How Many Babies Do Rabbits Have? Litters and Breeding Rates

How many babies are in a rabbit litter?

Litter size depends on the species, the female’s age and condition, the time of year and where she lives. For the two rabbits most people in Europe and North America see, the figures are similar:

The eastern cottontail is the common wild rabbit of North America. The European rabbit is the burrowing wild rabbit of Europe and the ancestor of all domestic rabbits. Litters as large as a dozen are sometimes recorded, but they are unusual in the wild.

How often do rabbits have babies?

Rabbits can have babies again and again in one season because of two habits. First, pregnancy is short: about 28 days in cottontails and about 30 in European rabbits. Second, a female can usually mate again within hours of giving birth, so she is often pregnant while still nursing her last litter.

The breeding season depends on climate. Eastern cottontails start breeding as early as January in the southern United States and around March in New England, and continue into late summer. Near the southern edge of their range they can breed almost year-round. Northern cottontails have fewer litters, but each litter tends to be larger.

European rabbits in northern Europe breed mainly from late winter to summer, while in Spain and Portugal, where summers are hot and dry, the main season runs from autumn to spring, following the growth of green grass. In mild years and places, breeding can continue for most of the year.

How fast can rabbits multiply?

On paper, the numbers add up quickly. A cottontail that raises four litters of five young produces about 20 babies in a year. Some of her daughters born early in spring can mature at two or three months and have litters of their own before autumn.

This is where the phrase “breeding like rabbits” comes from, and in places without natural controls it can be literally true. When 24 European rabbits were released at a property in Victoria in 1859, their descendants spread across much of Australia within a few decades, reaching hundreds of millions. Read the full story in How did rabbits get to Australia?

In their native ranges, however, rabbit numbers usually stay fairly steady from year to year, because almost all of those babies die young.

Why do so few baby rabbits survive?

Rabbits are food for a long list of predators. In North America, foxes, coyotes, bobcats, weasels, hawks, owls, snakes and domestic cats all eat cottontails, and raccoons, skunks, opossums and crows dig into nests. In Europe, foxes, stoats, polecats, badgers, birds of prey and wildcats take many rabbits.

Babies also die from cold, heavy rain that floods nests, disease, starvation and accidents such as lawn mowing and farm machinery. For European rabbits, losses in the first year often reach about 90 percent, and diseases such as myxomatosis and rabbit hemorrhagic disease can kill large numbers. Among eastern cottontails, only about one adult in five survives from one year to the next, and the average wild lifespan is little more than a year.

Biologists see large, frequent litters as the rabbit’s answer to this high death rate. A species that lives fast and dies young has to breed early and often to keep its population going. Larger animals with fewer enemies, such as deer, usually have one or two young a year and care for them longer.

What are newborn rabbits like?

Newborn rabbits are helpless. Eastern cottontail kits are born blind with a thin coat of fine fur, while European rabbit kittens are born naked, blind and deaf, weighing only about 30–35 g (1.1–1.2 oz). Both depend completely on their mother’s milk for the first weeks.

Mothers prepare a nest before giving birth. A cottontail scrapes a shallow hollow in grass, often in a lawn or hayfield, and lines it with dry grass and fur pulled from her own belly. A European rabbit digs a short separate burrow, called a stop, lines it the same way and closes the entrance with soil when she leaves.

The mother then stays away for most of the day and comes back only briefly, usually around dawn or dusk, to nurse. Rabbit milk is very rich, so a few minutes of feeding a day is enough. Her absence keeps predators from following her scent to the young. A nest of baby rabbits left alone is therefore normal; it is best not to touch or move it.

Do hares have more babies than rabbits?

Hares are close relatives of rabbits but raise their young differently. Their babies, called leverets, are born fully furred with open eyes in a simple dip on the ground, and can move within hours. Litters are often smaller, commonly about two to four young, but hares can also have several litters a year.

Because the young are more developed at birth, hares do not need a lined nest or burrow. For a full side-by-side look, see rabbit vs hare.

Myths about rabbit babies

Myth: a mother rabbit rejects babies that have been touched by people. Wild rabbits do not abandon young because of human scent. However, handling stresses the babies and can draw predators to the nest, so they should be left alone.

Myth: baby rabbits found alone have been abandoned. Young cottontails leave the nest at only two to three weeks old and are independent soon after. A fist-sized cottontail sitting alone on a lawn is usually doing exactly what it should. If a wild baby rabbit is clearly injured, the right step is to contact a local wildlife rehabilitator rather than trying to care for it at home.