patricia

My doe rabbit had 4 babies 5 weeks ago. They are housed in a hutch outdoors. Late last night I heard a squeal, I went out with the torch but all the rabbits seemed okay, i have other rabbits in seperate hutches too. Today i noticed that one of the 5 week old rabbits had a slit in her ear, surely this can only be because the mother had bit it. Does anyone know why she would have done this. She has looked after her babies really well so far, this is her 1st litter.

We suspected our rabbit may be pregnant so today, it would be her 27th day of pregnancy, we bought her a separate hutch as she is used to sharing with her sister. The hutch has 3 compartments one of which is an enclosed bedroom type area. Almost immediately she starting carrying straw in her mouth so we thought she must definitely be pregnant. I checked on her a couple of hours later and she had completely emptied all the contents of the hutch into the enclosed compartment.This included her feeding bowl with food, all the remaining straw and wood shavings and 3 rabbit toys. She has also removed lots of fur this too was in the nest. I gave her some more straw and food which she promptly started to place in the nest tipping up the food bowl in the process. I am concerned as she has left herself without food and wonder why she would feel the need to put her toys in the nest. Any advice would be appreciated as this is my 1st pregnant bun.