Cold Weather Litters

With nightly temps below freezing and our first lake effect snow (I live near Lake Michigan) predicted for this weekend, I decided to write a bit about what I like to do with litters born in this cold weather.

While I've checked out various types of nestboxes, I have stayed with wooden ones. They take more effort to clean and disinfect than metal nextboxes or plastic tubes, but I believe they are warmer in the cold, winter months. I always line the bottom of my nestboxes with at least 2 inches of pine shavings. Besides acting as a good absorbent material, they help insulate the kits from the cold bottom. After spreading the shavings across the bottom, I place 2 - 3 good handfuls of straw in the nestbox. Some people use hay, but my does love to eat the hay and generally leave the straw alone. Sometimes I put a handful or 2 of straw loose in the cage so the doe can add more if needed. This method has worked well for me as my does have usually built a good, insulted nest with these materials.

A well set up nestbox is only the first step! When the doe is ready to kindle, I am constantly going out to the barn to check if babies have been born yet. When the litter is finally born, I take the nestbox inside my house. I have a great shelf on my desk in the office where I keep all the nestboxes. Below is a photo of a nestbox full of babies on the shelf in my office.

If I have more than one litter, I label the nestboxes with the does' name to make sure mom is feeding the right litter. I take the nestboxes out (at the same time each day) for mom to feed them. I also cover each nestbox with a towel to keep drafts out and the fur in while I am walking out to the barn. I'm thankful that rabbits generally feed their babies only once per day!

The babies stay in the office with me until about a week or so. After this, they have a pretty good coat on and, depending on the size of the litter, can keep themselves rather warm. I also take them out as this is a time when they are able to start "popping" out of the nestbox. I will admit that the first time I kept a litter inside I was greeted by a bunch of 12 day old kits crawling around the carpet in the office (I kept the nestboxes on the floor at that time). I felt like I was on an Easter egg hunt when trying to track everyone down.

This is only one way to work with winter litters. This is what works best for me. I would love to hear comments on how others manage their winter litters!