Caring for rabbits during growth and development
Newborn rabbits are in no hurry to leave the nest and are completely dependent on the mother. Caring for the offspring is the primary task not only of the female, but also of the farmer who is engaged in breeding rabbits at home.
Rabbits
Small rodents quickly grow up and assimilate in a common enclosure, if caring for fluffy animals is not satisfactory. How are rabbits kept in small farms?
Content of rabbits
The process of birth of rabbits is a familiar thing even for small farms. The female nurses the offspring for several months and provides food for small rodents. All the time that the rabbits spend in the cage in the nests, the farmer takes care of their mother. In the aviary of a newly-made mother of fluffies, there should always be clean water and food saturated with vitamins and nutrients. It is not worth contacting the brood that is hiding in the nests. A common reason for a female to abandon her own offspring is human intervention.
Rabbits are born completely blind and deaf. Feelings, thanks to which the rabbits learn about the world around them, appear gradually. At the age of the first few days, the eyes of fluffy rodents are opened, over time, the rabbits begin to crawl out of the nests. In the first weeks of life, the rabbits have little strength, and the food of the rodents consists only of the milk of the rabbit. A balanced diet of a newly-made mother of pussies is a guarantee of the health of the entire brood.
The video "How rabbits grow" will help the novice farmer learn about all the important stages of development of domesticated rodents.
After birth, fluffy animals (rabbits from one mother) sit in the nest for a week. Gradually, the first hairline appears on the body of the animal. It is in the first weeks that the quality of the fur is formed, for which adult rabbits are valued. The immune system of an adult rodent depends on the nutrition and care of rodents during this period. For rabbits, the mother is the only connection with the outside world, so the abandoned brood in most cases dies.
The death of a brood is a big loss for a novice rabbit breeder and an experienced farmer. Newborn rabbits have weak immunity, and without mother's milk their growth slows down significantly. Before layering, the rabbits depend on the mother. If the female does not eat well in winter or summer, after the birth of the young, she has to be fed with useful supplements. Without proper care, rabbits cannot withstand seasonal diseases or epidemics.
In case of refusal of the rabbits, their mother becomes aggressive and must be removed from small rodents. If the newly-made mother scattered the rabbits around the cage, it is almost impossible to save the brood. Loose stools in small rodents, malaise and weakness are the first symptoms of a disease that is massive. It is important for a farmer to provide pets with proper care, otherwise the effort and time spent will not pay off.
Preparing the rabbit for childbirth
By themselves, rabbits are curious animals. If small rodents grow without problems and complications, then already in the second week of life, the rabbit gradually brings the young to the aviary. Bunnies walk on their own without outside help, and even if such forays do not last long, the first instincts begin to develop in the rabbits. Mom helps the young to learn and perceive the world around them. There are several ways to speed up the growth of small rodents. Caring for the young from the moment when the rodents leave the nest is a good time to change the regimen of the mother and the young.
An experienced rabbit breeder knows how important it is to strengthen the female's body. While the rabbits have the only source of nutrients and useful substances - mother's milk, in no case should the mother be put on a diet. A balanced diet and a constant change of clean water in the drinking bowl will allow young animals to grow up healthy and full. As soon as the fur and teeth of rabbits begin to form, the farmer organizes the correct removal of the grown rodents.
Before giving birth, a pregnant individual settles down in the farthest corner of the enclosure. If the future mother behaves aggressively and moves away from the whole herd, there is not much time left until the birth of the rabbits. A person needs to take care of the protection of the expectant mother and provide her with everything necessary for a quick birth. The first step is to isolate the future mother from the rest of the herd. If the female has grown too long nails, they should be cut off so that in the future the rabbit does not injure the weak young. You need to check the nests carefully so as not to frighten off the pregnant woman. The preparation of the enclosure and the animal is carried out a day or two before the birth of the rabbits and immediately after they are born:
- the cage is cleaned: all the droppings are removed from the enclosure and nests (a large number of bacteria and pathogenic microorganisms can remain in the droppings, which will harm offspring with weak immunity);
- after giving birth, dead rabbits and rodents with obvious deformations must be removed from the nest while the rabbit eats or drinks water;
- newborn rabbits do not need to be washed, it is enough to wipe it with a clean dry cloth, the mother will take care of the rest.
The rabbit is a caring mother for an animal brood. She protects the young, helps him learn the world and grow up without threats from adult rabbits. As soon as the rabbits begin a full-fledged separate life, the rabbit leaves the young and returns to the common aviary. There are several safe ways to remove young animals that do not cause much stress to the female. What you need to know about small rodents?
If the rabbit gives birth for the first time, one cannot speak about the health and usefulness of the young in advance.
There is a high risk of losing rabbits during the first birth of a rabbit at a young age. It is difficult for a young rabbit to bear healthy offspring. The size of the future herd is entirely dependent on the farmer, who protects the rabbit from increased stress and constant problems with young animals. The breeder should know how to behave in cases when the rabbit has eaten bad food or is poisoned. The speed of a person's reaction determines the health of the young.
The first days of rabbits life
Rabbits begin to crawl out of the nests on their own no earlier than on the 7-8th day of life. Fluffy rodents grow in different ways, depending on the breed and the food they eat after being removed from the rabbit. Feeding of young animals ends on the 40th day. If the rabbits are not ready to hatch, the hatching period is extended by no more than a week. In the first days of life, rabbits look lethargic, weak. The fur appears in a day or two, the eyes open after 10 days. Small rodents with 16 incisors are born.
So that the mother does not trample the young, you should not equip small nests. The more space the rabbit and small rodents have, the faster the young grows.Fluffy animals start to get sick if there is little space in the cage or a lot of droppings that the farmer did not remove in time. If the rabbits squeak for a long time, the female rabbits abandon the brood and become aggressive. It is in the farmer's best interest to take care of the health of the brood. If you plant other people's rabbits from another rabbit to the newly-born mother, the young may die. Females rarely accept alien rodents.
A photo of small rodents demonstrates how quickly the young grows over with fur. Any other rodent takes much longer to develop. To prevent the female from scattering large rabbits, it is necessary to wean off the grown brood in time (it should be transplanted into separate enclosures). The temperature and purity of the cage are determined by a person who helps newborns grow faster.
Newborn fluffy care
It is important not only to maintain the correct temperature in the cage, but also to check the food and water that the females drink.
The rabbits are kept in a separate cage (another enclosure dedicated to the whole herd) until they get stronger. Maintain the temperature in the rabbitry at up to 18 ° C. Regardless of what time of the year the female gives birth, it is necessary to maintain the temperature regime in the aviary. Rabbits that develop fever and fever are kept in a cool cage.
The cub will survive the coldest winters and hottest summers with a caring mother, if the farmer provides all the necessary conditions:
- The nest is checked at least once a day. If there are several rabbits in a single cage, all rodents should be examined. If the baby is gaining weight worse, the amount of vitamins in the complementary foods should be increased. You should not rush to plant the young.
- For the first couple of days, the young are protected from any draft or hypothermia. Due to the low temperatures in the aviary, the ears and legs of the young are frostbitten. The situation with the mother of rabbits is even worse: a healthy mother of furry develops diseases that worsen the work of internal organs. Protecting the rabbit is the primary task of a farmer who cares about his own farm.
- The mother should be handled carefully, because from the first days after giving birth, the rabbit behaves aggressively towards a person. Do not disturb the female once again.
- If you scare a rabbit, you can harm both the female and the young. How quickly the rabbits grow and get stronger depends on the first steps of the farmer.
As soon as his eyes open (in the first 7-10 days), the rabbit looks closely at the world around him, examines the space in which he will have to live. For a newly born female, special conditions are needed without harsh sounds and noise. You can pick up rabbits that have grown up. Do not disturb the rabbit once again. A good scent of rodents helps the mother to smell foreign odors from the human hand. How often can the young growth cage be cleaned?
It is possible and necessary to clean the enclosure, ventilate the place where fluffy rodents live, but not more often than once a day. For a complete cleaning of the cage, the young and the female should be deposited. Such human behavior brings a lot of stress to the rabbit. If you can avoid unnecessary irritability of animals, then problems with young animals will not arise. At any age, rodents need care and attention from the farmer.
Caring for abandoned rabbits
Artificial feeding is a topic that worries many farmers. In the farm, it so happens that from the first days of life, the rabbit becomes an abandoned mother. There are fewer problems with adult rabbits, because after the withdrawal, it is enough for a person to organize the correct complementary foods. What if small rodents are abandoned by their mother?
If the rabbits do not have enough breast milk or the rabbit has abandoned the brood, what should I do? At a young age, rodents form folds from malnutrition, so that babies, due to a lack of sugar in the body or from dehydration, develop stretch marks on the skin. It is not difficult to see such signs, because there is a little fur on the little rabbit.Well-fed rodents are always plump, with clean eyes and a damp nose. What to do if babies do not have enough milk?
A few days after birth (at an early age), rabbits may refuse to brood. The female can be frightened, because of the past illness, the rabbit may be too weak. The female often runs out of milk. It is difficult to cope with a starving rabbit, and after a few days such a rodent dies. Dead rodents are even more stressful for the rabbit.
Reasons for the alienation of the rabbit:
- physiological features (milk disappears or the female gets sick);
- increased stress (the brood was born dead or too weak);
- hormonal disruptions in the mother's body;
- complications after childbirth.
The abandoned female should be urgently weaned from the offspring, in this case the way out is to plant the baby with another female. If the rabbit's problems are related to hormonal disruption, she should arrange for mating. An examination by a veterinarian will help determine an accurate diagnosis and, if possible, eliminate the problem that has arisen. The formula for artificial feeding is prepared by hand or the farmer buys ready-made formula from a special pharmacy.
The proportions of the mixture do not change. If a person is concerned about the health of the brood, he must be sure of the quality of any component of artificial milk. How much mix should you give your rabbits?
Artificial feeding of abandoned offspring
How much should you care for abandoned offspring? It is necessary to separate the female from the young only in extreme cases, if milk does not appear within 1 day or several days, the farmer buys a mixture: milk powder, which is prepared at home. Video instructions will help you prepare the mixture correctly and save the young from starvation within just one day.
The formula for feeding small rodents consists of:
- quarters of a liter of milk;
- one chicken yolk (medium-sized egg);
- one teaspoon of molasses;
- liquid vitamins (1-2 drops).
In 2-3 days, the rabbits manage to adapt to the new diet. On artificial feeding, young animals in the future bring a lot of profit for the entire farm. If during the day the rodents cannot switch to a new diet, it will not be possible to avoid the death of the brood. For small furry animals, caring for a mother is a lot of stress.
From day to day, rodents depend on the farmer to breed them for food, water, and care. The left young should be fed carefully. Fractional meals every 4 hours will help rodents survive and not choke on food. Leaving abandoned animals is not easy, because such a task is a test for a novice farmer.