[The.Grange]

We have a few rabbits, and this year one we had a litter with, 5 beautiful English cros lops, two we found turfed out the nest by the doe were dead, so later we carefully removed them without touching the nest.  Then some weeks later when the babies we hopping about and out of the nest, but not old enough to leave the mum, she proceeded to kill those overnight.

Is this usual?  I know does will remove dead offspring form the nest and can kill themif they smell wrong, but these were a few weeks old and no one had been near them.

or is she just a particulalry vicious mother?

cheers

[CameronS]

was it her first litter?
I used to breed Dutch Rabbits, until i had to have my whole breeding stock PTS after a diseased male passed it on to all 4 of my females, and my other male.

I used to find this happened a lot with first time mums,  killing off their young at such late stages, i think it's the fact that the kits are no longer so dependant on Mum, and she begins seeing them as a threat, and she begins to feel intimidated and scared by them. and she reacts to protect herself.

If not, the kits may have had health problems that she knew were there, and you didn't, or she could just be a poor mother.

I wouldn't feel to disheartened, at least you still have mum, good luck with the next try

[The.Grange]

i'm unsure if its her first litter she's two and came to us about 6 months ago.  thanks for the reassurance though 

[Budo1]

if its her first litter it is not uncommon for a rabbit to kill her babies. rabbits are easily stresses and there are many reason she may have done this.

Did you move the doe or the hutch to different location, or clean the nest out? before day 10.

Has anyone been handling the babies too much?; its always better to leave them well alone for some time. it is a great temptation especially for kids when the see little fluffy bunnies.

Is there anything near her that would trigger her to feel threatened?.. people paying too much attention at the cage or trying to play with the babies, dogs, cats.. the buck? any one of these would trigger her defence mechanism - which as harsh as it sounds is to cull the babies. feeling threatened is probably the biggest problem.

Does she have easy access to food all the time rather than the usual twice a day routine; she may have had trouble producing sufficient milk stores and this will have triggered her.

If she had been bred from before did she nurture that litter well ? Not all does make good mothers, something i am mindful of when breeding through that the offspring of good mothers are kept back or placed to make up orders of breeding trio's.

Has your Doe been with the buck since giving birth? they will react in that way if they are pregnant again; her maternal bonding is stronger to those kits she is gestating and not the ones she's feeding.

Similar to the last, but a little more complicated; are you sure she expelled all of the kits? If she has retained one or two, which does happen she
may be experiencing stress here : it is not uncommon for rabbits to re absorb kits and occasionally you will find an aborted gelatinous blob later on in the nest. Something like this only happens evry so often usually with giants and long bodied rabbits.

Yes there could have been a problem with the health of the babies and she has sorted the problem herself - many animals have this mechanism.