Death in Litters

Question
Thanks! I will try this out. But, when i bred the second doe, i got 5 hits. I have her vitamins for the whole first half of her pregnancy, and she did have plenty of hay. I dont want to harm her by rebreeding her.
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Followup To

Question -
Hi, I have a couple questions to ask you. First, a month ago I bred two rabbits. The first one had two babies. Both are still living but one is significantly smaller than the other. The mother keeps dumping the nesting box. So, I took them out. I am not sure what I should do now with them. (hand feeding or with the mother?)

Then the other doe I dont even know what to do with. This might even be her fifth litter and she has only had 2 kits survive. Usually she has around five. But for this litter she only had 2, and I found both dead. (shortly after she had them) I think she is done but she kept aranging her nest? What should I do?

Answer -
First off  - what breed are your rabbits ?   Two and five per litter are ususally from midget breeds and they are not very good mothers ( that has been bred out of them ).

The two that the mother is dumping - I would keep them in the nest but out of the mothers cage.  Return them twice a day for feeding - early morning and early evening.  Since there are only two they have to be kept warm - rabbits have a much higher body temp than humans - you need to place the nest on a low temp heating pad 24 / 7 with hay and some pulled fur in it.  If the kits get to warm they uncover themselves - if it is to hot they try to get out of the nest - you have to watch this carefully.  If it is very hot where you are day and night they might be fine as is.  Or you can try tieing the nest to the cage so she cannot dump them.

The other doe I would rebreed right away - but this time make sure the buck gets three hits.  I would give the mother, in the last half of the pregnancy a bit of vitamins mixed with rolled oats ( here I use horse vitamines - at 2 t per 6 cups rolled oats - I give 1/4 cup to all nursing mothers for the last week of pregnancy and all through lactation.  This gives the doe good condition and lots of nice rich milk ( would give the doe with the two kits a bit also ).

Good luck Sam !

Sheila

Answer
You will not harm her Sam - it is worse that she get fat - if she has had 5 litters and none have survived I bet she is fat.  That can affect negativly the doe and her litters.  One of the reasons for small litters and no litters is the doe being to fat.

Sheila