Rabbit is one of the favorite pet, because of their cuteness, fluffiness, and easy to be approached. There is 10 Reason why you should choose rabbit as your pet. I really recommend it so you can decide to have a rabbit as your pet after that. Should you want to adopt a rabbit, this 4 Easy Steps to Adopt A Rabbit for Beginners will help you a lot.
If you own a couple of rabbit with different gender, you can expect that sooner or later that your female rabbit will get pregnant and will give birth in the near future. As an owner, you have a responsibility to give extra care for the soon-to-be rabbit mother. But how to prepare when the time is due if the owner doesn’t know the sign before the rabbit give birth? What if instead of being thought pregnant, your rabbit is actually sick? You should know the symptom so you can immediately prepare and take care of your beloved rabbit pet. (Read: 12 Sign That Your Rabbit is Sick)
Should you know that none of the sickness sign occurs to your rabbit, you can start to observe if your rabbit is pregnant or not, especially after you found the female rabbit has mated with a male rabbit.
Here is 5 sign before a rabbit gives birth.
1. Drinks a Lot of Water
This sign is really hard to be seen if your rabbit diet are mostly fresh vegetables and fruits since the rabbit can get hydrated through those diets, they might not even need to drink water from water dish or water bottle because of that. But if your rabbit diet is in form dry food like pellet, then you can observe it by how much water they drink from their water bottle or water dish.
The soon-to-be mother rabbit requires much water for herself and her babies. The babies can’t hydrate themselves while in their mother belly so they only able to get hydrated through their mother. which mean the mother has to get drink extra amount of water for herself and for her baby. So, even though the diet consists only fresh vegetables and fruits, there is no harm to provide a water in their water dish or water bottle to keep the pregnant rabbit keep hydrated.
2. Eat a lot More
Another recognizable sign is can be seen when the rabbit has a boosted appetite. It requires you to keep providing them with a lot more food. To be put it simply, you will found the pregnant rabbit look more fatty. But the rabbit is known for its gluttons, so their being pregnant due being fatty is quite easily dismissed as their usual habit of being glutton. (You might need this gardening article so you can stockpile the foods and fulfill your cute but glutton rabbit food needs.)
It’s recommended having your rabbit have scheduled weight scale every week. So when you have known your rabbit normal weight then found the rabbit gain weight and keep progressively get additional weight a few times, it might be a sign that your rabbit is pregnant. The reason for the weight gain is due the babies need to be provided much-needed nutrient and can only get it through their mother. You can start to give them more food so for the rabbit preparation to give birth.
Here is an example to determine the rabbit pregnancy through weight, when your female rabbit usually weight 1 Kg and 500 gram, then after being mated, you found that the female rabbit start gain weight like 1 Kg and 600 gram and start growing on the following next day, it can be assumed that the rabbit is pregnant. Please give the soon-to-be-mother rabbit extra food so she can feed much-needed nutrient their babies need in her belly.
This is quite important to note because, if the pregnant rabbit lack much needed nutrient from food, it will hurt her health and worst, the pregnant rabbit might eat her babies if kept underfed when giving birth.
3. Become More Aggressive and Grumpy
The pregnant rabbit will become more aggressive and grumpy, especially toward her male counterpart. She will deny any male that comes close to her especially toward male that wants to mate her. The pregnant rabbit will move away or seriously bite them. The pregnant rabbit also will keep growl to any approaching male rabbit should they persist in doing so.
It’s recommended to separate the pregnant rabbit from any male so she will not become stressed and not hurting any male due to its aggressive state. But try to keep the male closer even in a separate cage because the pregnant rabbit will likely get stress if get separate too far from her male. In short, prevent them from being in the same cage but keep them close even though they are in a separate cage just to prevent the male trying to mate the female pregnant rabbit.
During the middle to late period of rabbit pregnancy, you might find the rabbit mouth and nose become more reddish, its normal.
4. Starting to Build a Nest
Rabbit pregnancy period lasts for a month, and on their last third period of rabbit pregnancy, they will start to build a nest for the rabbit to give birth. There is few variations of nest depend on the cage environment,
- If you keep your rabbit in an outdoor pen with the dirt floor. you can expect them to dig around the dirt and make a rabbit hole.
- Another version, should you keep them in tall grass pen environment, there is a possibility, instead dug a rabbit hole, the rabbit will make their nest by using weed, grass, and foliage.
- Lastly, should you put them in a square like custom wire cage, you have to provide some kind shelter like a box so the rabbit can give birth there.
5. Shedding Belly Fur and Grown Breast Before Giving Birth
When the rabbit is near their delivery due, she will start to shed her belly fur (the whitest belly part) in her nest for bedding her babies. The moment pregnant rabbit is going to give birth, the mother’s breast will swell enough and can be felt through touching. It will last until her babies are big enough and not required to breastfeed anymore.
So, that’s all 5 signs before a rabbit gives birth. Keep extra attention toward the rabbit soon-to-be-mother to keep her from stresses. Because if the pregnant rabbit gets stressed, it might harm her babies, worst, the mother may eat her own baby after giving birth to them, (Stress and lack of food due giving birth fatigue can become the cause for it). Also, keep the male rabbit away from the pregnant rabbit, so a separate cage is recommended to keep the pregnant rabbit feel comfortable and less stressed
But the most important recommendation of all above is, when you know the rabbit is pregnant, bring her to the expert, The Vet for medical help and support. The Vet can help you should help and give you medical advise should the pregnant rabbit has a complication in her pregnancy, Vet also can give your pet an ultrasonography scan to determine how many babies do the pregnant rabbit bear and their health so you can get recommended the course of action.
I hope This article will help you to determine if your rabbit is pregnant or not, and giving you insight on what you should do in preparation for the rabbit upcoming delivery.