It crawled out of its original nest on to the concrete floor of the cage and I (perhaps unwisely) rescued it and warmed it up. I remade the nest in a cardboard box and gave it back to Mrs Robinson, she promptly turned it over leaving poor baby splatted on the floor again. So I bought the box inside for the night. Some people say that in the winter they always bring the nestbox inside and just put it in with the mother a couple of times a day for feeding. I have put it back a couple of times and she just over turns it leaving poor baby cold again. So now I have returned Mrs Robinson to the indoor cage she was in when she first arrived with the baby in a nest in the corner. Now if it gets spilled at least it will be warm - less cold anyway. We will leave her until tomorrow morning and then see if there is any sign of the baby having been fed. Apparently they can survive up to 72 hours before the first feeding.
It is very unclear to me whether she even knows the baby exists, rabbits ignore their babies except when they are feeding them, and they don't move them if they fall out the nest, but I would guess that generally ones that are aware of having babies don't keep tipping them out on to the floor and then stepping on them.
I have read various things about helping babies to nurse when the mothers aren't feeding them and also about hand raising them (which seems to have low success rate). Having saved it from the initial freezing to death, it is hard to stop trying to help, however it is probably just prolonging the suffering. Plus they are meat rabbits and having a litter of one isn't very productive, in reality it would be better to remate her and hopefully get a better litter next time. Oh well, we have started helping now and will continue, I am sure it is all a good learning experince and it has a small chance with our help.
In reality also, if Mrs Robinson can't get it together to look after a litter properly (and to have more than two in a litter), she is going to have to be culled. Which is a shame as I like her. It would be easy just to keep her as a pet, but that way leads to a very full farm of 'cost' rather than 'benefit' animals. This time she gets the benefit of the doubt, having had a stressful move to a new home while pregnant and no nest box and materials due to misinformation about the due date. But watch out Mrs Robinson, 'no slackers on the farm' not even ones with cute twitchy noses.
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