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rabbits behavior and nesting

22 9:45:54

Question
I have been watching my rabbits carefully since they have mated.The female is a loinhead drawf mix and the male is drawf. They have been sepreated when I started notcing the female become testy. I am new at this, I have been learning and reading as I go. It's been about three weeks since she started pulling out her fur. I gave her hay and soft saw chippings for extra warmth. I have a wooden hutch with a den. I first put the a nest box which the addimently did not want. I have made the mistake of being to egear. Last week, I let the doe and the male play for a while in the room. They are house trained rabbits. Shortly after I read that I should have not done that because now she is at risk for a second pregancy. I thought they were only to be separted when babies were around. I know better now. She is still eating and drinking regularly. And I felt her somatch the other day and Honestly I can tell. It feels tighter and she feels pregant but I didn't feel anything really. Now she is pulling apart the nest in the den. She is taking everything out and scattering it everywhere in the hutch. Yesturday I cleaned her hutch and place everything back in the den. I checked on her this afternoon for water and food refilling and Everything is pulled out again. Im not sure what's going on. Any advice will be appreciated.

Answer
Dear Mandy,

First and most importantly, please read this:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

What's done is done, though, so please also read:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html

Don't constantly monitor her and follow her. That will cause her stress, and she might harm her babies if she feels threatened.  But for now, separate the male so he cannot get her pregnant within minutes of her giving birth, which is quite possible for him to do.

Have him neutered now so that once he's recovered he can be back with his family without danger of impregnating her again (3-4 weeks), but be sure they can all see/smell each other so they do not "unbond" with fighting upon reintroduction.

I hope this helps.

Dana