How old is Boon now? I've never seen a momma rabbit attack her weanling kits like this before. We don't separate bunnies from their moms until at least six weeks old, and even then we often leave them in the same pen with mom for a while after that before moving them to the grow out pens. Quick mental math in my head - Boon was born 10/5, today is 10/4 - And because Boon was born in a colony setting, that means his mom probably bred back as soon as she delivered her litter. I have never bred back to back litters, as I firmly believe in giving momma a bit of a rest between litters. This is all new to me. Since she was removed from the colony setup, she can't be reintroduced. In the meantime, I figured it's time to freshen up her nest box, so I dumped the old bedding and added fresh before returning it to her cage. I attempted once more to put Boon in with mom, and for a minute she ignored him while checking out the new bedding in the nest box, but then she turned on him again. We removed him, and within a few minutes, his momma was pulling fur and building a new nest. Boon was permanently removed from his mother today, at just four weeks old, for his own safety.
After a lot of hesitation, I introduced Boon to the buck grow out pen. Those bucks are a lot older than Boon, as the younger litters are still all with their moms. He is now in the grow out pen with Nardol, Rascal, Riley, Rocket, and Sawyer. We stood out in the bunny barn for about an hour monitoring. I wanted to make sure they wouldn't hurt him. Not only is he a smaller breed than we're used to working with, but he's much younger than we're used to introducing to a grow out pen. He looks so out of place being so tiny. I made sure he could get to the food and water, and we even added an old cereal box with some bedding in it to keep the bigger boys distracted for a while. An hour later I sent out a kid to check in and was told he's doing fine. An hour later I went out to check again, and he was still doing fine. Bedtime check, they're all seemingly indifferent to one another. I'm hoping all is well over night. Honestly I'm dreading morning check. He's so tiny, and the other boys are so much bigger than he is, and so much older. I'm really hoping everything goes well. I'm just a nervous-nelly tonight.