moving a nest

Question
Hi,

I have two mini lop rabbits (suppose to be the same sex but they aren't) that live in a large tile floored room in my house.  This morning when I went to check on them the female was tearing up news paper and gathering it along with straw and building a nest in one corner of the room.  Am I able to move her nest to a more suitable location or will she just build it again in the original spot on the cold tiles?  Also how long is it likely to be until she actually gives birth? I am also hastily building a hutch so I can seperate the male for the safety of the babies.  The male rabbit gets fairly agitated when away from the female for too long as they have not been apart since the male was eight weeks and the female was about 12 weeks.  How long will I have to keep them apart so he won't hurt the babies?  I will be getting him nuetered before returning him to her.

Answer
Okay, first off it sounds like your going in the right direction with seperating them, however if she has started nest building I would guess it would be anywhere from a day to a week or a bit over, the bad thing with first time moms is some of them start nesting at 2wks along and some don't until right before, what i suggest you do, is if possible put her in a like a super pet cage, or something similar, give her a nest box (can be a shoe box, just something to give her a place to make her nest) give her paper, straw, hay but no cloth as it can unravel and cause problems, and then just keep an eye on her and let her be, she should be able to take care of the rest on her own.

You need to keep the male and female separated until at least the babies are weaned and she has no milk left (8 wks) and wait at least 8 weeks after neutering the male before putting them back together, which means the perfect time to neuter him would be right after she has her kits or before.

Check out these websites on rabbit breeding it will give you some useful information on what is going on and what is happening.

http://www.welshrabbitry.com/birth.html
http://www.islandgems.net/bunbreeding.html

Good Luck, and feel free to let me know if you have any other questions

Amy