Dominance battle between mom and 5 week old baby?

[GPluv]

The mother may be 5 weeks pregnant. She has her 3 female babies who are also 5 weeks old in the same cage.

Lately I noticed her behavior has changed. She often runs away when we pet her, and she didn't used to do that (She still lets us, and lays down a lot when I do it, but runs more than usual). I'm not sure if she's just not used to her new surroundings, because we put her and the female babies in a different cage 11 days ago to separate them from the males. Or, if she is pregnant, I am thinking her hormones may be going a little crazy and maybe she doesn't want to be bothered. She also rumbles sometimes and makes the babies get out of her hidey house.

Tonight I noticed she and one of the babies seemed to be having a dominance battle, which I thought was odd considering she's their mother and they are only 5 weeks old. There was butt sniffing, and they followed each other around. The mother's hair stood on her neck, and the baby even mounted her. It was strange.

Questions are:

1) I am guessing this is normal?

2) If she is pregnant, are the babies causing her to be stressed? Should I remove them from the cage until she has the babies?

3) If she has another litter, will the babies bother the newborns? Should I remove them after the new litter is born?

Thanks so much!

[socal805]

Any male babies should have been seperated from mom at 21 days old. It does not matter if she is their mom, males can and will mate as soon as 21 days old with any intact females. She should have been separated from any incact males before she gave birth so that she could not get pregnant again.

[paperlady]

GPluv said the males and females were separated. And, unless I'm wrong, I think I remember that both parents were thought to be male until the humans awoke to babies in the cage.

[rabbitsncavyluv]

Sounds like dominance issues.

How big is the cage? It sounds like one of them was in heat and challenging the other.

[socal805]

GPluv said the males and females were separated. And, unless I'm wrong, I think I remember that both parents were thought to be male until the humans awoke to babies in the cage.

My bad, sorry Gpluv, I misunderstood your post. I was thinking that you still had the males in with her.

[GPluv]

It's ok.

Paperlady was correct. We thought they were both males and they had babies. Separated them when we found babies in the cage, but it may have been too late. And we separated the males from the females at 24 days old because nobody (not even the Vet) could tell me their sexes until 24 days old.

We have the 4 females in a 2x5 cage, which is plenty of room considering 3 are still babies.

Any answers to all my questions are greatly appreciated!