Today I moved Elsa and her babies to a different cage. They were leaving the nest box and wandering around, so I figured it was about time to pull the nest box. Unfortunately, that cage had some damage to the bottom underneath the nest box and I didn't want babies to get hurt. They also can't reach the food dish in the other cage. They seemed pretty excited to get a new space to run and play. They have already found the food dish and checked out the water bottle (previous cage only had a water bowl, this new cage has both a bowl and a bottle). Elsa is starting to push them away when they try to nurse, which seems a little early to me, but they are interested in the pellet food and the water, so as long as they can eat, they should be fine. I did loose the little brown baby that was looking bad. I'm not sure if it was just because he was a runt, or if Elsa refused to nurse him. When I put a little dish of food in the nest box he chowed down right away, so I had hoped he would fatten up and make a recovery, but yesterday morning he had passed away. Aside from weight loss he didn't seem sick, and all six siblings are doing well. The one that looked a little thin, but not bad, is right back up with the others now. I'll chalk it up to a fluke and keep an eye on the other babies for the next week or so just to make sure they're all adjusting to life outside of the nest box and with access to pellet food now.
I've got to fix the cage Elsa was in before, and refurbish another cage (we bought the lumber to fix but haven't had time). Then I will be rearranging the rabbits again. Sushi is currently in a hutch cage, and he will be moving to a smaller cage so a doe can use the hutch. It will save me the expense of buying or building another nest box.