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Igor Nikolaev

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The fertility of rabbits is legendary. Despite the fact that rabbits are usually wonderful and caring mothers, there are cases that terrify novice rabbit breeders. For example, eating your own offspring. The reasons for this behavior, which is inadequate from a human point of view, can be different, and it is not always the rabbit herself who is to blame. and how to prevent such egregious cases is the topic of our article today.

Why does a mother rabbit eat her babies?

Such cases, although not something common, occur quite often. What are the reasons that a female rabbit eats baby rabbits?

Among the main reasons for this behavior of females, experts put in the first place dietary deficiencies and the inattention of the owners.

Most often this happens when the rabbit experiences an acute lack of proteins, vitamins and minerals, as well as severe postpartum thirst.

The second factor that can provoke such cases is the coarsening of the female’s nipples or her lack of milk. In third place, why the rabbit ate the rabbits, there is a reason of a completely natural nature. Sometimes, in this way, the female rabbit disposes of stillborn cubs.

The lack of water in the cage of a hatched female is a fairly common reason for eating the offspring.

Immediately before and immediately after calving, the animal experiences very strong thirst. If the owner forgot to leave fresh and clean water in the drinking bowl, then, in an attempt to compensate for the fluid deficiency in the body, the female is able to devour her own offspring. In addition, since females, due to their timidity, usually give birth in the dark (at night or early in the morning), the owners may not notice the fact of rabbit cannibalism.

In some cases, the female rabbit may experience either a severe lack of milk or complete absence.

This can be caused either by an incorrectly formulated diet or by the same fluid deficiency, and can also be associated with the individual characteristics of the female’s body (especially typical for primiparous young rabbits). In such cases, obeying instinct, the mother eats the weakest part of the offspring so that the rest of the rabbits have enough mother's milk.

There are often cases when, as a result of giving birth, dead or non-viable cubs are born, the death of which is only a matter of a short time. Here again the instinct developed by our wild ancestors comes into play. The cadaverous smell in the wild is a bait for various predators, and since there is nowhere to bury corpses in the cage to remove it from the nest, females often eat dead rabbits. Sick offspring or cubs with severe physical disabilities can also become victims of the mother, who in this way takes care of the remaining healthy babies.

Newborn rabbits can die due to the fact that the female, after giving birth, comes into a state of strong sexual heat. During this period, she thinks only about the male, behaves restlessly and often crushes the rabbits, and also stops feeding them. And what she can do with the dead - we have already said above.

Children often die from too much low temperatures. Baby rabbits can easily freeze, for example, by accidentally falling out of the nest. A frozen baby rabbit irritates the rabbit, and she can get rid of it in this way. The offspring can also be frozen by owners who have not properly prepared the cage and queen cell for the cubs and the female.

Since rabbits are very shy animals, they can become stressed for a variety of reasons: loud noises, sudden changes in environment, rough handling, other pets, and so on.

Such a stressful state may also well provoke an act of cannibalism.

Therefore, the cage with the new mother should be isolated from sources of loud sounds, and access to it by strangers or animals should be denied. Unfamiliar smells can also frighten the rabbit, causing her to stop recognizing her babies. No matter how much you would like to, you cannot pick up small rabbits unless necessary.

Inexperienced young mothers often injure their babies by clumsily biting off the umbilical cord.

If a drop of blood gets on her tongue, the female, in a fit of intense thirst, can eat one or two rabbits.

Often, inattentive rabbit breeders accuse the female rabbit of eating young rabbits, although the real culprits are rats, ferrets or weasels.

Access to predators, for whom young rabbits are desirable prey, must be securely closed.

For herbivores in general, and for rabbits in particular, cannibalism is an extremely bad deviation. It is possible to warn him, but, alas, not always. Sometimes there are cases of the female eating the offspring without any obvious reason at all. Such female rabbits are immediately discarded and are not used for further reproduction, since the risk of relapse of such behavior is very high.

If the cause of cannibalism has been established, then eliminating it can reduce the risk of inappropriate behavior of females and make reproduction safe.

To begin with, you should constantly monitor the quantity and quality of water in the drinking bowl of a pregnant and nursing mother.

There should always be enough of it, and before each change of drink, the drinking bowl should be thoroughly washed.

It is equally important to choose the right diet for the female. It should be not only nutritious, but also complete. It must contain a sufficient amount of minerals and vitamins.

The size of the cage in which the nursing female is kept should provide enough space for her and future offspring.

It is important to examine the remains of the bitten rabbit. If his abdomen is damaged, the female has bitten off the umbilical cord incorrectly. If the head was trying to remove the amniotic sac. In both cases, these are signs of inexperience, which most often go away on their own with age.

Content:

Rabbits are prolific animals; their ability to reproduce has long been legendary. Females are wonderful, caring mothers, but sometimes situations arise when a female rabbit simply eats her children. This behavior is not normal for an animal, and therefore the breeder needs to understand the reasons leading to tragic consequences.

Maternal instinct in female rabbits

A few days before the birth of the young, the female begins to prepare for this event by collecting suitable material from which the nest will be made. These are particles of hay, straw, leaves from branch food, and fluff plucked from oneself. At the moment the baby rabbits are born, a caring mother bites their umbilical cord and also helps them free themselves from the amniotic sac.

Some farmers become concerned if the female is indifferent to her rabbits during the daytime. But such worries are in vain: obeying instinct, the mother tries to attract as little attention as possible from strangers to the nest where the children are.

To reassure, the owner can carefully look into the house and make sure that everything is in order inside. Baby rabbits should be in the nest and fast asleep. This behavior indicates their satiety. Hungry young animals crawl around the nest and squeak restlessly. These animals have wrinkled skin on their bellies. Well-fed rabbits have smooth skin, without folds in the tummy area, and the babies spend most of their time sleeping.

Why can a female eat her offspring?

The first thing after giving birth is that the mother rabbit licks and feeds the young. But it also happens that the female partially or completely eats the offspring. There may be several reasons, here are the main ones:

There is not enough water in the cell. After giving birth, the female needs drinking water to quench her thirst, and in large quantities. If there is not enough liquid, then the female rabbit begins to eat the offspring and thus quenches her own thirst.
Avitaminosis. During the prenatal period, female rabbits should be provided with a complete diet that will satisfy all the body’s needs for vitamin and mineral complexes. Poor nutrition leads to the fact that the female replenishes nutrients by eating the offspring.
Poor diet and lack of feed after birth. The mother rabbit will not be able to feed her young if she does not receive food in the right quantity. Lack of feed leads to the destruction of all or some part of the offspring a few days after birth.
The birth of weak or stillborn rabbits. If such animals have no chance of survival (or are already born dead), then the rabbit eats them. This is a manifestation of innate instinct.
Stressful situation. The rabbit is an animal with increased sensitivity, and therefore some primiparous females experience severe shock after childbirth and, out of inexperience, eat the baby rabbits in order to destroy their smell in their own nest.
Heavy births. Sometimes (very rarely) the birth process may involve some complications, then the mother rabbit will help the babies leave the birth canal by using her teeth and pulling them out into the light. Such assistance often ends in the absence of limbs or ears in young animals.

Worth knowing. There are females who eat their first litter, and then don’t do this anymore and become excellent mothers. But if the situation repeats, this female rabbit must be culled from the reproductive herd.

Refusal of female rabbits from young animals

Some mothers ignore their children who try to remind her of their existence by squeaking. The rabbit goes to the far corner of the cage and pretends that she doesn’t hear anything.

The manifestation of this behavior is typical for primiparous rabbits, for whom childbirth is a strong stress and a sharp change in the usual life cycle. Before giving birth, the female can be transplanted into a larger cage with conditions different from the old ones. If the owner frequently inspects the nesting house, the female may begin to perceive it as a threat to her life. In the presence of extraneous sounds the rabbit is completely lost and begins to ignore her offspring.

Being in a stressful situation, the female will refuse to care for the rabbits; the feeling of fear will completely drown out the maternal instinct.

Problems with milk production can also become a reason for abandonment of offspring. Here the female rabbit can act in two ways: simply not notice the young or eliminate the cause of the discomfort by eating the young.

If you refuse to feed your rabbits, you need to figure out the reasons for the situation as soon as possible and take measures to correct them, otherwise the litter will die.

Daily change of bedding and constant intervention of the farmer in the life of the female can lead to the fact that she simply stops caring for the offspring. Performing this function is possible only in a calm and familiar environment, and therefore the owner is not recommended to disturb the animal and newborn young without special reasons.

The female tramples her offspring: what is the reason

Some breeders are faced with a different problem: an adult female tramples the rabbits. She can run around the perimeter of the nesting house and not pay any attention to the fact that she is trampling on her children. In addition, the female rabbit refuses to feed the offspring, can scatter the little rabbits throughout the cage, and display aggression and restless behavior.

Here the reason may be that the individual came into heat immediately after giving birth. Inappropriate behavior is the result of hormonal imbalance and a sharp release of hormones into the circulatory system. In this case, the female must be covered as soon as possible before she completely harms her children. After mating, the female rabbit begins to behave much calmer, and her maternal instinct awakens.

How to deal with problems

Of course, the above behavior of female rabbits causes damage to rabbit farming. To avoid losses or minimize them, it is worth understanding ways to prevent the situations described above. Details in the following table:

Problem name		Solutions
Eating offspring	Lack of water, vitamin deficiency, poor quality feeding, stillbirth, weak offspring, stress, difficult birth	Monitoring the amount of water in drinking bowls, providing a complete diet before and after birth
Scattering baby rabbits	Inexperience of the female rabbit associated with the first birth, transfer to a new cage, lack of a nesting house, coming into heat, lack of milk, mastitis, the presence of a foreign odor (the owner took the rabbits in his hands), stressful situations, stillbirth	Inspection of the nest to identify stillborn rabbits and their removal from the cage, examination of the female rabbit for her health and possible appearance mastitis. If detected, urgent treatment is required*
Trampling the offspring	Insufficient space in the cage, coming into heat, stressful situation, lack of a nesting house	Selecting a cage of sufficient size, installing a nesting house, covering the female, eliminating stressful situations

*mastitis is detected by the presence of an enlarged nipple, redness, hardness, pain during examination and purulent discharge.

How to properly arrange a nesting house

A few days before the birth, it is necessary to install a special box in the cage, which will act as a nest, where the birth will occur. The bottom is lined with straw or hay in sufficient quantities. As a rule, females also add their own down for insulation. If for some reason the rabbit did not do this, then such work is assigned to the farmer.

It is strictly forbidden to pick up young animals that have just been born, otherwise the rabbits will acquire an alien odor, which can provoke aggression from the female. If it is necessary to examine the babies, you need to wear gloves, and in order for the mother to accept them, the rabbits should be rubbed with the female's down.

Instead of fluff, wormwood can be used: the smell of this herb drowns out everything else.

What to do if you have mastitis

If mastitis is detected, it is necessary to take the following measures:

Separate the mother rabbit from the babies.
The young animals are completely cleared of the female's fluff and transplanted to another rabbit, having previously placed the fluff on the "adopted" children.
Treatment of a sick rabbit before full recovery.
Conducting test feeding by the mother of the cubs and observing behavior.

Forced feeding is allowed, in some cases it leads to positive results:

the assistant holds the female, pressing her to the floor, thereby preventing her from crushing the rabbits;
the owner places the young animals at the teats for feeding.

Kira Stoletova

Childbirth is a joyful event in the activities of a breeder, farmer or ordinary owner of a domestic rabbit. One and the most known issues, associated with the birth of rabbits, is considered to be eating and injuring the offspring by the mother. Why does a mother rabbit eat her babies? There can be many reasons.

A mother rabbit eats baby rabbits due to stress, lack of water after childbirth, or a missing maternal instinct. It is important to remember that domestic rabbits are different from their wild counterparts. Very often, the roots of the reason why a mother rabbit eats baby rabbits lie in the primitive instincts of the animal.

In the wild

In the forest, the eared rabbit cannot afford to raise defective offspring, so at the slightest hint of this, the female stops feeding and destroys the rabbits. The same thing happens if the offspring is too large. In this case, the cubs are born smaller and weaker.

For a rodent, this serves as a signal for the rabbits’ poor vitality, and the female kills them without a shadow of a doubt. We suggest taking a closer look at the reasons why a mother rabbit eats her babies, as well as ways to avoid this problem.

The reason for harm to rabbits by the female

In fact, there are many reasons for a mother rabbit to eat baby rabbits. Sometimes it has to do with the age of the female. The first birth of a rodent can occur at 5 months of age, but you should hurry. The young female does not have the necessary experience to do everything right. There is an opinion that the mother rabbit eats her babies immediately after giving birth or even during this process. But such cases are extremely rare. Most often, the offspring suffers in the first week from the actions of the young mother.

After birth, the rabbits should be carefully examined. A bitten belly of the cubs indicates the female's inexperience in trying to gnaw the umbilical cord. If the paws and ears were crippled, the baby could not get out, and the mother tried to help him. A mother rabbit may accidentally injure her baby's head while trying to remove the film from it. Rabbits have extremely sharp teeth, and sometimes pets cannot calculate the strength of their bite. Usually, such incidents disappear by the second or third birth, but if the female rabbit continues to cripple her offspring at the birth stage, she is unsuitable for divorce.

Sometimes a young rodent does not even understand what happened to him and therefore tries to destroy the source of stress - the rabbits. For the first few days, it is important to carefully monitor the behavior of the young mother: if the rabbit ignores her cubs or, conversely, behaves too actively, then perhaps she has lost her maternal instinct. In this case, the rabbits are usually transplanted to another female.

When instinct fails

Maternal instinct is a series of norms of behavior based on the desire to protect and preserve offspring. Thanks to this, animals are able to survive and reproduce in the wild. However, very often more than half of the offspring does not survive in natural conditions. That is why the frequency of birth is 4-5 times a year.

Why does maternal instinct disappear in females at home?

A common reason for this is the reduced risk of danger. A rabbit raised on a farm does not feel threatened by outside world the same as in the wild, and therefore is less interested in protecting her cubs. There are others possible reasons loss of instinct:

stress after childbirth, especially after the first;
crowded, dirty or poorly equipped nest;
too much a large number of of people;
foreign odors and loud sounds;
bustling environment;
presence of domestic predators (cats, dogs).

In any case, it is impossible to accurately determine the cause of the loss of maternal instinct. This happens individually for each individual, the answer to the question “what to do?” is also individual.

The female rabbit may stop feeding and destroy inferior individuals.

Sometimes the cub can be eaten if the female accidentally runs over it. This is also one of the primary instincts. The corpse of a baby rabbit can attract the smell of a predator to the nest. By the way, not only a female rabbit can eat dead rabbits; sometimes rats or birds of prey do this.

In addition to the loss of maternal instinct, the reason for eating the offspring may be a lack of water. The animal's body becomes severely dehydrated during childbirth, so it is necessary to ensure that the pet has access to water during birth, otherwise the rabbit herself will look for a way to replenish the lack of fluid in the body, and the simplest solution will be to eat the baby rabbits.

Very often, female rabbits can harm their babies due to increased aggression. Its reason is the desire to protect the rabbits from possible danger. There is no need to touch the cubs and the female during feeding; it is important to surround them with a calm environment. The rabbit should feel comfortable complete safety Otherwise, she often rushes to the aid of the offspring and often crushes them. Sometimes female rabbits begin to eat babies if there are more than 6 of them in the litter. Such babies are usually weaker and the female considers them unfit for life.

The rabbit ate the baby rabbits

ALIVE The rabbit ate the baby rabbits

What to do if the rabbit died, scattered, or ate the rabbits?

Methods to combat cannibalism in rabbits

In fact, with a properly equipped nest and good nutrition female rabbits rarely eat their young. It is important to remember that pregnancy and childbirth are exhausting processes for the animal body. The body cannot produce most useful substances on its own. During pregnancy, many vitamins and minerals should be added to the rabbit's complementary foods. For this regular one will do nettle scalded with boiling water. It is also recommended to give other types of greens: plantain, sorrel, carrot tops. It would be a good idea to mix bone meal and chalk into complementary foods: the expectant mother’s body may lack calcium. Before contacting a pregnant female, you should not spray perfume or smoke: rabbits react acutely to strong odors.

A special place for the first days of baby rabbits’ lives deserves special attention. A properly equipped nest for baby rabbits can guarantee peace of mind for the female. After deciding to make a nest yourself, you should follow simple rules:

it is advisable to use a closed wooden box and natural bedding (straw or hay);
the location of the nest should be quiet and calm, without drafts or strong odors;
In winter, the box should be insulated; ordinary bottles with warm water are suitable for this;
the nest should be inaccessible to other domestic animals and birds.

A number of these precautions will help to avoid many troubles during childbirth. It is important that the rabbit feels as calm, protected and well-fed as possible.

It is extremely important to pay attention to how the mother feels after giving birth. If the female is breathing heavily, if her eyes are watering, and there is an increased body temperature, it means that the calving was not very successful. In this case, the female is separated from the offspring, and the babies are transferred to another female.

Refusal of the female from the cubs and harm to them: what to do?

The female’s refusal to give up her cubs is visible almost immediately: she throws the babies around, rushes about, and sometimes crushes them. In this case, the babies should be placed with another rabbit, and this should be done quickly and carefully. The mother who has abandoned her offspring is placed in another enclosure, and the rabbits are placed in the mother of a female who has recently given birth. So that another rabbit perceives refuseniks normally, you can treat the cubs and own hands wormwood. It is harmless to newborns and blocks human odor. After a few minutes, you need to check: if the female has not started scattering her babies, then the adoption was successful.

Sometimes the reason for refusal can be poor lactation in a rabbit. In this case, it is worth checking the female for mastitis. Breast massage can also help.

From all of the above, we can conclude: a female rabbit is capable of eating her rabbits for many reasons. This could be due to natural instincts, an unsuitable breeding site, or stress after childbirth. With proper preparation for the birthing process, the risk of eating the offspring is extremely low. It is also extremely important for a person to control the process of birth and feeding of rabbits. Rabbits are not carnivores and a female will not eat her offspring without reason.

It often happens that a female rabbit begins to eat, crush, scatter, or simply kill her offspring. There are a few various reasons, why does a mother rabbit eat baby rabbits? And if you understand in advance what to do, you can not only save the cubs, but also take such measures that the rabbit will not behave in this way.

The first step when scattering baby rabbits is to place the female rabbit.

Very often, farmers are faced with the fact that immediately after giving birth, the female scatters her rabbits. There may be several reasons for this behavior:

The emotional stress of an animal is literally a fever, an unhealthy mental state. It may be related to a variety of factors. First of all, you need to figure out whether something happened behind Lately some important changes in the rabbit’s life. Perhaps the cage was rearranged, and the new place was not to their liking, the dog is bothered by peeking in from the yard, the proximity of noisy people is unpleasant, etc.
Stressful conditions are often complicated by the individual character of the animal - often female rabbits can have a very nervous, not calm disposition, such as, for example, inherent.
Temperature drop below normal. Rabbits feel very well at a temperature slightly below room temperature - about 16-18 o C. If a sharp decrease occurs, and too large fluctuations in temperature are observed, this almost always leads to stress in the animal, which is why the female practically does not notice her offspring and begins to behave very aggressively.
Often, after giving birth, female rabbits, especially young animals, begin to again demand the male’s covering. This happens due to the fact that females experience hormonal changes. As a result, they become very aggressive and begin to scatter or even destroy their offspring.

Attention! The first measure in case of such behavior should be to move the animal from the cage with the rabbits to the cage with the male.

Solution

Before the birth, the cage is placed in a secluded place with the possibility of observing the female.

Thus, the cause of the female’s aggressive behavior is both improper care conditions and the individual characteristics of the animal. Therefore, the preventive measures are as follows:

Track the character of the female rabbit before giving birth and identify possible risks associated with a restless character.
If she starts scattering the rabbits, immediately remove them from the cage.
During pregnancy and after childbirth, ensure normal conditions for temperature and feeding. It is very undesirable to rearrange it even to a quiet place - a change can have unpredictable consequences.

Why does a mother rabbit eat her babies?

Often the female not only destroys the offspring, scatters the cubs, but also eats them. Almost always, such behavior is associated with an unbalanced diet. In most cases, the female eats several cubs, and in rare cases completely eats them.

As a result of poor maintenance of the female, one or two rabbits remain from the entire litter.

The reasons may be as follows:

The simplest one is the lack of enough water. During birth and the first days after it, the animal loses a lot of moisture and strives to make up for its deficiency in any way. The instinct of self-preservation becomes stronger than the maternal one.
Aggressive behavior associated with a stressful state, the desire to happen to the rabbit, was described above. It can also lead to the destruction of the young.

Important! If this is not the first time a female rabbit eats babies, the animal should be discarded. In this case, there is a deviation in behavior, and to clarify the real reason It will be quite difficult and costly.

Unbalanced, severe lack of protein. During pregnancy and the first time after giving birth, feeders and drinkers should be especially carefully monitored - all resources should be sufficient for the female rabbit.

If the female ate newborn rabbits

The female instinctively eats newborn cubs that have developmental defects or are stillborn.

It often happens that a female rabbit eats almost newborn babies, and it is almost impossible to keep track of at what stage this happened. In most cases, the reasons for this behavior are explained by unsuccessful childbirth and have nothing to do with the nature of the mother, her diet and other reasons:

A stillborn offspring was born, a premature birth occurred - in this case, the female behaves instinctively, just as many other animals do: for example, cats also eat stillborn kittens. This is done not only for sanitary purposes, but also to ensure that the smell of decomposing bodies does not attract the attention of predators.
It is worth paying attention to exactly which parts were eaten. If small rabbits died due to bites in the umbilical cord area, it means that the female, due to inexperience, was unable to bite it off correctly. If the bites are in different parts bodies, perhaps she tried to help the rabbits get out and could not do it carefully - the teeth of this animal are known to be very sharp.
Sometimes it happens that for some reason the female’s milk disappears - you need to feel the nipples, and if they are completely dry and milk does not appear, this is the reason.
Finally, the female rabbit could clumsily bite through the birth membrane.

Thus, the only possible preventive measure, which depends on the farmer, is in this case, provide the animal with a sufficient amount of nutritious food and water.

Why doesn't the mother rabbit feed her babies?

During the time of restless behavior of the rabbit, the babies are put away.

And another one possible problem in this category - the female rabbit does not feed newborns. This behavior is almost always combined with a real riot of the female - she runs around the cage, behaves very excitedly and can crush the rabbits through negligence. Often the animal tears up its down and also carries hay in its mouth.

The reasons are as follows: within the next 3-4 days after giving birth, the female is ready for the next mating. If a male's cage is nearby, this will only increase her desire.

Ways to solve the problem are:

Take the cage with the male as far away as possible - of course, it is better to do this in advance.
If the problem cannot be solved, you can mate the female rabbit. It is very good if there is an old male on the farm from whom no one gets pregnant. After mating, the female will calm down and will be able to normally take care of her babies. This solution is quite popular among experienced farmers; it is called provocation.

If the female rabbit does not want to nurse the litter, the young rabbits can be placed in a nest with another female rabbit.

If the female’s nipples hurt and milk is not released well, then the solution to the situation in the latter case will be as follows:

The female rabbit leaves the cage with the rabbits.
The cubs are taken out, completely cleaned of their mother's down, and placed in a cage with another nurse, having previously covered them with her down.
Restorative procedures are carried out with the true mother: nipples are lubricated vegetable oil and massage until milk comes out.
Try feeding her cubs and see how the animal behaves.

In extreme cases, you can try a force-feeding session - sometimes this helps. The sequence of actions is as follows:

One person holds the female rabbit tightly, pressing her back to the floor so that she cannot crush the cubs.
The second one places the babies so that they can find the nipples on their own.

Artificial feeding and self-care of rabbits

If the rabbit refuses to feed the babies, you can hold her by force.

If this method does not bring results, you can try artificial feeding, but such a measure will be an extreme measure. However, it is not advisable to use cow's milk. The best option- goat, as well as artificial compounds for rabbits or puppies.

A pacifier can be made from a pipette (when the rabbits grow up). And at the very first stages, you can inject the mixture using a syringe without a needle.

You don’t need to feed the cubs in such a way as to squirt milk into the mouth - you just need to lubricate the muzzle, nose, and lips with milk. At the same time, the rabbit is held in vertical position. When the baby gets comfortable, you can pour the milk drop by drop directly into the oral cavity. At the end of feeding, the muzzle should be wiped with a damp cloth.

Feeding is carried out at least 5 times a day. Milk volumes are shown in the table.

Artificially fed rabbits should not be overfed.

Upon reaching two weeks of age, you can give more than 15 ml of milk (5 approaches of 3 ml). It is also advisable to introduce the following into their diet for grown-up cubs:

grated fresh carrots;
finely chopped fresh herbs;
finely chopped hay.

You should also begin to teach them to drink from dishes - for this, babies are brought to a wide container of water and poked with their muzzle.

Important! It is better to slightly underfeed the cubs than to overfeed them, since in this case death may occur due to damage to internal organs. You need to monitor how the belly swells, avoiding its excessive increase in volume.

The video highlights the question of why a mother rabbit destroys her babies:

We often hear from novice farmers that a female rabbit ate her newborn offspring. There may be several reasons for this behavior. Why does a mother rabbit eat baby rabbits and what to do about this problem, we will tell you in this article.

In rabbit farming, there are cases when a female, after giving birth, eats baby rabbits, crushes the babies, or simply leaves them to die. One of the main reasons for cannibalism in rabbits is the lack of vitamins and proteins in their bodies, and postpartum thirst. The second reason is hardening of the nipples or lack of milk in the female. And finally, disposal of dead offspring. Let's take a closer look at all the reasons.

Shortly before giving birth and immediately after giving birth, the animal develops severe thirst. Trying to compensate for the lack of water in the body, the rabbit can eat her own baby.

For some reason, a rabbit’s body may experience a deficiency or complete absence of milk. Therefore, instinctively, the female eats some of the rabbits to enable the rest to survive.

It happens that rabbits can be born dead or with severe abnormalities leading to death. To prevent the corpse smell from attracting the attention of predators, the mother has to eat the dead babies. Or she can kill sick and defective rabbits so that the rest grow up healthier.

Female rabbits can go into heat immediately after giving birth. In this case, the female is capable of killing the offspring by not allowing them to eat normally.

Severe stress can also cause cannibalism. Loud noises and sudden changes in environment are contraindicated for females after giving birth. The rabbit is also frightened by an unfamiliar smell, and she may stop recognizing her offspring. Therefore, you cannot pick up babies, no matter how much you would like to. Also, inexperienced young females can injure their cubs during childbirth by clumsily gnawing the umbilical cord.

We also note that farmers often sin against rabbits when the babies are harmed by rats or weasels. It is necessary to secure the rabbitry from the penetration of these animals.

Is it possible and how to prevent it?

It is important to note that rabbits are not carnivorous animals, and their cannibalism is an unpleasant deviation. It can be prevented, but not always. It happens that the female eats the offspring without visible reasons. Such a rabbit will have to be rejected if accidents are repeated. It is unlikely that it will be possible to wean an animal off new “food”. In other cases, you can try to eliminate negative factors.

During birth and immediately after it, there should be enough fresh water in the drinking bowl. Also, the diet of a pregnant female should be complete and include vitamins and microelements. The cage for a nursing female should not be too cramped.

If the baby rabbit is eaten, examine how much and in what places. Damage to the abdomen is a sign that an inexperienced rabbit tried to chew the umbilical cord. If the head is damaged, it means that the mother tried to remove the amniotic sac from the baby. With age, this problem in females usually disappears.

Avoid any stress for the nursing mother. It is unacceptable to suddenly change the diet or relocate a female rabbit and her offspring. Only one person should look after her. There should be no noise or extraneous animals near the home. A frightened mother may jump on her children, wanting to protect them, and end up crushing them. It is better not to touch the baby rabbits with your hands so that someone else’s smell does not “stick” to them. The bedding in the nest is changed no earlier than on the 6th day after birth.

When stressed, females may instinctively try to clear the nest of offspring and their scent to avoid attracting the attention of predators. Rabbits themselves are shy animals. Childbirth is a lot of stress, and young female rabbits under 6 months of age may behave inappropriately. This goes away with age.

Video “Mother rabbit and newborn rabbits”

In the video you can observe the behavior of a female rabbit immediately after giving birth, and also see newborn rabbits.

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