baby rabbit injured

Question
I've got my first litter of baby rabbits that are approximately 3 weeks would be my guess.  They are a pretty good size and are eating hay, I released my male back into them a few days ago.  Then a couple of days ago I noticed something looked wrong with one of the babys eyes, then the next day my husband said there was no eye there.  Today I go out to feed and his other eye is gone as well, and it looks wet and matted around where both eyes should have been.  One other baby has an eye that is suddenly half closed up looking, everyone else is okay.  Is my male rabbit doing this?  I seperated him today, or could the mother or other babies be doing this? What should I do to protect the babies???

Answer
Claudette,

I am hoping you are a first time rabbit breeder.  I am going to take the benefit of the doubt here.  You absolutely can NOT put un-neutered males with other rabbits.  Since your male is the dad I am assuming he is not fixed, an unfixed male will kill other males or even dominant female's.  Once the babies are 8 weeks old they will need to be taken away from their mother and separated by sex.  By 12 weeks each rabbit needs to have its own cage.  Yes you can bond rabbits but it is a long process and takes patience.  It almost never works with unfixed rabbits.  That is a complete other subject and I would be happy to teach you about bonding in another session if you would like.

You did the smartest thing you could by taking the male away.  I highly doubt it was the mother and if it was her it was only because the male was present and she was trying to show dominance.  I told you above about when to separate the babies.  You will need to do that so that first, the mother or any of the baby doe's don't become pregnant by a baby that matured to rapidly, and 2nd because since they won't be fixed as they become sexually mature they will start to fight.  People have had success with keeping two baby does bonded for life that were not fixed but it is just rare.  

I don't want to sound harsh but the baby that has lost both of its eyes, the most humane thing to do is to put it down.  There are shelters out there that will take disabled rabbits but if you don't have one in your area, I can guarantee that you don't want to spend the next 5 - 10 years taking care of a blind rabbit.  Don't just let it go, take it and have it euthanized.  The other baby might be ok since it still has one good eye.  Keep an eye on it.

You also want to keep an eye on the mother because she will most likely be having another litter in anywhere from 28-32 days from the first day you put the male back in, make sure you prepare a nest box for her and place it in there on the 27th day from the first day they were re-introduced.

I am so sorry Claudette for being abrasive with you.  I blame alot of it on the House Rabbit Society's.  They show pictures of bunnies living together and make it sound like rabbits can live all happy together but if people don't read the fine print, new breeders sometimes don't realize that those rabbits are all fixed and have been worked with extensively by their volunteers.

If you have any more questions please please ask me.  If you make it private I will even give you my e-mail address so that you can ask me whatever you want.  I don't want to see anymore lost babies.

Goodluck with the rest of the little one's.  I hope they make it.  They should now that the dad is out of the picture.  Please let me know.

Pam