How long are rabbits pregnant?
The average gestation period for rabbits is 28-32 days.Rabbits carry kits for 28 - 32 days from mating.Rabbits will usually give birth in the dead of the night, some time before dawn. They do not nurture their young, by which I mean they will ignore them and stay away from them as a protective measure, because they are prey animals it is safer to lure predators away from their nest. But they will feed, wash and organise their kits and nest twice a day, before dawn and after dusk when noone can see them.Make sure all the kits are warm and snuggled in the nest on day one and remove any remaining afterbirth, dead kits or soiled matter so as to keep ants away. Check again after 24hrs to be sure the babies have rounded little tummies, you should see a white patch where the milk is. If you can, weight the kits with a 1gm digital scale every day at the same time and for the first week they should put on 2+ gm a day. If their tummies are concave or they have lost weight by day 2 the mother may not be feeding all or some of them. Sometimes there are one or two weak kits that get pushed out of the way. Now it is your decision whether to let nature take its course, two days without fluids and the kit(s) will surely die as it will be too weak to fight the other kits to nurse and will dehydrate. Or you can pull the kit(s) from the nest and hand raise or just supplement returning the kit between feeds in the hope it will gain enough strength to feed from the mother. If you chose to return the kit be sure it does not get dragged out, a hungry kit will hang on to a teat, get dragged out of the nest and as the mother can not put it back it will die of hypothermia. If you are thinking of handraising the kit you will need a lot of time and patience, the first two weeks it will need 5 feeds a day and it takes about 15 minutes per kit or longer if you are learning how. You need to get some Wombaroo rabbit rearing powder from a vet or stockfeeder and initially use a 50% mix with more water so as to hydrate the bunny then on the second day a 75% up to the normal recommended mix on day 3, continue to weight the bunny daily and feed according to weight. Use a 3ml syringe and go very slowly, a tiny drop at a time so it doesn't breath it in and suffocate or develop a lung infection, I haven't had this happen, just go slowly and keep a tissue on hand to dab excess from the mouth and nose area constantly. Use a warm wet cotton wool ball to clean the sticky milk off after and slowly massage the tummy down gently to stimulate urination as the mother would by licking the kit. I find they do usually go on their own when they need to as soon as you pick them up and it squirts! But better that than soiling the nesting material. Hopefully you won't need to as they do not thrive but can be successfully raised in this way and make up their weight once they are eating. Also you need to use a probiotic like acidophilus capsule broken to use the powder at two weeks as they start eating and try to collect your adult rabbits cecotropes, the dark soft night poo that they eat, they all stick together like grapes. These provide the correct gut flora for the bunnies to colonise their digestive tracts, I mix two or three in with a feed and they don't like it but they need it, for about four nights running at around 2 weeks and anytime they seem to not be doing well. You can cut feeds down to 4 after 2 weeks and monitor them closely so they keep gaining weight until about 4 weeks down to three feeds, 5 weeks down to two feeds and 6 weeks 1 feed either first thing or last thing depending on when you know they eat the most. By 6-7 weeks they can be completely weaned and only give hay initially, it is best for the bunnies. Some chaff and pellets after 8 weeks and NO vegetables until three or four months old. They're little stomachs can't handle it. Always give unlimited hay to keep their teeth in good health. Good luck!
