Care of Baby Rabbits. Taking care of rabbits to age 2 weeks (2024)

Careof baby rabbits while in the nest box. How to care for baby bunny rabbits agezero to two weeks old.

Baby rabbit care during the first two weeks of theirlives is fairly simple. The motherrabbit will do all the feeding and cleaning of the kits.

Your job will be to ensure that the rabbit nest box stays clean and dry, and that the doe and kits stay well-fed.

Here are a few tips about taking care of baby rabbits....

1. Make sure that the mother rabbit gets all the food and water she need.

2. To take the best care of baby rabbits, you'll want to check on the bunnies every day.

You'll make surethey stay healthy, well-fed, and free of health problems, such as eyeinfections.

You’re also checking to be sure no kits get isolated in acorner of the nest box.

After one of ourdoes gave birth, I found 2 of her kits down in the burrow where they belonged,and the rest of the litter in a separate little pile in a corner of the nest box. That night, the doe fed the two kits in theburrow, and ignored, or forgot, the entire rest of the litter!

Since I was checking the litter every day, itwas clear that most kits had not been fed, but the two bunnies in the burrowhad enormous round chubby tummies. Itwas easy to put all the babies together into the burrow. The next evening all the kits got fed, andall was well.

3. To take care of baby rabbits, you want to keep the nest box from getting too fouled with either urine or round fecal pellets.

It's not that the nest needs to be sterile, because the kitsgain their gut bacteria from the mother's feces. But you don't want the nest to get damp withurine or excessively dirty.

Usually the doe stays out of the nest except for the 5-10minutes it might take her to feed her babies.But some does like to lounge in the nest all day. That's when she may just pee and poop in thenest box.

If you’ve still got days to gobefore the nest box comes out of the cage, you can either clean out the dirtyspots in the nest box or completely replace all the bedding:

• Cleaning the nest box: A couple timesover the last several years I had to empty the whole thing out and start fromscratch. (See our RabbitNest Box page for a refresher on how to fill the nest boxwith bedding materials.)

  I save as muchof the clean dry fur from the old nest as possible, and put it into the newnest, lining the new burrow so the kits will remain warm and comfortable. A rabbit nest box can get dirty in a hurryif the doe is a ‘pig.’

• Much more often, I notice the fecal marbles sittingin the front of the burrow (inside the nest box, but not down where the bunniesare sleeping). Pull the nest box outof the cage and scoop most of these out.

  At thesame time, you can determine whether or not the nest is wet with urine. Has the doe been also peeing in thenest? If the shavings seem damp, scoop out the damp shavings as well.Then you can smooth out the bedding material, and perhaps toss a bitmore hay into the nest box before placing it back in the rabbit cage. Add a handful of fresh shavings, if you needto.

  For this doe, you'll want to keep checking, and cleaning, the nest boxevery day as necessary until it comes out of the cage. (She's not going to reform, justbecause you cleaned it out.)

4. To take care of baby rabbits, don't be afraid to handle the baby bunnies a little each day.

5. Taking care of baby rabbits -- The rabbit nest box comes out of the cage between Days 12 to 18, and no later.

The best rule-of-thumb for removing the nest box:

The rabbit nest box comes out the moment a bunny hops out all by itself.

Day 12 was the earliest any of my baby rabbits hopped out. In the summer, when it’s warm, you don’t need to worry so much about keeping bunnies warm once the nest is gone, especially if you do as I have - put a low-sided cardboard box with a few shavings and straw or hay into the cage.

A problem might arise if a youngster hops out too soon in the winter. But usually, during the cold, the kits tend to remain burrowed. It’s during the warm summer evenings that the smaller, hungry kit tries to get more of Mama. It’s the little kit you’ll find huddled outside the nest in the morning when you check on the animals. Or, it’s possible the little kit was latched onto a teat, and got pulled out when the doe jumped out of the box.

6. If the kits are still snuggled in the nest box by Day 18, evict the little buggers.

Any longer than about 18 days, and the chance of "nestbox eyes" rises significantly. Dependingthe situation, some litters can be at risk for eye infections sooner than 18days.

"Nest box eye" is an eye infection. Without a little attention, an eye infection can cause blindness, even death if severe.

Terramycin opthalmic ointment works wonders for nest box eye.

• Good initial sanitation helps prevent eye infections. Before giving the nest box to the doe, clean it thoroughly with a 1:10 bleach solution. A pump sprayer works great. Let it sit for an hour. This will kill any pathogens (germs) and give the kits a good start at life.
• Germs still get into the nest box, of course. But if the nest box comes out after 2 weeks, the biggest source of germs goes away. If a kit starts getting a bit of pus in the eye, sometimes just removing the nest box is enough to give the eye a chance to clear up.

7. To take care of baby rabbits, you should be aware that the two biggest health threats related to the nest box are eye infections, and enterotoxemia.

Enjoy your new bunnies!

Learnabout raising baby rabbits to weaning age

Go from Care of Baby Rabbits to Rabbits GivingBirth