[vfr400boy]

My daughters standard rex gave birth a week ago and all seemed well then to day I noticed a kit out of the nest dead when I looked closer all the kits was dead ( 8 of them ) all had full tummys and looked fine no Mark's on them? Shes had 2 litters be for and been a good mum
What can it be ?

[landroverroy]

I'm not a rabbit expert, but if all seemed fit and healthy when born and there didn't seem to be feeding issues, then I would suspect a disease, for them all to have died at the same time. (Unless she killed them)
However when you say they all had full tummies - could it be that after death the tummies had swollen due to bacterial fermentation? I have just remembered a ewe I used to have that had 2 healthy big, bouncing lambs. All seemed great for a day. Then on day 2 they were both dead. Turned out her udder wasn't giving any milk and they'd died of starvation. Could it have been something like that, or that the doe had developed mastitis? I know it's probably a bit late now to check, but at least you'd be able to see if she had mastitis.


I seem to recall you used to work with pigs. So what would you suspect if you found a whole litter of piglets dead?

[vfr400boy]

All the kits were very chunky and looked very healthy am beginning to wonder if it was the cold as we had a bad frost that night and kits were at an age were they move around in the nest , but that said they are in a plywood hutch under a leentoo

[LeeHambone]

That would have been my guess. Could something have spooked the mum off the nest so the youngsters chilled?

[cloddopper]

If you get kits  appearing cold & dead outside the nest . Wash off in cool water don't dunk them though if they are mucky.  Gently dry them off ,   then put them in a trouser pocket that's next to your skin or ladies inside your bra  so they get a lot of body heat but not squashed to death .

When we had th small mammal farm  I revived no end of kits over the years that the doe dragged out when startled and still had the kits attached to her teats .
It didn't help that we were a few hundred yards off a MOD navigation point so we got all manner of fast air , helicopters and  massive American galaxy's changing direction at low levels almost directly over the sheds several times a month or more if there was trouble around the world that NATO / UK was involved in .

[vfr400boy]

Shes now got 7 helthy kits all eyes open and doing well only thing now is I probably cant sell them due to virus,
     Rabbit pie and rex gloves I think ha

[cloddopper]

Having the right sort of nest box is important to help keep the kits in the nest .  I used touse  13 x 13 inch ply squares to make a cube  and cut a six inch dia hole  so it was in the middle of a side but an inch down from the top . that way the doe tends to knock any suckling kits off her teats if she gets startled and dives out the nest in a panic.
 Put a decent bed of quality hay on the nest box bottom , the doe will pluck her own fur to actually line the nest .
Does tend to only fed their kits once a day till they become mobile .