A few days ago, I noticed that my pregnant doe was starting to pull fur from her neck for her nest. She has a nest box, and I gave her a bunch of straw to put in it, but she moved the straw to just outside the nest box, and mixed her fur into that “nest.”
The next morning, I was feeding the rabbits and heard a squeak. I then saw that the straw in the nest was moving; she had her babies! I have been reluctant to check on them, because I was nervous that I may make the mother freak out and kill them; then today I read that you should check on them right away in case there are any dead babies. After reading that, I went out and checked. I believe they are all alive – we have 6-8 babies. They were pretty squirmy and hairless, but all moving around. They are all about 3 days old today. It was a bit hard to get a picture because they are so squirmy, but here is one:
Here’s mama – she didn’t seem to be too upset that I checked out her babies.
Here’s the father rabbit:
Here is our other doe:
We gave the other doe and the buck each a nest box as well, just because we thought it may help them keep warm as our weather gets colder. It has been cooling down lately. Yesterday it was very windy and we actually had some snow come down, but the snow melted as it hit the ground. We’re also planning on putting some tarps up around the hutch to block the wind. I think I may wait to mate the rabbits anymore till spring. I don’t think the white doe is pregnant – she was with both the buck and the other doe on the way home, when I was bringing them to my house, but I think they were all too scared to get down to business. I will wait and see though.
My tiny u.p. farm 