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californian doe due to kindle

22 10:13:36

Question
Ms. Lodi is 9 months old.  This will be the second time I bred her.  First litter; she gave birth to 5 bunnies.  She had them on the wire.  I put a very small litter box filled with soft straw and tim. hay and made a nest and put the five healthy bunnies in it.  The next morning she had tipped the litter box over so the babies were inside and she could not get at them and they died of exposure.  Re-bred her five days later.  Brings us to today, day 29 and she is huge.  She wants nothing inside her cage where there is a divider and so called nesting spot.She gets all snortty and aggressive if I stick anything in their right now.  I have fur and timothy hay on hand to make a nest in their for her.  Her cage is in the basement under a soft light and warm and dry.  Feed her this am and noticed a bloddy discharge from anal area and vaginal area is slightly swollen--eating and drinking fine-no diarrhea.  Any suggestions or help here would be appreciated.  Is she going to abort?  What else can I do to help this birth be successfull?  thank you  Jane  (buck is a pedigreed black new zealand 10 months old-am trying to start to raise rabbits again

Answer
Hello Jane!
well I am glad to here you are really on top of your does health and know so much about her situation.
I have had doe`s like her. It would be good to get a heavy wooden nest box in her cage ASAP and you could put the hay & fur in it with hopes she will use it.
It seems like she has her mind made up about what is to be in her cage and she seem like she knows where she it to have the litter.
SO my advise would be to line the entire cage with some old feed bags or some sheet rock ( it is very absorbant) or many layers of news paper. then put the hay on that  and hope she does not dig & scratch through the coverings. then she  can have the babies any where she wants and tehy will have a warm dry place then you can put in the fur and they should be Ok!
I have done this and the doe turned out to be a good mom. it only take sone good litter to form a routine for the doe to make a good nest.
Good luck and really keep a eye on her as she starts to kindle . it will usually take about 30 -45- min. then you can check on them and keep the in the nest.
Let me know how it all works out.
Dan