How long does pregnancy last for rabbits?

Mating rabbits in most cases ends with the pregnancy of females. This period is the most important in animal breeding. Many livestock breeders are interested in how to determine the pregnancy of a rabbit, how long the pregnancy in rabbits lasts, and how many future babies are.

How to determine if a rabbit is pregnant

Beginners are interested in how to understand that the rabbit is pregnant and is about to breed. A fertilized rabbit is very different in its behavior from its relatives. The female becomes calm and stops running and playing. She is actively gaining weight and is very quiet. It moves around the cage with very calm and smooth movements.

Rabbit pregnancy

In addition, rabbits begin to eat a lot. But some pregnant females change their behavior. On the contrary, they become very active and completely forget about caution.

Some animals show aggression in the first few weeks of pregnancy. They try to bite the person and drive him away from the cage. Sometimes pregnancy can be determined by the behavior of the male, who aggressively protects his mate from invasion.

In addition to identifying a fertilized female by behavior, it can be checked by palpation. To do this, the animal is laid on its back and gently stroked over the stomach to calm it down. Then the abdomen is felt for the presence of a fetus. To correctly determine pregnancy, for comparison, you can also palpate a female who was not allowed to mate. In this case, it will be easier to navigate whether the female is preparing to be a mother or not. It is especially important to know how much pregnant rabbits walk.

How long does a rabbit bear offspring

How long does a pregnant rabbit walk? To this question, veterinarians give the answer that pregnancy lasts from twenty-eight to thirty days. In practice, not everything depends on how many rabbits are carrying rabbits, okrol can begin in thirty-one or thirty-two days. Throughout this period, the animal must be constantly monitored. For a healthy individual, food can be left unchanged. Calcium must be added to the feed. It is found in bone meal and chalk.

When the time has passed, after how many rabbits give birth, the females begin to change in behavior. A week before giving birth, she begins to show aggression, becomes nervous. For this reason, the expectant mother should be separated into a separate cage. This is to prevent females from biting other animals. Expectant mothers are not allowed to walk. The cage must be kept clean prior to rounding. You need to put the mother liquor there and put hay. To do this, calculate how many days the rabbit gives birth.

In most cases, females arrange their nest on their own. They apply hay to a secluded, as it seems to them, nook or a raised mother plant, and also rip the fluff out of their belly and chest. The nest is covered with it, the kids subsequently take refuge.

Animals begin to give birth either late in the evening or early in the morning. Rabbits are very caring mothers, but they take care of the babies twice a day: they lick them and feed them. In the first few days, you need to approach the cage less and disturb both the mother and the offspring.

In order for the animal to have enough milk, during pregnancy, it needs to be fed with food rich in vitamins and minerals. In addition, the mother should not experience stress during pregnancy and in the first days after lambing.

Caring for a pregnant rabbit

During pregnancy, which lasts a month, the rabbit needs to be provided with adequate nutrition, which includes vitamins and minerals. If this is not done, then the female may have a miscarriage. Carrying offspring contributes to weight gain, so the female rabbit needs a lot of food. You will need plenty of water to drink.

Food in the rabbit's diet should be introduced gradually.

Food in the rabbit's diet should be introduced gradually. The power supply must include:

• carrot,
• celery,
• cucumbers,
• lettuce,
• granulated feed,
• hay,
• tomatoes,
• parsley.

Hay should not be a simple grass - it is best to feed dry alfalfa.

Every day the female will demand more and more food. Therefore, these ingredients need to be added to her diet every day.

But just before giving birth, you need to reduce the amount of feed. Two days before okrol, the food is cut in half. In this way, mastitis or ketosis can be avoided in the female.

Before giving birth, a box is placed in the cage in which the female will make a nest and give birth to babies. This household attribute is essential because newborn babies are completely naked, blind, and deaf. In addition, they are completely helpless and will not be able to regulate the temperature in the nest for a week, they can freeze.

Preparing for childbirth

The box is installed four to five days before delivery. Its width and length should be slightly larger than the female itself. Before giving birth, the rabbit will lay the box with hay and down. You need to change the bedding in the cage every day. In the first week after childbirth, it is not recommended to disturb both the mother and her offspring.

You should prepare for the fact that childbirth may be unsuccessful. At the moment the babies are freed from the birth film, the female can bite off the babies' ears, paws and even heads. Sometimes it happens that mom, experiencing stress, completely abandons her offspring.

To prevent the rabbit from causing injury to her rabbits, she needs to trim her claws even before mating. Since the female gives birth in most cases late at night, this process occurs independently. In this case, only the creation of conditions in which childbirth will take place depends on the person.

Signs of an approaching okrol

Signs of an approaching okrol

As soon as the animal begins to pick up the fluff and carry it to the nest, this is the first sign of close lambing. Moreover, the lower the air temperature, the more fluff the rabbit picks up. This process is necessary to insulate the nest. In order for mommy to strip herself less, you need to maintain the optimal temperature in the cage with the help of insulation.

Young females need a little help with nesting. To do this, the owner himself gently nibbles the fluff from the breast of the future mother.

Childbirth

After the nest is completely ready, after a while the rabbit will begin labor, followed by labor, which can take ten minutes or last all day. It depends on the number of rabbits.

Decorative rabbits often cannot give birth on their own, so they will have to help. Moreover, the owner will have to help the young mother with leaving. Only after twenty days, babies will begin to feed on hay and vegetables on their own. Then they will no longer need human help.

On the Internet you can find many videos that show how to properly help a rabbit. Novice farmers need to look at them in order to know in the future not only how to behave during childbirth, but also how to determine in what period the okrol will begin.

In this case, you will have to seek help from a specialist. To avoid such cases, only large individuals with fully formed genitals are selected for insemination.

There are times when mothers eat the offspring. This happens due to a lack of water in the female's body. Therefore, during childbirth, the cage should have a sufficient amount of water and feed, which contain a large amount of juice. Thus, the water balance will be restored in a natural way. If female rabbits eat offspring for no apparent reason, then they are rejected and removed from the pen with breeding individuals.

False pregnancy

Every sexually mature female is not immune to false pregnancy. During this phenomenon, females show the same signs as in a real pregnancy, but the difference is that with a false pregnancy, the female did not fertilize during the mating period.

False pregnancy

The reasons for this phenomenon may be:

1. Features of the rabbit reproductive system. Ovulation in female rabbit occurs at the time of copulation.
2. The influence of the external environment. In the spring, when the duration of daylight hours increases, there are more chances for the manifestation of a false pregnancy.
3. Copulation with a rabbit that has been spayed. The rabbit after mating will consider herself pregnant.
4. Hormonal disruption in the female's body.
5. Long stay with females - not less than a year. In this case, one of the females can occupy a dominant position and take on the role of a male. But, as you know, in this case, the rabbit will not be able to cover herself. Accordingly, no female will be able to get pregnant.
6. When a person gently strokes the back, the pet can become excited. Therefore, if the female becomes calm, snuggles to the ground and shows a willingness to mate, you should immediately stop stroking her.

You can find out a false pregnancy by the following signs:

1. The female shows aggression, does not allow to the bowl, sometimes growls and can pounce on both the breeder and other individuals.
2. The rabbit becomes very active and eats food indiscriminately, digs holes, gnaws a tree.
3. The female either eats a lot, or shows apathy for food.
4. Prepares a nest for an imaginary offspring. In this case, it can harm itself.
5. There are times when the female's nipples swell and milk begins to appear.
6. Fluid is released from the vagina.

As a last resort, you can wait until the rabbit calms down in two weeks. If the duration of aggressive behavior is long, then the animal is still killed.

Rabbit breeding is an occupation that requires not only work, but also knowledge. First of all, you need to know how many rabbits are carrying rabbits. The diet of pets should be varied with a large amount of nutrients for the animal's body.Only proper care will allow you to profit from the breeding of these animals.