Often a couple of days after the enrollment of the young mother, mother’s instinct disappears. This is expressed in the fact that she throws her cubs out of the nest, does not want to feed or scatter them in a cage. In addition, the rabbit can go into the hunt and become again ready for mating. Such a desire in nature is considered the norm, but it can also badly affect the attitude towards the newborn.
Among other reasons for eating is the young age of the rabbit. Often, young women after sex have not yet fully understood what happened to them. In such cases, the female can also be cold towards the offspring, ignore the rabbits or act too actively. In any case, why the instinct of motherhood disappears, it is impossible to establish 100% precisely in each case, it is individual.
Possible causes of loss of instinct: stress, too tight or poorly equipped nest, a large number of people around, fuss, extraneous smells.
Also, the behavior of a young mother may be influenced by predators (if kept out of the house) – that is, foxes, stray cats and others. The last reason is the birth of sick offspring, when at the primitive level the rabbit felt that her babies were defective and stopped feeding them or even ate them.
