Accepted Answer

Thank you for getting back to me, Irma. The most common cause of death of newborn rabbits is that the mother becomes upset about something and kills them. Male rabbits also will kill new babies. However, from what you've described, that isn't what's happening with your rabbits.

Some baby rabbits are born with genetic defects that don't permit them to live past a few days. But, it would be unusual for a whole litter to be affected unless the parents were very closely related to each other.

Becoming too cold also kills young rabbits, but since the second litter was in the house, that's probably not the case, either.

With the circumstances you've described, what seems most likely is that the mother rabbit isn't producing any milk. There are a few does that produce very little or no milk. Without nourishment, the babies will only live a day or two. If your female is one of these does that don't produce adequate milk, it's likely that the same thing will keep happening. One thing that could result in poor milk production is an inadequate diet. You may want to check the following site for diet recommendations to make sure the mother is receiving the best possible diet.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

The other possibility is that the mother is carrying an infectious disease. Being only a carrier, she wouldn't be sick, but the babies could become infected and die.

If you aren't desperate to have babies, I would simply not breed the rabbits again. If you want to leave them together, you could spay the female and neuter the male. If you badly want these two to have babies, you'll need to seek the help of an experienced rabbit vet. If the mother isn't producing milk, the vet may be able to determine why and offer some solutions. Testing can be done for some infectious diseases. All of this could become quite expensive. Here is where you can find a rabbit vet:

http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html


If you think the mother's diet may have something to do with this, you can try improving the diet and breeding once more. If you have more questions, just let me know by clicking on REPLY.

Anna   

Expert:	Anna
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	6/17/2009

Pet Expert/Biologist

40 yrs.: herps, pocket pets, rabbits, poultry, dogs, horses. Biology degree. Volunteer vet assistant