Why Does This Bunny Have So Much Fur in Her Mouth?

[The Dim Side]

I was rather startled when I came upon this rabbit with a *huge* wad of fur in her mouth. There was a lot more before I was able to get this picture, and there was a lot of fur all around her. None of which match her color. But there was a stillborn kit (or at least deceased one, not sure if it was alive at any point but was furless) about 15 feet away.

A little context, we inherited rabbits when we bought this house because they lived under the porch and in the barn, etc. The owners said there were initially 3 black rabbits (2 all black and 1 with white on its face), and they eventually escaped the barn and just multiplied all over the land (apparently, there were dozens at one point). There were 5 or 6 when we moved in (the 6th had just started exploring outside the porch a little after we moved here), and now we're up to at least 12, lol (we just saw 4 new ones start exploring outside the porch yesterday). And a few of the rabbits are grayish brown colors. We have wild cottontails in this area (though I've never seen any), so I'm not sure if they interbred at some point. A few of them do have white tails, but I've heard that it's rare or nearly impossible for wild and domestic to successfully have babies, so I don't have any idea what these breeds are.

This one (Monti) in the above photo lives in the barn and never comes up to the front porch, as far as I'm aware. Though one of the other younger bunnies (the size of the bunny to the right in the photo) is MIA right now. But I don't think its color matched the fur in Monti's mouth. Here's a pic of the missing one, Penny (on the left):



So I have no idea what happened here, and I'm hoping that Penny missing is just a coincidence. I didn't expect Monti to have any kits though, I thought maybe she was sterile since for the last few months, the one older black male is always trying to mate with her (and all the other females).

Does anyone have thoughts on what happened here? Could she have eaten a baby? Though they're not born with fur from what I've read, and there was just so much of it. And I didn't see any blood anywhere either. Is she pulling out fur for nesting? It just doesn't look like it matches her own, and I didn't see her missing any fur on her body, but I couldn't get a really close look.

 

[sourland]

She's pulling fur to make a nest. She's either pregnant or going through a false pregnancy.

 

[The Dim Side]

She's pulling fur to make a nest. She's either pregnant or going through a false pregnancy.

That seemed the most likely to me, but I just wasn't sure if it actually matched her fur or not. My boyfriend thinks it does match her underside though, but I've never really seen it. If they tend to pull fur more from their belly, then that adds up though! Thank you!

 

[EverythingDucks]

The bucks find does giving birth very attractive so they will mate her right after birth. But it seems quite early for her to already be pulling fur again.
That is if the dead one you found belonged to her.

It could be her fur even though the color seems different. The under fluff (as I call it) is often lighter in color.

But its likely that the eead one you found was not hers.
She is probably going to have babies soon if this is not a false pregnancy. She will continue to pull fur for her nest.

The cotton tails cannot breed with domestic rabbits, since the domestic ones coms from the European rabbit. Though can still try, the won't be able to have babies together.

As for the missing one, anygung could have happened. She could have been eaten by a predator, is having babies, or she could just be hiding somewhere.


Do you have a plan for all these rabbits? It would be great if you could catch them and get them all fixed. You could bring them to a rabbit rescue and they would fix them and find a home for them.
Or you could find a spay and neuter clinic, where you can get a lot better prices than a regular vet.

 

[The Dim Side]

The bucks find does giving birth very attractive so they will mate her right after birth. But it seems quite early for her to already be pulling fur again.
That is if the dead one you found belonged to her.

It could be her fur even though the color seems different. The under fluff (as I call it) is often lighter in color.

But its likely that the eead one you found was not hers.
She is probably going to have babies soon if this is not a false pregnancy. She will continue to pull fur for her nest.

The cotton tails cannot breed with domestic rabbits, since the domestic ones coms from the European rabbit. Though can still try, the won't be able to have babies together.

As for the missing one, anygung could have happened. She could have been eaten by a predator, is having babies, or she could just be hiding somewhere.


Do you have a plan for all these rabbits? It would be great if you could catch them and get them all fixed. You could bring them to a rabbit rescue and they would fix them and find a home for them.
Or you could find a spay and neuter clinic, where you can get a lot better prices than a regular vet.

Thanks! And we have an appointment for the older male to get fixed. He's the one that's mating with everyone right now. As far as I know, there are only two other males so far, though the youngest ones may turn out to be males. But neutering him will help mitigate things for a bit at least till we can get the others.

 

[Mellowmalt]

that is her fur. She is grey with a white nose, the fur is white/grey. So her undercoat will be white. Same with my dog, he is a tan color with white undercoat, most of the hair he loses is white he even sheds a bit of grey every once in a while.

 

[Bunnylady]

As others have said, she's pulling fur for a nest. That is her fur; with a rabbit that is her color, there is black at the tips of the hairs, then a lighter band, and nearest the body it is a light gray color. If that dead baby is hers, she may just be an incompetent or inexperienced mother (or, some stress could have caused her to deliver a baby outside of her chosen nest area. Since rabbits don't pick up and carry their babies, any that get out of the nest for any reason are just out of luck). Some does continue to pull fur for days after kindling, especially in cool weather. Rabbits that are confined together may pull fur off each other, but it's no fun having your fur yanked out, so if the rabbits can get away from each other (as in a free-range situation), it would be very odd to see a doe with anything other than her own fur in her mouth.

Does become fertile immediately after kindling, so, if you have a buck around, you can probably expect another litter from her in a month. This is a prime breeding time for rabbits; they tend to be very fertile in the Spring. While people who breed rabbits may manage to get litters all year long, the shorter day length of Winter can make rabbits reluctant to breed (which may explain why this doe hasn't produced before to your knowledge).

Rabbits reach puberty at about 12 weeks of age, so if you have bucks and does that are at least 3 months old, you have a viable colony that will keep breeding.

If there were once dozens, and now there are significantly fewer, some predator has discovered them as a food source, and you will keep losing them. I wouldn't get too attached, since anything out there could disappear at any time.

And, as @EverythingDucks said, wild (North American) rabbits and domestic rabbits cannot interbreed. Your rabbits are a moderately sized mix; since some have facial white, it's likely that Dutch is one of the breeds in the mix. The doe is a Chestnut, the two young rabbits in the pictures are a Black and a Steel. I won't paralyze you with an explanation of rabbit coat color genetics (it's complicated), but, when you said the ancestors of your rabbits were all black and that doe is clearly a Chestnut, I knew Steel had to be in the mix.

Incidentally, Monti's color goes by different names depending on where you live, and even depending on what breed you are talking about. When @Mellowmalt (who lives in the UK) calls her a grey, and I (who live in the the US) call her a Chestnut, we are using locally appropriate names for the same color.

 

[The Dim Side]

As others have said, she's pulling fur for a nest. That is her fur; with a rabbit that is her color, there is black at the tips of the hairs, then a lighter band, and nearest the body it is a light gray color. If that dead baby is hers, she may just be an incompetent or inexperienced mother (or, some stress could have caused her to deliver a baby outside of her chosen nest area. Since rabbits don't pick up and carry their babies, any that get out of the nest for any reason are just out of luck). Some does continue to pull fur for days after kindling, especially in cool weather. Rabbits that are confined together may pull fur off each other, but it's no fun having your fur yanked out, so if the rabbits can get away from each other (as in a free-range situation), it would be very odd to see a doe with anything other than her own fur in her mouth.

Does become fertile immediately after kindling, so, if you have a buck around, you can probably expect another litter from her in a month. This is a prime breeding time for rabbits; they tend to be very fertile in the Spring. While people who breed rabbits may manage to get litters all year long, the shorter day length of Winter can make rabbits reluctant to breed (which may explain why this doe hasn't produced before to your knowledge).

Rabbits reach puberty at about 12 weeks of age, so if you have bucks and does that are at least 3 months old, you have a viable colony that will keep breeding.

If there were once dozens, and now there are significantly fewer, some predator has discovered them as a food source, and you will keep losing them. I wouldn't get too attached, since anything out there could disappear at any time.

And, as @EverythingDucks said, wild (North American) rabbits and domestic rabbits cannot interbreed. Your rabbits are a moderately sized mix; since some have facial white, it's likely that Dutch is one of the breeds in the mix. The doe is a Chestnut, the two young rabbits in the pictures are a Black and a Steel. I won't paralyze you with an explanation of rabbit coat color genetics (it's complicated), but, when you said the ancestors of your rabbits were all black and that doe is clearly a Chestnut, I knew Steel had to be in the mix.

Incidentally, Monti's color goes by different names depending on where you live, and even depending on what breed you are talking about. When @Mellowmalt (who lives in the UK) calls her a grey, and I (who live in the the US) call her a Chestnut, we are using locally appropriate names for the same color.

Thank you! And thank you to everyone else for confirming the situation! The fur just looked so much different than her top (and just SO much of it) that I didn't know for sure and was worried a bunny exploded or something, hahaha.

I'm surprised this would be her first time having kits though, as the one male has been mating with her for a few months, which is why I initially thought she was sterile or something. But I'm pretty sure the stillborn one is hers since the other females don't live in that area except for the younger ones. I think they could be close to be old enough to get pregnant, somewhere around 2-3 months, I've lost track. But I don't think it was either of theirs.

The color and breed information is really useful for me! I'm really curious what kind of rabbits I have, because outside of the black ones, they all look different from one another. If you know breeds a bit and are willing, maybe you could check out these ones and see if they look familiar?

 

[drumstick diva]

I've never seen a black rabbit, though I would welcome a visit. We just have the plain grayish ones. I don't have a veggie garden so I guess they prefer to go to another yard.

 

[EverythingDucks]

I've never seen a black rabbit, though I would welcome a visit. We just have the plain grayish ones. I don't have a veggie garden so I guess they prefer to go to another yard.

Do you have wild or domestic rabbits?

There are a quite a few rabbits breeds that are black, and lots that come in black. Havana's are all black, Dutch are black and white, and you can find Lops and Liongead in black too.

The wild bunnies love to eat our landscaping. I like to give them veggies from the garden too. They can't reach where we grow them since it's off the ground thankfully. The squirrels try to though