rabbits and their babies

Question
Firts let me say that once we get this situation under control we will either get our rabbits fixed or seperate them for all but three to five hours a day.  However, I need help with the mess I have our rabbits in now.  We have four female and one male mini-rex rabbits.  They are about six months old.  It was our intent to have the female fixed when they were old enough, but we didn't get it done soon enough.

Thinking it would make our rabbits happier to keep them together in a large area, we built an 8ft x 12ft. pen.  They are allowed to run free in the large pen  We have toys, a covered area, and a small wooden house for them to get into if they are frightened for any reason.

The immediate problem we have is this; we found three baby rabbits in a little 2ft x 2ft wooden house we built that is in the common pen.  The house has a lift up lid. When we opened it up, there were three babies in it.  Two were in one corner and a much smaller one was in a different corner.  We do not know which rabbit is the mother.  We have removed the male and one very pregnant female and put each of them each in a seperate cage.  We now have three females in the common pen wth the babies in the wooden house with hay in it.  

All three females have hair pulled out.  We can feel no difference in the size of their teets. We are concerned that one of the females that is not the mother will kill the babies, or that the fact that other females are in with the mother will make her too nervous to care for the babies.  Can you give us any advice to get our poor rabbits out of this mess we got them into?  

Answer
Dear Caryol,

Aw.  You are very sweet to be so understanding, and I'm sorry about this unfortunate "accident."  I would NOT separate the females at all. The ones who did not give birth are very unlikely to harm the babies, but the stress of being separated from their bonded friends might make the mothers do harm to their own litters.  For help, please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html

The fact that the babies are in a pen complicates things, since you're not sure who's the mama.  But that's another important reason I would not take the females out.  Leave them all together, except for the male.

The next step would be to get ALL the non-nursing bunnies (including the dad) to a good rabbit vet for spay/neuter:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If some are in the very early stages of pregnancy, they might still be able to be spayed, but the risk assessment will be up to the vet.  Please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html

The male should not be allowed physical contact with any intact females for at least four weeks after the neuter, as viable sperm can still be inside his body even after the neuter for that long (though this is usually an outside estimate).  But let him be *close* to them so they don't become unbonded.  Allow them to touch/smell/see each other, but not mate.

Separating bonded bunnies for any length of time is a really bad idea because they will become unbonded in relatively short time and might have to go through a very violent and unpleasant re-bonding cycle in which you will have to be there to prevent any fighting.  This is why I would *strictly* avoid separating rabbits who are already friends.  You would be *amazed* at how quickly they forget and will be willing to rip each other's ears off!

I hope this helps for starters.  Please write back if you have any other questions.

Dana