# Rabbit buried baby alive



## hannahsim1999 (Apr 3, 2015)

Ok so my rabbit had two babies, one that was really big and was born dead and another healthy fat one. My rabbit lives in a cage that has dirt floors covered in hay so she can dig. So she made a nest in a hole and had the babies, when she was done we removed the dead one and left the other one and as soon as i left she started burying it! and when I went back in the morning as it was late at night the nest was all covered and looked like it was never there! Is the baby still alive? or did she kill it by burying it?


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## Happy_the_bunny101 (Apr 3, 2015)

Was this her first litter?


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## hannahsim1999 (Apr 3, 2015)

No, its her second litter. The first one she didn't feed as she had no milk so they died. She still seems interested in the area and comes near me when i touch it.


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## JBun (Apr 3, 2015)

Rabbits in the wild will cover the entrance to their burrow with dirt, to protect the babies and hide them from predators. Then when it is time to feed, the mother rabbit will dig the dirt away covering the entrance and go into the burrow to feed them, then cover it back up once the babies are fed. It sounds like this is what your rabbit has done if the burrow was deep enough and not on the surface, though being an inexperienced mom it's possible she may not have done it properly. There are some youtube videos, that show this type of behavior in rabbits.

It's possible she's done it right and the baby is just fine down in the burrow, but if it were me I would carefully dig the baby out, and relocate the nest to some sort of nesting box so that I could keep an eye on the baby and make sure the mom was feeding it and caring for it properly. Plus it is good to have the baby out where it can be handled and get used to people. If the nest was close to the surface and she may have covered the nest itself with dirt and not just the entrance to the burrow, I would be digging that baby out immediately or it will likely suffocate.


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## hannahsim1999 (Apr 3, 2015)

its been more than 12 hours so if she did it wrong its probably dead


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## hannahsim1999 (Apr 4, 2015)

how would you dig it out without hurting it or making the mother forget about it?


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## hannahsim1999 (Apr 4, 2015)

Update: Baby is alive!!! It's fat and healthy and warm. It's really hairy already! She has fed it and its asleep now


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## hannahsim1999 (Apr 4, 2015)

It looks more like a 3-4 day old baby! Its like the size of my palm!


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## majorv (Apr 4, 2015)

Glad to hear it's still alive. Being the lone survivor, he will get plenty of milk so I'm not surprised he's fat.


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