1 day old rabbits

Question
QUESTION: I have a female rabbit who gave birth and I didn't know she did, so I'm pretty sure she is stressed. When she gave birth unexpectedly for me, she was in the same cage with the male. When I took a look, I separated the babies from the mother and cleaned the cage. Now my question is, is it safe to put the mother back with the babies after being stressed out. I put the babies in the clean cage into the nest filled with hay, however I'm scared of putting back the mother because she might eat them or step on them. I tried putting her in for only 5 seconds and then I panicked because her mouth was getting at the baby. But I wasn't sure if she was going to eat them or what. I feel very unsafe to put the mother in. What do I do??? =,(

ANSWER: Dear Abigail,

This should give you all the information you need to help mama and babies:

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

I hope they will be fine.  But mama may already be pregnant again, as this article above explains.

Dana

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QUESTION: The mother is totally aggressive with the babies and stomps all over them. She ate one of the 6 pups. I have 4 left and another died from being stomped all over on. It is her first litter so I'm sure she's confused. However, I have 4 kits left that are about 1 day old. I have fed them 2 cc of KMR twice. As of now, they do not have round bellies as they should have them. They're warm, however I know that they are lacking the nutrients they really need. I don't know what to do anymore. Do I just try and continue to feed them the KMR and hope for the best that they gain weight? I really want these 4 kits to grow and survive which I know is rare in cases where they have to be hand-fed. It makes me sad. Please help, I've read almost everything on the internet and the vets here are limited. I am from Guam and it is a very small island. They are not very knowledgeable. What do I do? I need an alternative I can try to do by myself without the vet.

Answer
Hi, Abigail

I am sorry about the mama being stressed and aggressive.  Please read this for all the help you will need to raise the babies:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

This also has some helpful information:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/orphan.html

Good luck!

Dana