Newborn rabbits: how they look and develop by day, care rules

In raising newborn rabbits, there are many difficult moments that require attention. If you do not know the most important rules for handling rabbits, you can lose the entire offspring, and with it financial investments and labor costs. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to prepare for possible difficulties long before buying rabbits, to obtain the necessary theoretical knowledge.

Okrol

Rabbits have a gestation period of up to a month. A change in the behavior of the female indicates the approach of childbirth. She begins to prepare the nest, using various soft materials for this and plucking fluff from her breast and abdomen.She needs help by placing wooden boxes with straw or hay. During this period, the rabbit is especially shy, so you need to try to irritate and scare her less. Okrol most often occurs at night, the animal copes with the process on its own, biting the umbilical cord and licking newborn rabbits.

What do newborn rabbits look like?

Newborn rabbits are born naked, blind and deaf. At first, they are completely dependent on the female, but do not need her constant presence. Beginning rabbit breeders are worried that the female rabbit may be absent from the nest, but this is normal behavior for these animals.

Three days after birth, fluff begins to grow on the little rabbit's body. Newborn rabbits begin to see after 10 days, gradually the fluff is replaced by the normal coat characteristic of the breed.

Can I pick up baby rabbits?

It is believed that it is impossible to touch newborns, because the mother can abandon the offspring.But this is not entirely true. Do not touch with bare hands, without special need and too often. After birth, this must be done, especially at the first birth. This identifies dead or weak rabbits that can still be saved.

Examination is carried out with gloves, quickly, but without sudden movements, noise and fuss, so as not to frighten the nervous mother, otherwise she may leave the nest. In extreme cases, you can wash your hands thoroughly with unscented soap, because the rabbit can leave offspring precisely because of the foreign aroma or because of the stress caused by the invasion.

Stages of growth and development of babies

Rabbits grow and mature quickly. 15-20 days after birth, their mass increases by 10 times. The development of newborn rabbits by day is as follows:

1. From birth and during the first 10-12 days, helpless, blind, deaf rabbits feed on mother's milk and depend on her care.
2. After 3 days, fluff begins to grow on the body of animals, which gradually turns into a full-fledged coat.
3. After a week, rabbits develop hearing.
4. After 10-14 days, the rabbits gain the ability to see.
5. They begin to eat on their own at 16-20 days of age. Very "early" rabbits, striving for independence after 16 days, should receive softer food, for example, grated carrots, as the first food.
6. After 3 weeks, the vast majority of rabbits switch to self-feeding.
7. Mature rabbits can be transferred from the mother liquor.

Babies should be supervised closely as they are prone to illness and female rabbits may refuse to feed.

Baby care

In order to successfully raise newborn rabbits, owners need to know the basic rules for handling them.

Inspection of offspring

After birth, it is imperative to examine the rabbits. There can be many newborns in the offspring, but for normal rearing, no more than 8 babies per female should be left. Upon examination, you must immediately remove the dead, and start caring for weakened rabbits. "Extra" rabbits can be planted with another female who has given birth or try to feed artificially.

Problems while leaving

The main condition for success, especially at the first birth, is the complete absence of stress and anxiety for the animals. Otherwise, the female may abandon the offspring or even kill her children. This can also happen if there are too many babies in the litter, if weak offspring are left in the nest, or if the female is often disturbed.

There is a situation when the offspring is in danger due to the fact that the female is in heat after birth.To eliminate unpleasant incidents, the rabbit is placed next to the male. After fertilization, the female calms down, but she and the newborn rabbits must be constantly monitored, as she may stop feeding them.

If okrol happened in winter, you need to take care of heating, and also add cotton wool to the nest if there is little fluff in it. The rabbit should eat plentifully and variedly, give her only warm and clean water.

Advice for rabbit breeders when refusing to feed

If the female refused to feed the rabbits, you need to make sure that the following problems are not the reasons for this:

1. Lack of or poor quality milk, and lack of lactation.
2. Sore, painful nipples.
3. Hormonal changes in the body of the female.
4. Stressful situation.

You need to try to eliminate the reasons for refusing to feed, and if this does not help, start feeding the rabbits in other ways.

Share with another female

If there is another rabbit on the farm who has recently given birth to offspring, you can add to her rabbits left without the support of their mother. To do this, the new rabbit is distracted, for example, with food, and the rabbits are carefully placed in the nest. Hands must be clean or gloved. If there are many rabbits, it is better to distribute them among several nests.

Forced feeding

If the female refuses to feed the offspring, but she has milk and it is of good quality, force feeding is used. To do this, one person holds the rabbit lying on its side, the second puts the rabbits to the nipples. When they are full, they will round up and can be taken from their mother.

Artificial feeding

If the female is dead, sick, has no milk, or behaves aggressively towards the offspring, the rabbits will have to be fed artificially. Specialized mixtures or formulations based on goat's milk are used (cow's milk is not recommended).

Newborn rabbits are fed from a syringe or pipette. The daily dose starts with 5 milliliters of milk, gradually doubling. After the expiration of 14 days, you can give mashed vegetable puree, following the reactions of the baby's body.

Removal and sorting of rabbits

When breeding rabbits, the following weaning periods are used:

1. On the 28th day. It is used in the event that the female happened to the rabbit after birth. Do not abuse this method, as it greatly weakens the rabbit, and the rabbits are not yet ready for independent life.
2. At 35-40 days. You need to make sure that the rabbits do not start to overeat.
3. In 40-45 days. Optimal time for weaning.
4. 56-60 days. This period is called broiler jigging, because the young immediately or after 10-20 days of intensive fattening go to slaughter.

It is advisable to sort the young rabbits at jigging, first separating the strongest and strongest. The decrease in "mouths" leads to the fact that weakened and small rabbits begin to grow rapidly and are compared in weight and size with the brothers and sisters that were previously separated. The grown rabbits are sorted by sex.

Possible problems when rearing young animals

Frequent problems with newborn rabbits occur at the first birth, but even experienced female rabbits can die.

Baby rabbits are dying

There is a strong opinion that a female rabbit can kill her own newborn rabbits. This happens, but very rarely. Most often, bite marks on the bodies indicate the inexperience of the mother, who tried to help the offspring be born or gnawed off the umbilical cord.

In the presence of infection, newborn rabbits can die very quickly. This will require the intervention of a veterinarian.

Female scatters cubs

There may be several reasons for this:

1. Inexperienced mother.
2. Lack of maternal instinct.
3. Hunting.
4. Too cold in the nest.
5. Weakened or diseased offspring.
6. Mastitis or other breast problems.
7. Random bunny falling out of the nest.
8. Human interference, noise, stress, bright lights.

To keep the offspring, you need to carefully monitor the behavior and actions of the mother.

Rabbits squeak

There are two reasons for this - hunger and cold. Well-fed and warm newborn rabbits behave quietly and calmly.

Babies leave the nest early

Most often this happens due to malnutrition.The female may have little milk or it is not nutritious enough, so the young tend to find food outside the nest. The rabbits need to be weighed and if underweight for their age is revealed, the rabbit's diet should be improved and / or supplemented with milk mixtures.

Despite the fact that the rabbits began to feed on their own, it is too early to wean them from their mother. This can be done in 40-45 days.

Newborn rabbits are weak and defenseless, so the owners will have to make a lot of effort in order to maintain and grow offspring. But if this is successful, the number of rabbits will begin to grow exponentially, as well as the material well-being of their owners.

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