breeding question

Question
hi i am expecting my first litter of babie bunnies soon. this is the first time ive done this so i was hoping for some basic information. both parents are pur lops one all white and one all black. my main concern the mother.  what should i do to create an appropriate atmosphere in her cage for her to create a nest?  right now it is fairly open with shavings on the floor, i have some hay and cotton for her to build with, but i was hoping you could give me a description of what i should supply her with to hide away the new babes. and aswell what basic guidelines should i follow with them when they arrive, askides from seperating the mom and dad. i dont know what to do with them they can be looked after mostly by mom, but she is young still. and this is her first litter.
what colours do you think will produce from an albino rabbit and a black rabbit?
thanks for your help.


Answer
First off, get the male out of there right away. The male and female should not be kept together other than to breed for the first time. If they are kept together, the female might get pregnant in both uterine horns with two different litters. This can result in the death of one or both litters, and can even endanger the mom.

A nestbox should be put in 26 days after they were first bred.  You can often find a nestbox at a feedstore, but if you cannot, a cardboard box that is about 4 inches long and 4 inches wider than the mother when she is in a normal sitting position will work. Remove the flaps from the box, and cut the front so that it is only about 4 to 5 inches high. Don't use cotton. It can tangle up the babies and choke them. Just using hay is fine. The female should pull out some of her own fur to line the nest with.

Don't give the mom any extra pelleted food until after she has babies. If she is fat, it could complicate the birth. Do keep plenty of fresh grass hay and water available for her at all times, though.

Be sure to have her nails clipped before she has the babies, as sharp nails can pierce into the babies.

She will probably have the babies between the late evening hours and the early morning hours, as that is when most rabbits have their babies. If you do happen to see her giving birth, don't disturb her. Once she is totally done and is not going back into the nestbox, give her about an hour, and then you can check on the babies. Just look to make sure there are none that are dead or injured. Remove any dead or badly injured ones (she may accidentally injure one or two badly while cleaning, since this is her first litter, and she may not be totally sure what to do). Then leave them alone.

Rabbits only feed their babies once or twice a day for a few minutes each time, so you might not ever see her feed them. As long as they are not looking skinny (you shouldn't easily see ribs), they are being fed. If they do start to look skinny, you can hold the mom in the box for a few minutes twice a day to make her nurse them.

Before she has the babies, get a small bag of Calf Manna or horse sweet feed. That way if she gets a little thin or worn out from the babies, you can give her extra calories. Nutri-Cal (also known as Vita-Cal) is another good high calorie suppliment. When the babies are around 3 weeks old, that is when they are the biggest drain on the mother.

The babies should stay with the mom until at least 7 weeks of age. If the litter is large (5 or more), you can wean the largest two off at 7 weeks, and leave the smaller ones with the mom until 8 weeks. You should remove them all at 8 weeks, so that the males don't start trying to mount the mom and their sisters. Wean them off in at least pairs so they don't go right from a group to being totally alone.

As far as colours go, that is very hard to tell. Albino rabbits are a special case. They are basically a coloured rabbit with a white sheet thrown over them. Only one gene makes them albino, but they still hide all the other genes. So what colours you will get depend a lot on what the albino is hiding. If you have a pedigree for the albino, that lists the colours of the ancestors, I can give you a better idea of what you might get.