Our first kindling

[Laur]

In November I posted about my Holland Lop Reva, who was having difficult labor and finally gave birth to one kit, DOA. Later I posted when we rebred and our nest box dilemma. Well we finally have our kits - two little Hollands. Here they are, a few minutes old.

I was not expecting them until the 16th, so she may have been bred when my mischievous daughter put them together on the table a few days previous. I didn't even mark it down because it really looked like Reva was just not into him that day, despite his fervant attempts to romance her. (And by "romance" I mean, totally ignore niceties and jump right to the "Humpty Dance". They seem pretty strong, and are snuggled in with each other enveloped in Mum's fur.

I didn't end up getting the nest box in, as she is my daughter's 4H/ARBA Jr. Rabbit. I was reminding her all day to clean and put fresh litter (we use small animal shredded paper over the whole cage bottom) and put the nest box in. She was just about to do it when she noticed it was too late. Clever Reva took it into her own hands though,creating walls with her (supposed to be a litter box)chair. She put her hayrack and food bowl in. I know they don't usually stay with the babies so I took them out and put them the other side of the cage.

My quandry is whether to put them in the nest box. I will probably do it tomorrow, but interested to know what you think.

Video:

https://www.rabbitsonline.net/media/img_20190113_234237.9609

 

[majorv]

You can put the nest box in but it’s usually better to put the box where the nest was, at least at first.

 

[Laur]

We put them in the nest box, adding lots of orchard grass hay but putting most of the nest she made in also. She had one more kit, born dead. She had it in the nest box so she knows what it is and where the others are. She was fussing the live ones. When I checked afterwards one looked fat but the other was much thinner, even though they had been the same earlier. I am worried about the possibility of only one having nursed. What if the other didn't find a test and she is only nursing them once a day? They are so tiny and burrowed down into the pile of her hair.

 

[majorv]

They typically nurse 1-2x /day. Mom will uncover them to nurse. Kits usually huddle together...are you finding one kit separated from the other? The kit definitely will need to nurse with the next feeding or it will be too weak to suck. You could try flipping mom over and see if the kit will nurse on her stomach...not ideal but it’s worth a try.

 

[Laur]

I read several websites last night as well as some discussions on here (anything i google about rabbits brings me to old discussions on here. What a wonderful resource this is!) I put a few ideas together and held Mama on my lap and held the babies on my hand under her. They all took it from there. Reva tolerated it really well and is an amazing mother (especially since she gave birth to a dead and huge one a couple hours before.) She kept licking them and they knew just what to do. This video is a few hours ago. They are about 40 hours old. One is more hyper and the other fatter. Does anyone have enough experience to guess what solid colors they will be? Daddy carries sable point and mommy has blue a few generations back (may or may not carry.)

 

[SableSteel]

Probably tortoise

 

[majorv]

They look good. You can tell the smaller one is looking for a teat.