Baby Bunny Bother

What should have been a happy time welcoming new bunnies into the world has turned into a fraught experience. What with the "jelly babies" constantly getting out of their nest box after being fed, to the first death of a seven day old white kit that I didn't discover out of the box since it had wriggled behind it and was hidden from view.

Six beautiful kits made it to two weeks and all opened their eyes. There was some difference in size from large and fat to small and fat but Ebony seemed to be doing a good job looking after her litter.

The only agouti kit (a buck) in particular was huge for its age and doing especially well until Saturday 2nd October when I discovered it sitting in the cage hunched up and looking very miserable. On close examination it had a bad case of green diarrhea which had only appeared that afternoon as it was fine when I checked in the morning. I isolated it from the others and brought it inside and tried to help but within two hours it was dead. This was my first case of kit diarrhea ever.

The following Wednesday I was showing friends the remaining five white kits when we noticed that one was slightly bald on top of its head as well as being (along with another baby) quite a bit smaller than the others. Next morning on the 8th Oct everyone looked fine and I began chores only to have my washing machine which is within ear shot of the rabbitry have a complete breakdown and try to make a break for freedom with all the noise it could muster. Then at 8.30am the lawn mower man arrived unexpectedly and began weed eating nearby. When I went to check on the bunnies an hour later one of the small kits was lying dead with the others sitting on it. I assumed it died of fright. Then the next day little Baldy died. When I examined it there was a huge bluish swelling on its head so that must have been part of the cause of death.

The kits reached three weeks and began hanging out with Mum a lot more although at first they were reluctant to enter the nest box after Baldy's death which made me wonder if he'd had a seizure which scared the hell out of them. They then reached four weeks of age and I began to relax until Sunday 17th Oct when I went out first thing on a warm still Spring morning to find the largest kit dead in the nest box. No signs of injury, the body was still warm and limp. Everyone else seemed fine and happy to see me but I now approach their cage with trepidation. In 24 years of keeping rabbits I have never lost five kits from a litter. Bunny bother. Or bother bunnies.