Male and Female interaction

Question
Thank you Lee for the great info! I hope I'm not too impolite and go on with questions. I know you're not supposed to mess with babies after they're born, let along put the male in there. I was thinking of putting the male back only after the babies are gone, maybe even a couple of weeks later than that. The fact is that I'd love to have babies from them and of course keep one after, well, they'll no longer be...
About the female's cage, its quite large I'd say (1m long, 60cm wide and 70cm tall) so there's plenty of room for her. At one moment I thought she'll be needing a place for her to retreat from the views while having babies. Currently she has no hideout or little house in there, it's all in the open. So I bought a nice little wooden house and put it in the cage. But surprise! She didn't like the corner I chose so she actually moved it in the cage center. I said OK if that's where you want it... But shortly after she grabbed it with the teeth, rolled it over and started "chewing" on it. I took the house out as it seemed she'll totally destroy it. However I'm positive she'll need such a hideout but I don't know what to do. Buy a metal one? :)
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Followup To

Question -
Hello, I own a bunny couple (she is about4 months old, and he is about 3 months old). Since we got the male I used to keep them together in the same cage and they got along perfectly. At some point they started to have frequent intercourse and then after a period of about 1 month the female just didn't accept the male. And boy was he horny! :) She started chasing him in the cage when he tried to mount her, and even bite him and growl at him. Then I got another cage and put the male there. It's now 3 weeks since then and they're still separately. I tried putting them on the bed together but the female started chasing him again and he even sprayed pee while running from her (was it because he was so scared or it was just sending her signals?). I can only guess she's pregnant and that's why she likes being alone. About the same time we separated them she started to bite and growl if I try to pick her up from the cage, which she has never done before. The male is very nice and doesn't do such things. So could she be pregnant? I can't see any change in her belly size though... And when she has babies (if she does) when would it be safe to put the male back with her? Will they ever get along again? Thank you!

Answer -
Hi Gabriel,

what you describe are unfixed rabbits who went through sexual maturity.  By the female's behavior I would say confidently she is pregnant.

It is a good thing you have separated them, as pregnant females want nothing to do with unfixed males while pregnant.  You have avoided fighting and injuries by separate cages.

He was spraying her to signify she was his mate.  It is hormonally-driven behavior.

Her biting you and not wanting to be picked up is hormonally-driven behavior of a pregnant female rabbit.  It is best to leave her alone as much as possible.

You can't put the male back with them when the babies arrive.  He could injure or kill them, or his presence in there with the mom and babies could make the mom injure or kill the babies as well.  Do not put the male back in there.  Actually it is better if the mom's area is larger than normal so that she can have a little room to 'get away' from the nest, to prevent her from getting too stir crazy and perhaps harming the babies.  If the babies have already arrived I would not try to move or touch things in there.  I probably wouldn't touch things at all right now though either - pregnant females don't like humans messing around with their surroundings.  Try to avoid touching things for the few days after they arrive, unless you have to save them from injury or put one back into the nesting material.

The gestation period for the babies is 30 days on average.  Hopefully you can pinpoint when this will be so you can be prepared for the babies.

Things to consider in the future:  you can't let unfixed rabbits together once they are sexually mature.  It takes only ten seconds for a male to fertilize a female.  If you are not a professional breeder, please find a rabbit-savvy vet and have them spay your female and neuter your male.  House Rabbit Society (www.rabbit.org) has a page:

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

and you can look up a recommended rabbit vet there.

The benefits are no unwanted baby rabbits; no spraying; no female cage agression; no female uterine cancer; no sexually frustrated animals in the house.  You basically will get your rabbit back (the personality) before they hit maturity.  Ih short, all the qualities you loved about them before they hit maturity.

Also, please check out the House Rabbit Society web site for top-notch quality articles and info.  It is an excellent resource for rabbit owners and I go there quite a bit.

Take care, and I hope my answer helped you.  Lee

Answer
Hi, no problem with follow-up questions, it's good.

Actually I misinformed you about being careful not to handle the babies.  You can, but no unnecessary handling would have been a better way to put it.  You can make sure they are all snug together sharing body heat in the nest.  You can handle one to put back in the nest.  you can pick them up briefly to make sure they are alive and appear to be fed (round tummy).  It's just that you wouldn't be walking around with one in your arms right now.  

I would not put the male back with the female unless you are going to be breeding for more rabbits.  And I would strongly advise against that.  Breeders don't even breed that quickly - they only at max breed 3-4 times a year, spaced out, and only for a couple years.  There's such an overpopulation of domestic rabbits as it is, the shelter where I volunteer put down 120 rabbits last year because they were unwanted.

Before you attempt to put them back together you need to have both of them fixed, and then let them recover from surgery for a month to get all the remaining hormones out of their systems.  Definitely make sure the male's hormones are exhausted because he will try to mount her like crazy and it could start a fight with serious injuries resulting.

You will also need to keep in mind that the young rabbits will need to be sexed either by you or your vet, I would try at eight weeks, so that you can begin to separate them before they hit sexual maturity and you have another litter to deal with.

As for cage issues, a 2 foot by 3 1/4 foot cage is okay.  She should have enough room to 'get away' from the nest box area and rest.  She will generally only go over there once a day to nurse.  The rest of the time she will not be there.  She shouldn't mind you looking at them and maybe moving one next to the others, etc if you need to, or making sure they are looking okay and appear to be fed.  Some people actually get a small scale and weigh them to make sure they are gaining weight.

Per your hidebox intro, now is probably not the best time to be altering her 'normal' environment.  If anyone makes alterations right now, let it be her.  Save the hidebox for later.  You are right that she will need a place to be away from the nest, but it doesn't need to be a hidebox, just space will do right now as the babies will not leave the nest area for at least two weeks.  Changes you make to he home area could agitate her now.  Wait till the babies are older and maybe even in separate cages.

I want to pass along two excellent web pages from the House Rabbit Society for you regarding baby rabbits:

http://www.rabbit.org/care/babies.html

http://www.rabbit.org/care/newborn.html

Please read them, print them out and keep them with your other rabbit reference materials you have.

Please remember you will need to sex the newborns and separate boys from girls.  This requires separate cages for the boys and girls.  I would not necessarily keep the young girls with mom and the  young boys with dad.  I will research this a little more but there is a space issue to consider and you can't cram all those rabbits into the same space and expect them to all get along.  I especially wouldn't do it if mom and dad are now fixed (low hormones, less prone to fight/defend themselves) and the youngsters are not (hi hormone levels, more prone to fight).

And they most likely will need more cage space than the current cages you have mom and dad in, if you keep all the girls and all the boys together.  If you give each of them a separate cage (which is the safest option for all of them) then the size you mentioned before is probably okay (unless your rabbits are larger (8 pounds or bigger).  If you have large rabbits you have them in an undersized cage.

As you can see litters complicate matters a bit.