Sometimes breeders encounter a problem when the rabbit eats its offspring. Most often this problem arises among beginners, and then they ask themselves why the rabbit eats her rabbits. Maybe she is missing something? In most cases, this is so: improper feeding, lack of water forces rabbits to eat offspring.
Reasons for eating newborns
There are several reasons why a rabbit eats its rabbits. In the first place there is a shortage of water during the roundup and on the first day after it.
During the rounding, the animal is very thirsty. If there is no water in the cage, the female begins to eat babies to fill up the fluid in the body. So she quenches thirst.
Another reason is female aggression. It happens that after a bunny the animal becomes very aggressive. Such rabbits and their offspring should be taken with care. A sign of aggression is the female’s attempt to protect her offspring. If the mother feels the threat, then she can eat some babies, thus trying to protect the chosen ones from danger. This is another reason why the rabbit eats its rabbits.
Sometimes the reason for eating is the inexperience of the rabbit. Females have a good maternal instinct and will not just eat offspring. Sometimes inexperienced mothers eat babies due to lack of experience. To find out if eating is a consequence of this, you need to look at what place is bitten. If this is the abdomen, then the female could inadvertently bite a rabbit during snacking on the umbilical cord.
Bitten limbs, ears indicate an attempt to help the baby to be born. Passing through the birth canal, rabbits can get stuck. To help them get out, the females begin to pull their teeth. The rabbits have very sharp teeth, and they damage the babies by biting off their legs and ears.
Sometimes the reason for eating becomes stress. Females are often stressed by nature, which is why the rabbit eats its own rabbits. Thus, she tries to remove the smell of newborns from the nest. Typically, this behavior is observed in young females under the age of six months. For her, childbirth is a great fright, a shock. This condition frightens the mother so much that she begins to eat offspring, crushes the rabbits.
The rabbit crushes offspring
Sometimes, when examining the nest, the rabbit breeder observes that the newborn baby is crushed. This usually happens in cases where the dimensions of the cell are not respected or if there is no maternity ward. It happens that a female crushes children while trying to protect. This may be an attempt to protect them from cats, dogs, rats and other animals.
To avoid subsequent pressure, it is necessary to move the family to a calm, quiet place where other animals cannot penetrate.
How to prevent eating?
Knowing why the rabbit eats rabbits, this can be prevented in the future. More clearly, the causes and methods of dealing with them are presented in the table.
Cause | Methods of struggle |
Water scarcity | It is necessary to provide the female with enough water. If the water in it is located in a bowl, then you need to make sure that it is constantly in it. With a lack of volume, you can install a larger container or put additional containers. On the day of okrolya, you should monitor water. She should always be freely available. |
Inexperience | If the belly of a newborn rabbit is bitten, then mother herself will solve this problem, gaining experience |
Difficult birth | The absence of paws and ears indicates a difficult birth. This problem cannot be fought. The female herself solves the problem of difficult birth, helping rabbits get out. |
Stress | Birth stress occurs only in young females. At the second and subsequent rounds, she stops eating offspring. However, there are cases when stress continues after the second, third rounds. Such females are discarded and not allowed into mating. |
Offspring, aggression | Loud noises, feeding the female, the presence of foreign animals - all this becomes an occasion to protect the cubs. The rabbit begins to rush around the cage, trying to protect the nest. Thus, she crushes the kids. To eliminate this, it is necessary to carefully feed the female, as well as to exclude visits of other animals to the place where the rabbit family is sitting. |
Eating rabbits from day to week
Sometimes the breeders of these animals wonder why the rabbit eats her rabbits a week after the round. Females can eat babies of any age, up to ten days of life. This is due to the following reasons:
- Aggression, protection of offspring.
- Water scarcity.
- Wrong diet.
- Stress.
Knowing how old the rabbit can eat rabbits, the owners carefully select the breeding herd. Do not leave for further breeding aggressive, stress-prone individuals. If the mother eats three-day or week-old offspring two or more spells in a row, then such females are rejected.
If the reason was the lack of water, then this problem is eliminated. The same goes for diet. Rabbit breeders should know how and what to feed the mother after okroli.
First okrol
That the rabbit did not eat offspring, it is necessary to properly fool. Usually, strong, well-developed females, aged 5-8 months, are used to obtain offspring (the term of the first ogul depends on the breed). For example, if a female flander is allowed to reach the male before 6 months of age, then she eats rabbits. This is due to extreme stress and the mother’s inability to feed offspring: the rabbit is still developing, her body cannot properly produce milk. In such cases, the female eats either part of the offspring, or the entire nest.
Nutrition: what to feed the rabbit after okrolya
To ensure the safety of rabbits, the owners should monitor the diet of the female. During lactation, the body experiences a large load. At this time, she needs to be given several times more food than usual.
In the first twenty days of life, suckling rabbits give females a diet rich in vitamins, protein. When compiling the menu, you can use up to 120 grams of concentrates, a kilogram of fresh dried grass. In the winter season, the number of concentrates should be increased to 140 grams. Brooms, succulent feed, and hay must be introduced into the diet.
From the 25th to the 40th day in the warm season, the diet increases in the following amounts: 25 grams of concentrates and one hundred grams of grass are added for each suckling rabbit. In winter, the number of concentrates increases by 30 grams, and hay is added by the same amount. This increase in volume is due to the fact that babies, in addition to mother's milk, still eat on their own. So that they have enough food, its volume increases.
If there is insufficient nutrition, the rabbit can eat one or more babies. Thus, it regulates the amount of feed and the number of rabbits that can eat it. Knowing how to feed the rabbit after the bunny, you can avoid eating. If the diet is rich in vitamins, and if the amount of feed is enough for the mother and offspring, then the female will not need to remove the "extra" babies.
Uterine
If the reason why a rabbit eats newborn rabbits (rabbit breeding requires certain knowledge from a novice breeder) is the protection of offspring or aggression, then it can be solved by installing a mother liquor in the cage. This is a special box designed for the birth of babies. You can buy it ready-made or make it yourself.
The mother liquor allows you to hide rabbits from strangers, so the female behaves more calmly, often her aggression completely disappears.
Car drinkers
You can deal with a lack of water by installing an auto-drinker in the cells. Such systems are sold in stores. They suggest a constant supply of water to the cells. Car drinkers help the giving birth to the female to drink as much as she needs.
The automatic system helps to eliminate the lack of water during the flickers. Therefore, eating for this reason will no longer occur.
The correct content of rabbits, the rational selection of breeding females will help to avoid eating and crushing offspring.