New Zealand Doe kindled 14. Only 7 left. Looking for advice

[bearcreekfarm]

We have not had rabbits for many years now, but a few months ago I spotted an ad for a doe, a buck, and 7 of their weaned babies. It was a really good deal and they are nice rabbits, out of commercial meat stock bt kept as pets until the owners realized they could not butcher any of them.

We had one nice litter of 11 a few months ago, of which 7 survived.

I rebred the doe to a different buck a few weeks ago and last week she kindled 14- yikes! It was the first litter for the young buck (8 months old) and I only put the doe in with him once- I wasn't even sure she would get pregnant. Apparently she did, lol.

But, again, a week in and only 7 are still alive.

It has been years since we had rabbits and I am kind of stumped. Cannot think why the bunnies would be dying.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[bearcreekfarm]

I think that they were not all getting fed We wondered if we should hold the doe and let some of the smaller ones nurse, but were not sure that would even work, so we did not.

I am pretty sure she was stepping on them and that some of them died from that- a the first couple of times I found dead ones they were at the bottom of the pile in the nest box. I wound up taking them out of the nest box and putting them in a stock tank where I made a new nest out of hay flakes- the doe seemed fine with that and it gave her more room to hopefully avoid smashing them since she did not have to jump in and out of a box. We still lost a few after that though.

When we had rabbits previously we always bred them two at a time, for exactly the reason you described. At this point we only have one doe, but will keep some females from this litter, and we also have several bucks so we can rotate them. But, at the rate this doe is producing, we might always wind up with huge litters and still not be able to foster any of the kits. sigh.

I have never removed "excess" kits, never had to, but wonder if I should think abut doing that if she has another large litter.


She is getting pretty much free fed at this point with a commercial rabbit feed which is 16% protein. She also has grass hay available all of the time.

[bearcreekfarm]

Maybe I should get some Calf Manna to supplement the doe with?

[bearcreekfarm]

Curious that she carries and delivers so many but then can't raise them. I did a google search on New Zealand does and read that they can have litters of 12-14. Seems backwards somehow. But, I will check nipples and if this happens again I can try to hold the doe to let the smaller ones try to nurse. I think once they are a few days old, if they are getting fed, they should be strong enough to survive- it is just the first 3-4 days when we seem to lose them.

And, will eventually add more does to the herd as mentioned above- though, that could backfire on us if the new does are as prolific as the one we have now.

If we only have the one doe, and she has more large litters, and we had to remove some of them without a foster mother to give them to, um, what exactly would we do with them?

[dustawaits]

We carefully checked ours twice a day to make sure they were getting enough milk.
A baby should have a round full tummy.
Just as in humans all rabbits are not mothers!! She may be extremely careless about
getting in the nest. It is a beautiful thing to watch a good mother get in her nest or leave it without
ever stepping on a baby.
Have you checked to see if she has a nipple for each one? That was one of our choices for picking
does. They must have the minimum of 12 and more were bonus.