The developing rabbit : some data related to the behaviour, feeding and sensory capacities between birth and weaning

Abstract

Blind and deaf at birth, rabbit newborns need, as all mammal newborns, to rapidly interact with the mother to find the nipples and suck. This usually occurs only once per day, during an interaction drastically limited in time, both in domestic and natural conditions. After days 10-15, the mother-young interactions change progressively, leading to weaning between 4 and 6 weeks. In this context of rapid development of the young, lactating rabbit females and pups have developed some sensory, physiological and behavioural adaptations allowing them to communicate, and allowing the young to ingest milk then solid food efficiently. Here, we present some of these adaptations, taking examples from experimental studies run by several groups during the last decades. This paper is a summary of a chapter and communication recently presented during the last World Rabbit Congress (Coureaud et al 2008b).