are my rabbits pregnant?

Ailishcrehan

I volunteer with an animal rescue group and last Saturday, we took in 7 rabbits that were dumped in a field. We found homes for the four babies and are left with two adult females and a male. They have since been separated into different hutches, all indoor, but now, I am wondering if the females are pregnant. One has become quite territorial and doesn't want me to clean out her hutch (know females can be territorial and its all the more evident since we took the other rabbits away from her). The second female is constantly making a huge mess of her hutch, kicking out the bedding, gathering up the remainder of the bedding but is really friendly and curious. The male is a happy chappy too, no issues there. I know the signs of impending birth etc, but having only had male rabbits in care, am looking for information on female rabbit behaviour and whether what they are doing is classic female behaviour or typical mother-to-be behaviour.

We have five rescue dogs, five rescue cats and other small 'furries'. The territorial female is in a separate room as she was quite stressed after taking away the other rabbits from her. The friendly female is in our kitchen-come-sitting room and doesn't mind the dogs or cats...she will happily attempt to venture out while they are around her (but we don't let her out). If she is pregnant, do we need to move her into isolation or what steps can we take to ensure a successful delivery of babies...

The females were with the male for at least 12 hours that we know of, before that, we don't know what way they were kept, but considering there were 4 young rabbits with them, I presume they have been actively breeding.

portgirl123

my neighbour bought what she was told 2 male rabbits from pet shop a yr or so ago. They are beautiful rabbits and always handled, omne morning when her daughter went into say morning, her 5 yr old daughter started crying. all in the cage was tiny dead babies. vets says it was cos male was in the cage with her. They never noticed anything dif, then they had only had the rabbits 2 weeks. When we were talking about this after she says now thinking back about 2 days before there was fur lined in what we now now now was her nest.
At the time my neighbour was inexperienced with rabbits so wouldnt now to look out for pregnancy as she thought she had 2 males. her daughter was upset for ages.
So sorry i dont really know but maybe a nest with fur in a sign.

SophieSakura

If they were with males, they're probably pregnant. Digging around in bedding and being grumpy are both signs of pregnancy, but they could be friendly and happy too, depends on the rabbit.

There's no need to feed them any more or anything, until a day or two after they give birth, then free feed them dry food.

They don't get very fat so it's hard to tell when they'll give birth, but their pregnancy is about 31 days so not very long.

Keep the females on their own, somewhere quiet.

Just make sure they have lots of clean, dry bedding everyday. Around day 28 they'll make a nest and at some point they'll pull fur to line the nest. Check the nest twice a day to see if the babies are born yet.

When they're born you CAN handle them, it's a myth that you can't. Leave them for about 12 hours, then if the mother is happy to let you, then look in at them. If the mother doesn't want you to, then try to distract her with food or put her in another part of the hutch or wherever they are. You should take all the babies out, make sure their bellies are round (then they're being fed) and make sure they're no dead babies. Sometimes there are under all the others, so that's why you have to check carefully. Then put the babies back and put the fur over them again.

Only check them twice a day, and just look in and see that all their bellies are full, otherwise one might not be getting fed. And let them sleep the rest of the day.

The mother only feeds them once or twice a day and you usually won't see her do it so just make sure they've got round bellies, not wrinkled/shrivelling bellies, and that they're warm and moving a little.

In a few days they'll grow hair and be really cute. In about two weeks they'll be leaving the nest and nibbling on food and their eyes will be open.

Edit: Oh yeah, and if they don't make a nest, and scatter the babies around, and you find them and they're still alive, then make a nest for the mom, you can pull her from her chest (it comes away easily cos of hormones around the time they give birth) and leave them and hope she feeds them. If she doesn't feed them after about a day (if their bellies aren't full) then you might have to take them away and foster them to another rabbit or handrear them, which is very hard. But hopefully it doesn't come to that.