the hip area, the dewlap, and around the mammary glands to complete the nest (Fig. 4.15). Care should be taken when inserting the nest box to ensure that it is not placed in the doe’s latrine area or where the waterer may drip into it.
Fig. 5.10. A doe making a material nest. (Courtesy of USDA)
Fig. 5.11. A doe pulling fur and making a nest for the forthcoming litter. (Courtesy of J.I. McNitt)
A doe will usually consume less feed than normal for two or three days before birth, and a small amount of green feed each day may tempt her appetite and have a beneficial effect on the digestive system. She should be made as comfortable as possible and should be undisturbed at the time of kindling. A majority of the litters will be kindled during the night. Both the anterior or breech presentation are normal, and as a rule there are no complications at delivery if the fetuses are normal in size. Occasionally there may be only a few kits in the litter, and in these cases one or more may be abnormally large and kindling may be delayed a day or two.
As each kit is delivered, the doe licks it and may nurse it immediately. When the entire litter is kindled, she pulls more fur from her body and covers the litter.
A normal litter that is clean and has full stomachs and a comfortable nest has made a good start in life. If a doe has not kindled by day 32 to 34 of pregnancy, one method that may be used by experienced breeders is to inject the hormone oxytocin to induce labor. Kindling usually occurs within five minutes after the intramuscular injection of 2 units of oxytocin (1 unit for dwarf breeds). If the doe has not built a nest, some fur can be taken from other nest boxes to make one. Does induced by oxytocin rarely kindle in the nest box, so the kits should be picked up as soon as they are born and placed in the box. The doe will usually accept the litter.
Care of Young Litters
Following kindling, the litter should be inspected and any dead or deformed young removed. If this inspection is done quietly after the doe has left the nest box, the doe will not be disturbed and there is no danger of her injuring the young. Examine the kits to make sure they have nursed, as will be shown by full stomachs. A full stomach appears as a white band (the so-called milk line) seen beneath the surface of the abdominal skin (Fig. 5.12). If a doe does not feed her litter or has not produced enough milk, the litter should be fostered to other lactating does. Does that repeat this abnormal behavior with the next litter should be culled.
Fig. 5.12. One-day-old kits. The one on the left is a “starve out” which has not nursed, whereas the one on the right has a full stomach. Kits that have nursed have a visible “milk line” in their stomachs. (Courtesy of H. Ch. Loliger)
Occasionally the kits will become separated and will form two groups within the nest box. With small kits, there is danger that only one group will be fed. When this happens and one group of kits does not appear to be cared for, rearrange the bedding into one nest, with the depth of the nest and the fur covering regulated to keep the young comfortable. A large litter sometimes becomes split, but the doe cares equally well for both groups. If this is the case, no intervention is required. Make sure that there is bedding under the young and that there is good drainage from the nest box. If there are too many in the litter, transfer some to other litters (fostering), or if there are too few, bring in young from other litters. Fostering should be done a day or two following kindling and between litters that do not vary more than one to three days in age. Some does will accept kits of varying ages. The goal should be to form nursing groups of similarly sized kits with no more kits than available nipples.
Sometimes a doe fails to pull enough fur to cover her litter during cold weather. When you discover this, add fur from another litter or pluck fur from the doe’s body to cover the young before they are chilled. The fur is easily plucked at kindling time. If the temperatures are high and the doe pulls an excessive amount of fur, adjust the covering to the quantity needed to keep the newborn litter comfortable and save the surplus fur for an emergency when more may be needed for other litters. Inspect the litter periodically to make sure that the nest remains warm and dry and those dead kits are promptly removed.
Nest Box Management
To be satisfactory, a nest box should provide seclusion for the doe during kindling and protection and comfort for the litter afterwards. There are many types, and no one nest box is suitable for use in all rabbitries and in all seasons. Different kinds are discussed in Chapter 4, “The Rabbitry and Its Equipment.”
The bedding material should be pliable, absorbent, and of the type the doe can mix with the fur she pulls from her body, with the choice depending upon availability and upon type of nest desired. Straw, hay, wood shavings, leaves, cottonseed hulls, etc., can be used. If the does are being fed a ration consisting only of pellets, they may eat any palatable material used for bedding. Soft wood shavings or unpalatable bagasse may be used. During the warm season, less bedding is needed. When low temperatures prevail, the nest box should be filled more completely with bedding material.
Shredded paper is a poor absorbent, excelsior is harsh and does not mix readily with the fur, and both of these materials may cause suffering or death of the kits by becoming wrapped around their legs or necks. Shredded redwood bark and peat moss stain the coats, and the dust from them irritates the respiratory tracts of the young rabbits.
It has often been said that “the litter is made in the nest box,” and during the time the young rabbits spend there, their weight should increase seven to eight fold. A very important aspect of this is the milking ability of the doe, which can be assessed by the 21-day weight of the litter.
Kits will begin to develop hair within about 4 days after birth, and the eyes will open at about 10 days. The nest box may be removed when the litter is 15 to 21 days old, but the time for taking it out should be determined by the weather conditions. If it is necessary to keep it in the cage longer, it should be thoroughly inspected periodically and any soiled bedding replaced with clean. The longer the nest box is left in, the more likely that eye infections and other disease problems will develop, so the nest box should be removed as early as possible.
Does usually nurse their litters once per day. One management practice used quite extensively in Europe is to remove the nest box and put the litter in with the doe for only about five minutes per day. She usually jumps in and feeds the kits. Removal of the nest box reduces mortality caused by the doe jumping in several times a day and trampling some of the litter. With the use of a front-loading nest box (Fig. 4.16), the opening can be closed to keep the doe out except for a once-per-day nursing.
After the nest boxes are removed, they should be thoroughly washed and disinfected. They should be stored where wild rodents cannot get to them, as the smell of rodent urine may cause does to refuse to use the nest boxes.
Fostering Young
