Are you sure its a "he", coz I only experience such things with certain brooddoes - which I personally interprete as "Leave me alone! I'm pregnant now"

if a pregnant female charges at me on 3 April, it would have given birth by now, it may be a male then.
btw, its not normal for rabbits to attack, unless it a dwarf breed though, dwarfs are a bit more tempramental than other breeds.
neway, hope u guys bond well later on.

This post has been edited by afnjiy: May 1 2012, 01:55 PM

I would suggest an adult female, adult females are easier to litter train, adult males however will start jumping around your leg n squirting pee at u once they are bonded hahaha, its their way of telling they love you - good luck!

Don't know if TS allows breeding discussions in this thread.
However please respect that
1) rabbits are induced ovulator n a second induction on around the 12th hour after first induction will kill the first batch of babies
2) rabbits are solitary animals in a mildly bounded colony - means they can tolerate neighbours but still would appriciate it more to have time on their own. Even so, having a neighbour will stress a parturating female.
3) babies are borned blind n helpless, usually at times when no one is around - the presence of another rabbit around will stress the mother n she will eat her babies, even if she did not, the father may accidently stamp on the babies during postpartum mating n again - mother will dispose the dead babies by eating them - no such nonsence as males eating babies though. You may not be there to witness this however.
4) in cases of successful postpartum mating, mothers will wean the babies at as soon as three weeks old to prepare for next litter of babies, at that age the babies ( i mean domestic rabbit babies) are not fully ready to embrace the world on their own as yet.
5) with proper diet, rabbits mature at 12 weeks old.Together for 5 months? I wonder how many babies have u unknowingly killed.
6) in M'sia, so many people are abusing rabbits in the name of love by thinking that rabbits are like cats - at which they are not - n please research about rabbits before u even start to breed them, n in your case, i really think u should research about their nursing habbit - its totally in the contrary to a cats' nursing habbit, n this is the number 1 means of M'sians abusing their rabbits!
I do must stress that this post is not meant to insult u, just that there are too many abusive breeders around - of course they do that thinking that they love their rabbirs - n we wouldn't want to be another one of them
#To TS: Hope this does not violate ur rule here, Tq.

hi there, please research on these few questions;
1) in what means do u expect mummy to " take care of them"?
2) how proper is proper enough?
3) how does mummy sees to it that babies are safe?
4) how many times a day would mummy "give them milk"?

hint:
they're not carnivores, by nature they're prey - being at the bottom of the food chain, n that effects their behaviors. one thing for sure, mother rabbits will love their babies like would a rabbit do, not like would a dog or a cat!

*example, on the onset of incoming danger, a mother gaur(seladang) will kick their baby as hard as she can so that baby will end up being as far away from danger.. hehehe... well that's motherly love for them hahaha... but don't worry lah, its not what rabbits do, they just thump their feet when scared - but of course accidents can happen if a helpless baby is around while mother is thumping

it may only take a day for u to find out the answers, but many will take months to start believing - not to mention practising, so congratulations n good luck on the new litter.

Hi kristyt9, I really am puzzled over how u had them... but since u've had them anyway, wether u use a syringe or a dripper - eventhough a dripper would be more advisable than a syringe - its not the tools u used that cause lung problem!

Its the babies' POSITION during nursing that cause lung problem!

Do be aware that bunnies do not normally suckle like would a kitten or a cub, if u put them in such position while nursing, any tools u use will cause the milk to go into the lung.

The best position is that they should be upright - tail down, head up position, like berdiri - then milk dripped from top. If that cannot be done, u can try to position them on their backs - like baring - but still milk need to be dripped from top.

Never drip the milk from their sides as it will allow their nasal structures to pass the milk directly into the lung.

This procedure is very inconvenience,
I always avoid such problems of having to handfeed a bunny by having at least 2 does giving birth at approximately the same time.

An additional info would be that wild, feral and strayed rabbits usually wean their babies at three weeks - not 8 weeks - n the babies do just fine. U see, pet rabbit recieve more nutrients then their wild, feral or strayed counterparts, so they can afford to nurse their babies until 8 weeks. n I've even seen a friend's pet rabbit nursing [a single baby] until up to 12 weeks.

Please note that the high nutrients in pet rabbits' milk is the reason why their babies are not ready to be weaned at 3 weeks old. When nutrients in milk is insufficient, babies will start eating the nesting materials n their mother's soft ceacel pellets at as early as 9 days old - even before their eyes are opened! so weaning at 3 weeks old will never be a problem to them. In the contrary, pet rabbit's babies will not have the urge to start eating that early in life, thus cannot be weaned until 7 or 8 weeks old. 12 weeks however will be too much burden for the mother as she also need nutrients to return to her glory.
*whether pet or wild babies, their first solid food is usually their mother's nutricious poops - soft or hard - but many will not notice this as it is done hidden inside the nest. Its normal for mother to leave a few poops for her babies b4 jumping out of the nestbox, but a regret is that many irresponsible rabbit breeders will take the poops out, thinking that they are doing good deeds for the babies...

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Added on June 19, 2012, 1:08 amWhen it comes to rabbits, by nature, no babies "has to be with their mother" even at day one! They do not need mother to provide them any kind of warmth or cuddle whatsoever - even if it is winter! No such stupid thing as "Anak arnab saya mati kesejukan, mak dia tak jaga...". They only need to be fed by mother once or twice a day - never more. It means that mother will only return to the nest once after dusk or mayb a second time before dawn.

In other words, if ur cage is small - like most rabbit cages are, u only need to return the babies to mother during their 3-5 minutes of feeding time!

Should the mother be in the same cage with babies n she return into the nest more than three times in 24 hours, the act of jumping in n out of the nestbox will only risk killing the helpless babies especially if mother trempled on them while their bellies are full. This is not cats or dogs we're talking about...
In the wild, being as far away from her babies will also save the babies from being spotted by predators.

This post has been edited by afnjiy: Jun 19 2012, 01:08 AM

My 5 weeks old Netherland Dwarf bunnies; black beauty, brown chestnut, REW, butterfly (without b'fly nose)

u can still throw the hay... i'm also against carrot, it serves like "dadah" to a rabbit - seen many that starved themselves just to wait for another dish of carrot...

Hi, i don't see that as a problem.... pee can come out in many other colours depending on the feeds n kind of water they drink on... common problem with dwarfs however, is malocclusion - its inherited from their dwarf ancestry n u need to check the teeth always.

Do u mean [Bengy 25kg - repack rm2.50/kg] or [Bengy 5kg rm17.50/pack]? I've heard many bad reviews on the 25kg pack, but some say the 5kg pack has better quality. Cargil is more pallatable than Bengy though. While rabbits love GoldCoin, it tends to make them obesse so I avoid GoldCoin.
As for myself, i'm using using Hagen - they come in 5lbs(2.27kg) pack for rm19.80, and 2.5lbs pack for rm11.80 - price depends on where u are, in terms of availability - Hagen is available at Giant, so i can buy my rabbits' food while doing my monthly shopping, it saves on parking ticket. And another thing, Hagen has "suitable for Dwarf Rabbits" written on its labels.
Anyway, i only give small ammounts of pallets daily, main diet is Alfalfa and Timothy hay, made availlable all day. I use Bermuda hay for their nest.

Bermuda hay comes at the same price as Alfalfa n Timothy hay, i do not use it as bedding but as the newborn babies' nesting material because it has finer stalks n leaves.

Just sharing what I learnt from a now dead, rabbit forum [RabbitHabbit] on forums.delphi.com way back in the year 1999.
"Slit ur credit card in between ur rabbit's ears, down to the base, if the ears are shorter than or just slightly over the width of ur c/card, then its a true dwarf". True dwarfs are so prone to maloclusion that any treats of watery food should be avoided.
*That forum was US based, so they speak less of false dwarfs and peanut dwarfs as false dwarfs mainly serve as breeders n Americans do not deal much with breeding of pets - except for registered breeders.
However, if ur rabbits' ears are more than 2cm longer than the width of ur c/card, u can feel free to feed fresh vegies as occasional treats.

Malocclusion is genetic, so there's no cure for it, but ur vet can trim the excess teeth - even u urself can trim it once u know how to. However, u need to really confirm with ur vet that what u see truely is a problem, sometimes when we worry too much, we tend to see normal things as a problem - their lower incisors are a bit long, but malocclusion is when it gets longer than it normally should be... as to how long is longer, its best to consult with ur vet.

* about the c/card, did u really measure the ears by the width? some freinds of mine mada mistakes of measuring the ears by the length, so i just want u to confirm on this.

This post has been edited by afnjiy: Jul 10 2012, 09:07 PM

Hi there, there're not so many sp. of rabbits availlable on earth, hope what u really meant is breed.
It goes like this; chinese, indians, malay, kadazan, timor2 etc are of the same sp. , Homo sapiens that is, what made us different is our breed hahaha...
I can't really interprete what u meant by "great for backyard garden" so am unable to suggest any breed, good luck

peeing n pooping" inside something" n "at the same chosen place" is an early sign of developing its own natural littering habbit, which is good! Means that it save u the effort of personally having to litter train ur rabbit. The basic idea of litter training a rabbit is that rabbits poop n pee while eating, lucky u, so u can now provide a litter box at the corner where the food bowl is.

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Added on August 1, 2012, 2:56 amare u sure its blood, or its just a red coloured pee? blood do however come out from a kindling female, not usually as pee. if u're certain its blood then mayb its time to consult ur vet, good luck

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Added on August 1, 2012, 3:04 amWhen its about pets, its always about them! Yes, they will decide on where their toilet/s location, we only get to put the toilet there. ur lucky to have such a smart pet hahaha..

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Added on August 1, 2012, 3:07 amHi TS, i also am interested to buy ur 2 kg Timothy hay, is it still availlable? can u send to my place in Sg Buloh?

This post has been edited by afnjiy: Aug 1 2012, 03:07 AM

Hv u given her the papaya? it may smudge n stain her mouth area a little bit hehehe...

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Added on August 7, 2012, 10:34 pmDo you really mean "LitterBox" , I don't usually get to build any - so many designs in the market already. But I do build my own NestBox.

This post has been edited by afnjiy: Aug 7 2012, 10:34 PM