Pregnant Rabbit?

Question

Our rabbits got in the same area together, one is male, one female.

We think they did 'stuff'

But how can we be certain without vet trips or anything like that.

Please could you answer the following:

a) How do we know if the female is pregnant?

b) How long is it before the babies would be born?

c) How many babies could she give birth to at one time?

And any extra information would be VERY helpful.

All answers would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Have them both neutered:

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/r...

Answer 2

More than likely, they did do "stuff." I had to learn this the hard way - lol - one minute alone together and boom, a litter of kits. (Kits are the name for baby rabbits).

It's hard to know the first week or so but she may become aggresive, especially around males - and if the female begins "nesting," she will start behaving as if she wants to be alone, and the most common sign is that she'll pluck her fur out and grab a bunch of shavings, hay, grass or whatever you have in her cage and hold onto it in her mouth. It's extremely funny looking. I put some Timothy Hay in my female rabbit's cage to see if she was nesting and had it sticking out of her mouth - clenching on it - it made her look like she had a fu-man-chu moustache!

A gestation period for a rabbit is 28-32 days, and it's really unpredictable how many she will have - some only have one or two babies - others have 7 or more, but usually when there is a large litter, some of the kits do not survivie the first few days. Usually the bigger rabbits have more kits, but I have seen Dwarf rabbits have larger litters.

Later in the gestation period her nipples will become enlarged.

A sure way to find out if she is pregnant, about 2 weeks after the mating, you can usually feel the babies by lightly "palpating" her tummy. I don't really recommend this if you're not some kind of professional since you could injure the babies or mother even by slightly palpating - if you know a breeder or someone who has experience in it, maybe they can feel around.

Also important is that the mother should have a nest box made  up for her that is about 4 inches longer than the mother herself, but not too big (and definitely not too small). It should have an area where the mother can easily get in and out of, but at the same time you don't want the babies to get out of the nest box until they're older...

If she does have babies, try to figure out what you'll do with them when they are ready to leave their mommy - I'm sure you already know that :)!

It sounds exciting! Makes me want to breed my bunny again :)

Answer 3

a) You will not know if your rabbit is pregnant until she is in the late stages of pregnancy.  Its very very hard to tell if a female rabbit is pregnant, even the vet has problems.  Towards the time she is ready to give birth she will pull off her own fur and make a nest for her babies.  This is one of the major signs.

b) It takes around a month for the rabbit to go through full stages of pregnancy and she will give birth by the end of that month.  (Between 1 and 2 months)

c)The number of babies that a rabbit will give birth to depends on the mother's size.  If the mother is a dwarf rabbit (3-4 pounds) she will most likely have around 2-4 babies.  The bigger the rabbit, the more babies.

I'm wondering how long your rabbits were together, because in most cases the female needs to be in a closed area with the male to get pregnant.  You should see the male on top of the female's back if anything is happening.   If they were in an open space the female will most likely run away from the male and they will chase one another.

Just wait a month and see what happens.  Good luck.