it to its place and see if the attitude has changed. If everything remains at the same level, then you will have to look for another nursing rabbit for the babies.
Important! A couple of weeks before giving birth, it is not recommended to move the rabbit to another cage. A few weeks before the birth, you need to make a house for the nest in the cage so that the expectant mother begins to furnish it with fluff from her skin.
It is worth remembering that after the birth of offspring, a nursing mother should have a lot clean water and fresh food. If the mother rabbit begins to scatter the newborn rabbits, they should be collected back into the nest and covered with down. If the rabbit repeated this again, you should look for a new nurse. However, there are times when another rabbit refuses to feed. With this option, you need to feed the young animals yourself. For this purpose, pipettes are used, through which a mixture of milk (3 parts) and condensed milk (1 part) is fed. You need to feed every 2-3 hours for about 3 weeks, after which the babies can feed on their own.
Reasons for abandoning rabbits
There are basically two reasons for female rabbits abandoning their offspring:
- transition to a state of sexual hunting;
- inflammation of the mammary glands.
What to do if the mother rabbit abandoned her babies?
As a rule, all rabbits that are pregnant or have just given birth go into a state of hunting. However, for some this occurs almost unnoticed, while for others it occurs very violently. In this case, the female rabbit behaves inappropriately, stops eating, does not take care of the nest, etc. The solution to this problem is to place her in the rabbit’s care, and after covering, keep her in a cage separate from the rabbits for 12-24 hours. After this, she can be placed to the nest for the offspring. This behavior most often manifests itself in young individuals for whom this is their first litter. Older female rabbits tolerate the natural need more tolerably and rarely begin hunting in the stormy stage after childbirth.
The rabbit abandoned the babies
As for the second problem with the mammary glands, it may appear if a small amount of milk is sucked out of a nursing rabbit. The mammary gland becomes inflamed and it is painful for the mother to feed her babies. At first the gland simply turns red, then the area of redness increases and the nipple becomes hard. At the initial stage of inflammation of the mammary gland, you need to independently seat the rabbits to the nipples and press them against them. They will begin to suck milk, and thereby massage the nipples.
Important! If the mammary glands are already very inflamed, you should consult a veterinarian.
Most often, female rabbits feed their offspring 2 times a day, and then at a certain time. They rarely have a third meal. They eat early in the morning and in the evening; most likely, they will not start lunch in the middle of a noisy day. If there are always people near the cages (children especially like to crowd around) and it is very noisy there, then the animal gets scared and may begin to throw the cubs out of the nest. You also need to make sure that the babies are together, since when they lie separately, they become cold and digestion of food slows down. Sometimes a bottle of warm (not hot) water is used to provide extra warmth for babies.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that the most important thing for the normal functioning of rabbits is a strict diet, plenty of clean water, and care for their habitat. The calmness of the animals will also be important, i.e. the cages should be located in quiet places so that female rabbits can safely breed and raise their offspring. Particular attention should be paid to expectant young mothers who are preparing for childbirth, to prevent the development of mastitis in nursing mothers. You need to understand that preventing diseases in rabbits is much easier than treating them, and this simply requires constant supervision and care of the animals.
Content:
Rabbits are prolific animals; their ability to reproduce has long been legendary. Females are wonderful, caring mothers, but sometimes situations arise when a female rabbit simply eats her children. This behavior is not normal for an animal, and therefore the breeder needs to understand the reasons leading to tragic consequences.
Maternal instinct in female rabbits
A few days before the birth of the young, the female begins to prepare for this event by collecting suitable material, from which the nest will be made. These are particles of hay, straw, leaves from branch food, and fluff plucked from oneself. At the moment the baby rabbits are born, a caring mother bites their umbilical cord and also helps them free themselves from the amniotic sac.
Some farmers become concerned if the female is indifferent to her rabbits during the daytime. But such worries are in vain: obeying instinct, the mother tries to attract as little attention as possible from strangers to the nest where the children are.
To reassure, the owner can carefully look into the house and make sure that everything is in order inside. Baby rabbits should be in the nest and fast asleep. This behavior indicates their satiety. Hungry young animals crawl around the nest and squeak restlessly. In such animals skin wrinkled on the bellies. Well-fed rabbits have smooth skin, without folds in the tummy area, and the babies spend most of their time sleeping.
Why can a female eat her offspring?
The first thing after giving birth is that the mother rabbit licks and feeds the young. But it also happens that the female partially or completely eats the offspring. There may be several reasons, here are the main ones:
- There is not enough water in the cell. After giving birth, the female needs drinking water to quench thirst, and in large quantities. If there is not enough liquid, then the female rabbit begins to eat the offspring and thus quenches her own thirst.
- Avitaminosis. During the prenatal period, female rabbits should be provided with a complete diet that will satisfy all the body’s needs for vitamin and mineral complexes. Poor nutrition leads to the fact that the female replenishes nutrients by eating the offspring.
- Poor diet and lack of feed after birth. The mother rabbit will not be able to feed her cubs if she does not receive food in the right quantity. Lack of food leads to the destruction of all or some part of the offspring a few days after birth.
- The birth of weak or stillborn rabbits. If such animals have no chance of survival (or are already born dead), then the rabbit eats them. This is a manifestation of innate instinct.
- Stressful situation. Rabbit is an animal with hypersensitivity, and therefore some primiparous females experience severe shock after giving birth and, out of inexperience, eat rabbits in order to destroy their smell in their own nest.
- Heavy births. Sometimes (very rarely) the birth process may come with some complications, then the mother rabbit will help the babies leave birth canal, using his teeth and pulling them out into the light. Such assistance often ends in the absence of limbs or ears in young animals.
Worth knowing. There are females who eat their first litter, and then don’t do this anymore and become excellent mothers. But if the situation repeats, this female rabbit must be culled from the reproductive herd.
Refusal of female rabbits from young animals
Some mothers ignore their children who try to remind her of their existence by squeaking. The rabbit goes to the far corner of the cage and pretends that she doesn’t hear anything.
The manifestation of this behavior is typical for primiparous rabbits, for whom childbirth is a strong stress and a sharp change in the usual life cycle. Before giving birth, the female can be transplanted into a larger cage with conditions different from the old ones. If the owner frequently inspects the nesting house, the female may begin to perceive it as a threat to her life. In the presence of extraneous sounds, the female rabbit becomes completely lost and begins to ignore her offspring.
Being in a stressful situation, the female will refuse to care for the rabbits; the feeling of fear will completely drown out the maternal instinct.
Problems with milk production can also become a reason for abandonment of offspring. Here the female rabbit can act in two ways: simply not notice the young or eliminate the cause of the discomfort by eating the young.
If you refuse to feed your rabbits, you need to figure out the reasons for the situation as soon as possible and take measures to correct them, otherwise the litter will die.
Daily change of bedding and constant intervention of the farmer in the life of the female can lead to the fact that she simply stops caring for the offspring. Performing this function is possible only in a calm and familiar environment, and therefore the owner is not recommended to disturb the animal and newborn young without special reasons.
The female tramples her offspring: what is the reason
Some breeders are faced with a different problem: an adult female tramples the rabbits. She can run around the perimeter of the nesting house and not pay any attention to the fact that she is trampling on her children. In addition, the female rabbit refuses to feed the offspring, can scatter the little rabbits throughout the cage, and display aggression and restless behavior.
Here the reason may be that the individual came into heat immediately after giving birth. Inappropriate behavior is the result of hormonal imbalance and a sharp release of hormones in circulatory system. In this case, the female must be covered in as soon as possible, until she completely harmed her children. After mating, the female rabbit begins to behave much calmer, and her maternal instinct awakens.
How to deal with problems
Of course, the above behavior of female rabbits causes damage to rabbit farming. To avoid losses or minimize them, it is worth understanding ways to prevent the situations described above. Details in the following table:
| Problem name | Solutions |
|
| Eating offspring | Lack of water, vitamin deficiency, poor quality feeding, stillbirth, weak offspring, stress, difficult birth | Monitoring the amount of water in drinking bowls, providing a complete diet before and after childbirth |
| Scattering baby rabbits | Inexperience of the female rabbit associated with the first birth, transfer to a new cage, lack of a nesting house, coming into heat, lack of milk, mastitis, the presence of a foreign odor (the owner took the rabbits in his hands), stressful situations, stillbirth | Inspecting the nest to identify stillborn rabbits and their removal from the cage, examining the female rabbit for her health and the possible appearance of mastitis. If detected, urgent treatment is required* |
| Trampling the offspring | Insufficient space in the cage, coming into heat, stressful situation, lack of a nesting house | Selecting a cage of sufficient size, installing a nesting house, covering the female, eliminating stressful situations |
*mastitis is detected by the presence of an enlarged nipple, redness, hardness, pain upon examination and purulent discharge.
How to properly arrange a nesting house
A few days before the birth, it is necessary to install a special box in the cage, which will act as a nest, where the birth will occur. The bottom is lined with straw or hay in sufficient quantities. As a rule, females also add their own down for insulation. If for some reason the rabbit did not do this, then such work is assigned to the farmer.
It is strictly forbidden to pick up young animals that have just been born, otherwise the rabbits will acquire an alien odor, which can provoke aggression from the female. If it is necessary to examine the babies, you need to wear gloves, and in order for the mother to accept them, the rabbits should be rubbed with the female's down.
Instead of fluff, wormwood can be used: the smell of this herb drowns out everything else.
What to do if you have mastitis
If mastitis is detected, the following measures must be taken:
- Separate the mother rabbit from the babies.
- The young animals are completely cleared of the female's fluff and transplanted to another rabbit, having previously placed the fluff on the "adopted" children.
- Treatment of a sick rabbit until complete recovery.
- Conducting test feeding by the mother of the cubs and observing behavior.
Forced feeding is acceptable, in some cases it leads to positive results:
- the assistant holds the female, pressing her to the floor, thereby preventing her from crushing the rabbits;
- the owner places the young animals at the teats for feeding.
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