raising young

Question
I have a doe who just had her first litter, a large one, about 10 babies it looks like. They are only about a day old now but two have crawled out of the nest ( she refused to use the nest box) and are all over the cage. She seems to be ignoring them. Should I be concerned that she's not taking care of them?

Thank you!
Stephanie

Answer
Wash your hands well, then rub all over the mother.  Put the two straglers back in the nest and leave everyone alone.  A doe will rarely go into the nest and you will probably not see her nursing.  Rabbits don't ever appear to be doteing mothers, they just do their job to feed the little ones and leave.  The biggest cause for kits to come out of the nest is that they don't let go of the teat when the mother jumps out of the nest so they get drug out.  There is not much you can do about this with out a nesting box except keep putting them back in.

Keep watching the babies, check them with clean hands once a day or two - remove cold dead bodies when needed and leave the warm ones for mom.  If they are alive she is feeding them enough - they die from dehydration very fast.

Hope all goes well,

Brenda