How long does the pregnancy last in rabbits and how to deliver?

When mating is successfully completed and the bunny becomes pregnant, then the period of waiting for the cubs begins. At this time, the rabbit bosses face many questions, how to take care of the rabbit before and during childbirth, how long the pregnancy lasts and how to help her. It is impossible to predict the possible risks, but it is realistic to reduce it by providing the female with the necessary living conditions.

In this article we will examine the main questions: how long does the pregnancy last in rabbits, how to recognize it, how to care for a pregnant rabbit and how to help the female in labor.

How to recognize pregnancy of rabbits

It is possible to determine whether a female is pregnant or not in several ways 2 weeks after mating with a male.

With your fingertips you need to grope the fruits in the belly of the female, they feel like a chain of balls. We must behave carefully so as not to harm the kids. The rabbit should be taken by the ears and neck by the right hand, and by the left one should be caught between the hind paws below. The thumb should be put on the right side, the other fingers on the left. If the pregnancy has come, then it will be possible to grope embryos in the stomach.

For comparison, before this is to check the rabbit, who does not expect offspring. If there was no previous manipulation, there is no confidence in their actions, it is better to contact a veterinarian so that the lives of the rabbits are not threatened.

Other common symptoms:

• Aggression. A male is taken to a rabbit and looks at her behavior. Pregnant women do not accept courtship, growl at the male, run after him in the cage. Sometimes females do not refuse to re-act. Often the rabbit in the position of bite the owner, do not allow to touch themselves. This is due to the inclusion of maternal instinct. Others behave the other way around calmly, hiding in the house, avoid contact with people.
• Roundness. About a week after covering, the female’s abdomen begins to round off, but this may not be noticed under a layer of fluff. Closer to childbirth rabbit is difficult to walk, they become like a ball, mostly lie.
• Breeding .It is necessary to put a little hay in the cage and see what the bunny will do to him. A pregnant female will take it to the teeth and begin to build a nest. On the same principle, the rabbit plucks fluff from his belly before giving birth.
• Nutritional changes. In the waiting period for the baby, the females often begin to drink a lot of fluid and eat, their taste preferences change. So, the rabbit can defiantly throw out the food she is used to from the trough, showing that she wants something else. But such changes are usually in the first week of waiting for the baby, then everything falls into place.

This is a condition when the pairing did not end successfully, a yellow body appeared on the site of the ovarian follicle. About 2.5 weeks after crossing, the female behaves like a pregnant woman. If after this time the activity is reduced, the bunny is ready to mate again, then we can talk about the falsity of the process. This is due to the low survivability of the sperm of the partner, as well as when the female gives birth without interruption between pregnancies. And then we will talk about how much a rabbit bears rabbits in time.

Pregnant Little Rabbit in the Pen

How many bears and when does the lambing occur?

So, how long does a rabbit's pregnancy last? Rabbits begin to mate at the age of 3-5 months. The gestation period ranges from 28 to 35 days, mostly about a month( 30–31 days).The term depends on the breed of rabbits, the number of pups, the age of the animal.

Rabbits of large breeds( Flandres, giants) go pregnant longer, while small ones( decorative) give birth faster. The more embryos in the stomach of the uterus, the faster they will be born. Young rabbits give birth to about 4–5 babies at a time, their gestation period is longer than that of experienced individuals.

Toxicosis can be both very disturbing for an individual, and can proceed with mild symptoms. Common manifestations of toxemia are:

• difficulty in breathing;
• frequent urination;
• depressed;
• failures in the CNS;
• smell of acetone from the mouth.

How to care for a pregnant rabbit?

As we have already mentioned, the gestation period of rabbits lasts an average of 30 days. It is necessary for the female to ensure tranquility by isolating it from other rabbits, external stimuli( noise, bright light).It is easy for a pregnant individual to frighten, which can provoke a miscarriage.

A male must be transplanted after birth, otherwise he may injure the babies and fertilize the rabbit again. During gestation, special attention should be paid to the diet and living conditions of the future mother.

Just born baby rabbits

Pregnant feedingAt this time, the female wants to drink, in case of strong thirst she can eat the cubs. The diet should be diversified and include:

• fresh vegetables such as beets, carrots, cabbage;
• grass and hay from forbs;
• vitamin supplements, such as vitamins C, D, fish oil.

With a poor diet, females will have problems with milk, babies will be born weak.

You may be interested in the following posts on the topic of rabbits:

• Keeping rabbits at home.
• Care for ornamental rabbits.
• Symptoms and treatment of coccidiosis in rabbits.

Preparation of the cage for the period of labor by time

In the rabbit house provide ventilation, while avoiding drafts. High temperatures, bright light should also be excluded. Do not forget about hygiene, it is better to perform cleaning several times more often than usual. Approximately 5 days before delivery, a nest for babies should be placed in a cage.

You shouldn’t do this before the last week, because the female can perceive the house for the young as a toilet. If you put the nest the day before the birth, the expectant mother will not have time to prepare it and get comfortable. The process of habituation is very important in this matter.

The rabbit's dwelling should be disinfected so that the infections to her and the offspring are not terrible. For treatment, you can use a special disinfector or hot water with potassium permanganate. After applying the first cage, rinse with hot water.

An excellent self-made nest is obtained from a cardboard box. It should be about 10 cm longer than the female in the supine position. If it turns out differently, the rabbit will not understand the purpose of this structure. On one side of the nest should be cut out with a threshold for the rabbit. It is necessary to make so that the female could come and go, and the litter and the kids did not fall out.

Rabbit, guarding the young in the pen

In the nest you need to put a clean soft hay, leave part of the cage. So the rabbit will be able to arrange a place for kids to your liking. Instead of hay they use sawdust, shavings, pieces of newspapers.

Signs of the approaching rabbit by

What is the term of gestation in rabbits we have disassembled. The female has cubs for about 1 month. The last week of gestation of offspring is especially hard tolerated by females. They should not be let out for a walk. The efforts of man, rabbit, should be directed to the improvement of the cage and nest for future offspring. You can judge that babies will be born from day to day by the following features:

• Rabbits are nervous, aggressive towards other individuals and people.
• Sometimes the condition of the females is too calm before the birth of babies, they climb into a dark corner and sit quietly there. This is not a deviation from the norm.
• The female begins to actively eat and drink plenty of fluids again.
• Future mom makes a nest a few days before the bout. She moves the hay to a place designed for babies, and lays it out. In the same place she spreads her down from the belly and chest.

If, according to the calculations, okrol should happen soon, and the rabbit does not pull out the fluff, then you need to do it in gloves for her and spread it in the nest.

If the female plucked down the down, but did not carry it into the nest, you should carefully move it there. When the rabbit tears up fluff long before the birth, you should tidy it up so as not to clog, and later put it back in the cage. Such mothers require attention to themselves, most likely they will not properly care for their offspring.

Do you need a person's help at birth and how many days does the rabbit give birth?

Octet rabbit occurs more often at night or in the morning, rarely during the day. The process takes 10–60 minutes, but can take several minutes, more than an hour. Usually, females give birth without assistance, you just need to control the process, checking whether everything passes without problems every 10 minutes. If the rabbit cannot give birth to large calves or has other difficulties, then the help of a veterinarian is necessary.

Slightly older bunnies

But how many rabbits does a bunny give birth? Up to 15 rabbits can come into the world, guessing the exact number before the birth will not work. Usually there are 5–8 babies in litters, but in young females 3-4 babies can be born.

Rabbit Guides ensure that babies are not born on the floor. If this happens, the rabbit needs to be transplanted into another cage, wipe his hands in fluff from the nest and place the young there, covering them from above. It is necessary to return the female not earlier than in 20 minutes so that the human smell will disappear.

Ideally, after birth, the rabbit licks her young, covers them with fluff in the nest and feeds them. But if she behaves differently( scatters, tramples rabbits, shows aggression towards them), it is possible to provide babies with a hot-water bottle and place the female only for feeding.

If this is not the case, then the cubs will have to be transplanted to other females. To do this, they are cleaned of the old fluff, rubbed with fluff from the new nest and enclosed by a calm and mature female.

When rabbits are in the nest, fed and heated, you should not disturb the mother, it will unnerve her. You can pick up the young when they are covered with wool and begin to crawl out of the nest.

Rabbit breeders receive from individuals healthy rabbits, which will soon multiply the offspring. But pregnancy and childbirth of a female require moral, practical training from a man. He should pay attention to the baby and the newborn, as well as observe the rules of care relating to them.

Now you know how much a pregnant rabbit walks and how to correctly determine her interesting position.

Finally, we offer to see an interesting video on the topic: