Bunny had babies on video & cuteness to follow

Posted on Mar 21 in Animals & Pets, Life in Evansville, personal storiesby TalinaPrint

This post has become quite long since the experience has stretched on for about 4 days now with frequent changes and updates. To make access to the info you want easier use the below links to jump to the content section you are interested in:

• The Background on Maybelle’s Labor: Rabbit gestation and symptoms of labor.
• The birth of the first set of babies: Yes! There is more than 1 labor, this is the video of it from 3/22/11.
• The play-by-play of the birth and the status of the babies: For those not wanting to watch the whole, long 1st birth video.
• Facts on newborn bunny care and how mama rabbits mother: It isn’t just like kittens folks!
• The live stream of our rabbit’s cage: See what is happening right this very moment with realtime video streaming.

The Background on Maybelle’s Labor:

Our rabbit was 30 days pregnant as of March 22nd 2011, she had loose stools and was acting funny the day before her labor. The gestational period for rabbits is 30-31 days. Based on the gushing that appeared to be breaking of fluids last evening we knew labor was in progress. Plus her sides were visibly contracting and relaxing.

So we could monitor it from around the house and while we were away and to give her quiet and privacy we turned on the webcam and streamed the birth in real time across the internet. What better way to share it with the web than a live broadcast?
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The birth of the first babies:

The video of the 3/22/11 birth: 7 babies born

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The play-by-play of the 1st birth and the status of the babies:

• At about the 17 min mark she is having the babies. See how calm she is?
• At just under 22 min she turns around to remove the sac & umbilical cord from the three she delivered.
• At 23 min she hops away giving the first glimpse of the babies that are taking their first breaths. I remove caging levels so babies can be better seen and I turn sound broadcast on.
  

  Two newborn babies just moments after birth (there is also a placenta in the shot that mommy bunny eats)

• She had 7 babies total. One (baby #4) never took it’s first breath. It got chewed while she was rushing to chew it’s sac & umbilical off. Presumably since we were in the room gawking at her. Rabbits like their calm in times like these.
• The other one got squished when she tried to nurse them the first time, which is a fairly common thing I am told, especially since this is her first experience with live babies. Read about her first litter of babies here.
• There were 4 babies when we left her to tend the babies in peace after she delivered. Then she surprisingly had an additional baby while in the box tending to the existing babies and some twitter followers noticed the increasing quantity of babies on the webcam and alerted us.
• There were 5 baby bunnies when we went to bed last night. When we awoke this AM we only saw 3 babies and figured she ate or stomped the other two.
• After some time of watching the webcam I noticed a baby coming out from under the nest box just outside the box. After further investigation I found the 2 missing babies wedged under the nest box keeping warm. One was runty and had a cut and bleeding mouth.
  

  4 baby bunnies at 48 hours old keeping warm together while mama takes a break.

• The bloody mouth baby wasn’t keeping under mom and was struggling against the activity of the others in the litter. When the bleeding continued and mom blindly was standing on it I snatched it up to investigate and give it time to heal. Sadly it didn’t last very long away from mom and it’s litter mates. Looked wrinkled and smaller/ thinner than the others. Probably didn’t get enough feed time or warmth in competition with the litter mates.
• One of the smaller of the 4 remaining babies squirmed through the bars of the cage the night of 3/24 but we noticed within hours and went searching for it. We found it outside the cage, cold as an ice cube and hardly moving. After warming it up in our hands and cleaning it up it went back with it’s siblings and we moved all them to a shoe box so nobody else can go missing.
• After moving babies to a shoe box Maybelle became distant and seemed to be neglecting them, the house was cold and they weren’t being kept warm so we put a space heater on them. All 4 survived the night but come the next morning they were still being neglected. 3 of the 4 babies died pretty quickly in their sleep by the time afternoon came. They were just dead in the nest box. I pulled the 1 surviving baby from litter #1 and had it by a space heater with towels in a note card box out of the cage. It made it 2 more hours then fell asleep and died too.

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Facts on newborn bunny care and how mama rabbits mother:

Lots of well-meaning people (including us) have asked questions or wondered about how mama bunny should care for her newborns. This whole situation has exposed us to a number of learning experiences and choices. I was able to find all sorts of newborn rabbit info from this site, this one and this one. Some great FAQ & Facts I’ve repost below for educational purposes.

If you are ever confronted with questions on baby bunny care-domestic, not wild rabbits-here are a few guidelines.

1. Although rabbits build nests, they are not chickens and, after initial preparation, will not sit on their nests. They also do not stay on or by the nests after the babies are born. This would attract the attention of predators. The babies burrow to the bottom of the nest where they remain hidden until Mamma Rabbit wakes them up at mealtime.

2. Only rarely does a mother rabbit nurse her young right after giving birth. Most often the first nursing will occur the night after the kindling. The rich milk sustains the babies for 24 hours at a time. The preferred mealtime is between 12:00a.m. and 5:00 a.m.

3. A mother rabbit does not lie down in the nest, as a cat would do, but stands over the babies to nurse them. She does, however, clean them and lick their bellies and bottoms to stimulate elimination in much the same way as a cat.

4. If you want definite proof that the babies are being cared for, check them early each morning. They should be warm and round-bellied. The best way to know for sure is to weigh them on a small postage scale or kitchen scale. Write down a description and the weight. If they’re gaining weight (1/4 oz. or so), they’re being fed.

5. You can handle the babies even if the mother doesn’t know you. Domestic rabbits are not that concerned over human smells.

6. Rabbits are not prone to cannibalism, as many people think. Cannibalism is an occasional result of a stillborn litter, and this is nature’s way of cleaning up the “mistake.” The activity and noisy squeaking of healthy babies trigger the “maternal instincts.”

Only rarely does a mother rabbit truly abandon or ignore her babies. This may occur when a very Immature rabbit gives birth, In which case, she usually does not build a nest or make any preparations. Her milk production Is also delayed. Sometimes the babies can be hand fed for short time until the mother rabbit can take over the job. Again, their daily weight gain is the test of adequate nourishment. (If you must hand feed, refer to page 81 of the House Rabbit Handbook.

7. Generally a male rabbit is tolerant of young rabbits and, if neutered, can remain with his new family. The father will begin to nip and play roughly with the sons as they begin to reach puberty and start acting feisty. Then It’s time for separation. A male rabbit must be neutered before being put back with the mother because she can conceive again immediately after giving birth. They should be kept separate for a minimum of two weeks after neutering.