New experience

During the weekend I had the opportunity to witness my rabbit going through the labor and delivery of her kit. At around noon I noticed my local breed doe was busy preparing a nest for her new baby. It was her third delivery this year. So far only one survived. I added some leaves and cloth for her. She built the nest in the middle of the cage, not inside the nest box which was placed few days earlier.

During labor, the rabbit was seen at a “sitting” position and busy cleaning herself. At some interval her body would sort of jerk a little bit. After going through the process I saw the kit on the bedding. She cleaned the body of her baby and at one point I was a bit surprised to see it chewed the afterbirth (placenta?) of the baby. Only one kit was born but unfortunately it was not alive. I saw the body was not moving at all. The doe probably need to rest longer than usual this time.