Kindling can be a nervous time for rabbit breeders, especially those who are new to it. Fortunately, most of the time, it goes smoothly when a mother meat rabbit gives birth. There is little you’ll really need to do.
This is what to watch for and what to do when your meat rabbit gives birth.
Jump to:
- The Days Before Kindling
- Start the Kit Watch Day 30
- Expect Kits Day 31-32, Up to Day 35
- What You Can Expect to See When Your Meat Rabbit Gives Birth
- The First Check: What to Do When Kits Arrive
- A quick check of the nest
- Remove deceased kits and afterbirth if present
- A clean, dry nest box
- Signs of Successful Care and Mothering
- What Negligent Doe Care Might Look Like
- What Newborn Rabbit Kits Look Like at Birth
- Can You Handle Kits on the Day They’re Born? When You Can Handle Meat Rabbit Kits
- Feeding the Mother Doe Rabbit
- Kits and Nursing – What to Expect
- Keeping Life Quiet and Normal in the Rabbitry
- The Days Ahead
The Days Before Kindling
Care of your new litter really starts with breeding, but there isn’t much for you to do until day 28, when the nest box goes in. This is when your more active care starts and when you start “caring” for your litter.
Expect your doe to have her kits around 32 days after she is bred. Almost all does will kindle on day 31 or 32 after breeding. Day 32 is the most common day for delivery. However, you should start watching for kits as soon as the nest box is put in—in other words, on day 28 and every day after that. Like humans, rabbits can have a range in gestation (less significant a range, but a range nonetheless).
You don’t need to be obsessive with checking on your doe, but it’s smart to check morning and night, and as you get closer to day 31 and 32, possibly mid-day if you’re around.
What you’re really looking for in the early days leading up to birth is nesting activity. Check to see that your rabbit is building a nest. At first, this will just look like gathering hay and moving it into the box or burrowing the hay into a cylinder-type shape in the box and up the sides of the box.
This type of behavior is a good sign that your doe has good mothering instincts and will probably take good care of her kits.
Start the Kit Watch Day 30
Start seriously expecting kits from day 30 on, but again, understanding that you’re more likely for them to be born on day 32. Don’t get nervous if you don’t have kits by 31 days. Give her time. Also, if your doe was mated more than one day in a row with the buck, count the extra days and understand that you may have built in a range if she was not bred until the second or third day trying.
When kindling does take place, it will probably happen at night when it’s quiet, and the doe has privacy. Don’t expect to see it, and don’t stress or obsessively check your doe. She knows what to do.
Expect Kits Day 31-32, Up to Day 35
You’ll almost certainly see kits on day 31 or 32, but it can take as long as 35 days (and rarely, up to 40, but that is not very common). Most breeders will give up and call it a missed breeding if there are not kits by day 35. If that is the case, breed the doe again on day 35 and start over.
If you feel more comfortable waiting out the 40 days, you can, but it’s usually a waste of time. By now, you'll probably notice there is no nesting activity, and your gut will probably tell you there are no kits coming. Once you have had a couple of litters with your does, you’ll know their individual cycle, and it’s not likely to change by more than a day (and that day probably has more to do with your time of day breeding and your counting than the doe’s reproductive cycle or gestation period).
So, when you get to know your does, you’ll know whether it’s worth waiting to 40 days. Only wait that long if it’s your first time breeding that doe or if you’ve experienced her going longer than 35 days before.
What You Can Expect to See When Your Meat Rabbit Gives Birth
In the hours just before birth—and often does will do this only in the minutes just before birth—your doe will pull fur to line the nest to cushion and warm the kits. A pile of fur in the nest is a sure sign that birth is coming soon. It may already have happened.
When you see fur piled, as long as the mother is not in active birth and seems comfortable, you can place your hand gently over the pile of fur. If kindling has happened, you’ll feel a wriggling clutch of baby rabbits under that fur.
You may see some signs of birth, like blood in the box, under the cage, or in a drop pan. Blood should not be significant. Some rabbits do such a good job cleaning up that you may see very little blood at all. Hopefully, this is the case.
If the bleeding was excessive, the doe may have had trouble. To be frank, at this point, there is little you can do about it except check on her periodically to see if she is in good condition, and if she fails, foster the kits to another doe if there is one that recently gave birth.
If you don’t have another doe, you can try hand feeding and hand raising the kits, but this is very difficult with rabbits, and it’s hard to find a replacement for that rich mother’s milk. Many serious breeders would cull the litter at this point; not because they are cruel, but to save the kits from prolonged starvation and death.
Scary scenarios aside, rest assured that rabbits are very good, natural breeders and good mothers most of the time. Most of the time, nothing goes wrong; the mom gives birth easily without you knowing, and she raises her kits well.
The First Check: What to Do When Kits Arrive
Truly, meat rabbits are good, natural mothers, and they—and their kits—don't need a lot from you when they kindle. In fact, if you did nothing but gave the mother good food and water (which you will), she and her litter would be fine and would live and thrive with nature taking its course almost all of the time.
A quick check of the nest
It is a good idea to do a minimal, quick check of the nest when you realize the litter has been born. Look to see that there seems to be enough fur pulled to keep the kits warm. Look for a well-organized nest with the hay tunnel in the back, kits tucked in the back of the nest, and the litter covered with that nice, big pile of fur.
If there does not seem to be enough fur to keep the kits warm, try gently pulling some fur from the mother’s belly or chest/dewlap area. If you need more, you can substitute dryer lint or pulled cotton balls. Breeders will often take extra fur from one nest if it is excessive, bag it, and save it for emergencies such as this.
Remove deceased kits and afterbirth if present
Most rabbit mothers eat the afterbirth, so you may never see it, and that is a good thing. It means she has good instincts and is working to keep the nest clean.
Do check around to see if there are any remaining lumps of placenta or afterbirth. If she’s had enough time to clean up, take it out and discard it, but otherwise, leave the nest as she’s built it.
A clean, dry nest box
The only other thing to keep looking for is a clean, dry nest box. There won’t be much for you to do on this score in most cases, but once in a while, does that feel threatened (such as if a rodent or wildlife is trying to get into the cage or is stealing kits), the mother may urinate on the kits to hide their scent.
Wetness like this, especially in cold weather, can kill kits, so if you find this, first dry off the kits, provide dry bedding if needed (reserving the fur or replacing it if you have to), and then find out what’s threatening the mother and take measures to stop the threat.
Signs of Successful Care and Mothering
Signs of successful care and mothering include:
- A well-organized nest box
- Plenty of fur to keep kits warm—more in cold weather, perhaps less in summer
- Kits covered up when the mother is not with them
- Kits all together in the back of the box
- In hot weather, the mother may pull back fur to cool the kits and the nest and keep the kits from overheating. She’ll cover them again when it cools off. Trust her to moderate the temperature of the nest.
- If kits die of natural causes, she may move them out or to the front of the nest (in which case you should take them out and dispose of them). She may eat them, but this does not always mean the mother is mean (unless she starts doing it to all of the kits or live kits). Often, eating kits is just the only way she knows how to clean the nest and protect the rest of the litter.
Well-cared-for and well-fed kits will start to plump up in the first few days. Wrinkling of the skin is typical at birth and for a few days until the kits gain weight, but you should notice a smoothing out of the skin and early hair growth by day three, showing you kits are eating and growing and developing.
It takes a couple of days for kits to show visibly full bellies and for the skin to smooth out their wrinkles because the first feedings are colostrum, which is critical and nourishing but doesn’t amount to much in volume. Mother’s milk will come in within one to two days. You can gently turn her over and squeeze her nipples to see if there is milk coming out. You should also be able to feel that her mammary glands are enlarged and producing (but be aware that if you check after a feeding, they may seem empty because they probably are).
If wrinkly skin continues after three days, kits may be underfed. You can try to step in, but it’s difficult to hand raise kits. Your best bet is probably to shelve the kits* and bring them out twice a day for feeding or to sit with the mother on your lap and latch the kits on so they can eat. Feeding usually takes no more than five minutes per feeding.
(*Shelving kits means you bring the nest box inside to a warm space and only take them out to the mother for feeding time for the first week or two until she gets on board with mothering. In my opinion, it’s a last resort, and I see too many people doing this when it’s not called for, like just because the weather is cold. A good mother can take good care of kits well in temperatures even below freezing.)
Mostly, good mothering looks a lot like nothing much is happening in the first days, and that is a good thing. It looks like a quiet nest of kits hidden under a pile of fur, a nest that only changes a little while mom uncovers and recovers kits to feed them, and a mother that lays outside the box or minds her own business most of the time. Uneventful is good.
What Negligent Doe Care Might Look Like
When a doe doesn’t care for her litter of meat rabbit kits properly, it often starts before birth, when she should be building a nest. You might see her:
- Failing to build a nest at all
- Not packing in hay
- Eating the hay or digging out the nest
- Soiling the nest (using it as a litterbox)
- Not pulling fur or only pulling a little bit of fur
- Small amounts of fur elsewhere in the cage, with none or very little in the box
- Generally disorganized and disinterested.
Of course, does can also make nice nests and still be bad mothers. Some other things to look for are:
- Kits born on the wire and not in the box
- Kits born all over the box and not kept together in a cluster for warmth under the hay
- A messy box that isn’t cleaned after birth
- Kits at the front of the box or outside the box who were still latched or looking for milk when she stopped feeding (this isn’t always a sign of poor mothering, but in combination with other signs it may indicate she isn’t great)
- Kits that are hungry and not gaining weight, appearing sunken and shriveled, with sunken stomachs and low tone and skin moisture
Kits are naturally a bit wrinkly for the first few days, so wrinkled skin for two or three days is not a bad sign, but you should see them looking more hydrated and the extra skin being taken up as they grow.
What Newborn Rabbit Kits Look Like at Birth
Rabbit kits aren’t really very cute when they are born. They have no fur, have closed eyes, and loose, wrinkled skin. They don’t do much but huddle for warmth in the nest, rest, and wait for their doe to come feed them. If you’ve ever seen baby mice or rats, they look a lot like them but with longer ears.
From day one to five, there is a noticeable difference in skin tone and development. It becomes even more prominent after those first three days. After a few days, you’ll see the start of fur growing, which will look more like a shine or sheen than fur at first and then continue to grow longer.
By two weeks old, when kits start to open their eyes and venture out of the nest box, they will have a short but full coat of fur. By this time, they will truly look like miniature rabbits. Growth and development happen fast in baby rabbits, and you’ll be amazed at the change that occurs daily.
Can You Handle Kits on the Day They’re Born? When You Can Handle Meat Rabbit Kits
It’s been said for many years that you should not touch or handle rabbit kits on the day they are born and not for a week to two weeks after. This is advice given so that the mother doe does not become stressed and chew or eat her kits in an effort to hide the nest.
The truth is, most meat rabbit breeders disregard this well-intentioned but impractical and largely unnecessary advice. Good rabbit does who are used to you and your scent are not likely to view you as a threat. A threat would be a predator or invading rodent or something coming in actively trying to steal kits or attack the doe and/or her kits.
Your meat rabbits associate you with water, care, and feeding. Because you are active in your rabbitry and providing for their needs, your meat rabbit does--especially if they have been selected for good temperaments and kit care—should be fine with you putting hands in the cage and in the nest for reasonable care. They should even tolerate you picking up kits for a quick check, count, or to clean a nest.
That said, don’t overdo it. There is no need for you to be handling newborn kits very much in the first week or so. You only need to be doing quick checks and counts.
Also, kits that are handled are kits that are not in the warmth and protection of their fur-lined nest, and that is the best and warmest, safest place for them to be. So even if the mother does not have a problem with it, you are unnecessarily exposing the furless kit to the cold and elements.
- On the first day, just place your hand over the fur to see if there are moving kits below
- If the mother doe is fine with that, you can take a quick peak, but keep in mind this is when kits are at their most vulnerable, and they need the protection of the nest
- Keep your checks to short inspections of the kits and the nest
- Don’t keep kits out of the lined nest for long
- When you check the nest, gently pull back the fur pile, but try not to mess the nest up and keep it in order so the kits can be re-covered with their soft, warm fur blanket
- Don’t handle kits with wet hands or hold them in wind and cold
Feeding the Mother Doe Rabbit
This is not a time to limit the mother doe’s feed. While it is true that we don’t want to overfeed mature rabbits when they are not bred or nursing kits, you should provide a pregnant or nursing doe with as much feed and water as she needs.
- Keep feed available to the mother doe at all times
- Increase her daily pellet ration so that you are basically giving her free-choice feed
- If you use crocks, you may have to move up a size
- You should check on the doe and her cage/kits two to three times a day (visual check is fine for the kits, just enough to see that nothing is wrong)
- If the doe’s feed is low, top it up
- The doe is likely to increase feed intake as the days progress and as the kits start eating and needing more from her
- Water is critical! Nursing does need plenty of hydration and must have water available to them at all times.
- Good hydration keeps does producing enough milk to feed their young and prevents problems like mastitis
- Water also keeps the mother in top, healthy condition
If you supplement with hay, keep the hay rack full. Even with hay available to the doe all the time, keep the pellets available all the time, too. That way, you know she has as much quality, balanced, high-protein, high-nutrition feed as she needs.
The demands on a meat rabbit doe’s body when they are nursing and caring for kits is high. This is a time to be generous with feed and water. No limits. Perform periodic checks a few times a day to make sure she has what she needs.
Kits and Nursing – What to Expect
Rabbits only feed their kits twice a day, usually early and late in the morning and evening/night. You’re not all that likely to see it unless you go into your rabbitry at the beginning or end of the day. You’re probably better off not interrupting this or catching her in the act when the kits are young because the mother doe will often jump out of the nest to draw attention away from the kits, and this can leave kits underfed, exposed without covering, or dragged out of the nest if they didn’t unlatch on time.
If you do happen to interrupt feeding, it’s a good idea to peak to make sure kits are all in the nest and covered before you leave.
Don’t assume that just because you never see the mother nursing her kits that she isn’t feeding them. It’s her job and her one form of protection to keep them “hidden” from you and not draw attention to them. As long as kits are active (relative to their age), have rounded bellies that look filled up, and are not showing signs of weight loss, dehydration, lethargy, or failure to thrive, assume the mother is doing what mother knows best and is caring for—and feeding—her kits.
Keeping Life Quiet and Normal in the Rabbitry
When things go wrong—such as when a mother doe starts chewing on or apparently killing her kits, this is usually because she is threatened, and rabbits have a strange instinct to “protect” the nest and their home by removing the things that are drawing predators in—in this case, the kits. She also may try to clear the nest as part of her instinct to save herself, and she can’t run with a litter of immobile kits in tow.
Understanding this helps you to understand what the doe and her kits need from you. What they need from you is normalcy.
The key, then, is to keep things safe and relatively quiet. Does will not generally be disturbed by that which is part of normal life in the rabbitry—you, others who might usually be in the rabbitry, even pets that are not new or threatening that the rabbits are used to having around. What does are used to do not usually cause problems.
Abrupt changes, new loud noises, new dogs or cats, or a busy traffic of a lot of new people around can be disturbing. Avoid this kind of change or activity in the first week or two, but otherwise, don’t be overly stressed. Just try to keep life normal as the rabbits know it, and things should work out fine.
The Days Ahead
For the first few days, there is not much you need to do. In the days ahead, the rabbit kits will develop rapidly, and there will be more to do and more to watch for in the upcoming week or so. Feed and water for the kits will come into play.
But for now, be happy that you’ve got new kits and that your meat rabbit program is up and running. Take confidence in the fact that rabbits and nature are very good at providing for their young, and they know what to do without help most of the time. Relax, and enjoy this exciting new phase in your rabbitry!
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