If you own a rabbit, the concept of a rabbit laying eggs may sound absurd. However, we can’t blame individuals who believe one comes from the other. After all, images of bunnies and eggs are all over around Easter. So, do rabbits lay eggs? And how did we come to have a legendary rabbit delivering eggs as the Easter symbol in the first place?
As you read this article, you will encounter answers to these questions. Also, we will give facts about another myth surrounding handling baby rabbits. Finally, it will be fascinating to learn about egg-laying mammals. The following questions will be answered in this article:
- Do Rabbits Lay Eggs or Have Live Birth?
- Can You Touch a Newborn Rabbit?
- Why Do Rabbits Lay Eggs on Easter?
- What Mammals Lay Eggs?
Do Rabbits Lay Eggs or Have Live Birth?
Bunnies do not lay eggs; instead, they give birth to live babies. The reason is that rabbits are placental mammals. Thus, they grow their young in their uterus and give birth after pregnancy of 31 to 33 days.
Female rabbits (does) become fertile and can get pregnant as soon as they reach the age of 12 weeks and remain so until they are four years old. Males (bucks) can sire offspring until they reach the age of seven. Furthermore, female rabbits can conceive at any time of the year.
Giving birth to rabbits is called kindling, and it takes a few minutes. During kindling, the mother can deliver 12 or more infants. Usually, kindling occurs in the early hours of the day. Most rabbits do not require human intervention because it is a natural process.
Baby rabbits are known as kits, and they are blind, furless, and deaf at birth. However, after ten days, they start to mature appropriately. Because the mother’s milk is nutrient-dense, does nurse their kits twice a day for around 5 minutes each time.
Kits must be roughly 4 to 6 weeks old to be completely weaned from their moms. The mother rabbit remains apart from the male rabbit throughout this time, as she can become pregnant just hours after giving birth.
Can You Touch a Newborn Rabbit?
Touching or handling a baby rabbit can be daunting. They’re so delicate that it’s easy to worry that you’ll injure them. And if you aren’t careful, this is what might happen. Rabbits’ bones are fragile and may quickly break.
There is a belief that if humans touch baby rabbits, their mothers will reject them. The presence of human scent is said to conceal the newborns’ natural smell. The myth suggests that the mother will not recognize her children and abandon or eat them up.
Happily, this is not the case. Rabbits do not abandon their young because of unknown scents, primarily if they identify the smell as their owner’s. Also, their keen sense of smell allows them to still recognize their kits’ scent.
Sometimes, it’s a matter of life and death to pick up young bunnies. For example, handling or touching a newborn rabbit may be necessary for the following circumstances.
- When a newborn wiggles out of the nest, you’ll need to pick them up and return them to the nest. Because baby bunnies cannot control their body heat, they are at risk of dying if you leave them outside the warm nest for an extended period.
- You should also pick them up every day to weigh them and examine their condition. You’ll be able to tell if they’re not feeding well this way
- Picking up newborn rabbits also helps them socialize. A rabbit will grow up to be more tolerant of humans if it is handled frequently from a young age
You must, however, exercise caution and gentleness. It is best to pick baby rabbits up only when essential and no longer than necessary. Fortunately, picking up a rabbit is simple if you know how to do it safely. Consider these tips on how to pick up a baby rabbit:
1. Lower Yourself to Your Rabbit’s Level
If you take up a rabbit from a standing position, they may become frightened. This is especially true for rabbits who haven’t formed a strong attachment to their owners. Rabbits can only be totally at ease on the ground.
2. Make no sudden sounds or movements
Speak softly and slowly when picking up your bunny. In a quiet voice, speak to your rabbit. Picking up your bunny will be nerve-wracking in and of itself. As a result, you want to reduce the baby rabbit’s stress as much as possible.
3. Carefully Lift Your Rabbit From Beneath
Scoop up newborn bunnies with both hands if they’re under two weeks old. Try to support all their body parts. Avoid picking up a rabbit by the nape of the neck, tail, legs, or ears. Doing so is harmful and may cause injury to your rabbit.
4. Cradle the tiny rabbit against your chest
Keeping your bunny close to your body gives them a sense of safety. It also reduces their likelihood of squirming free and falling from your hands.
5. Place your bunny gently on the ground once you’ve finished holding it.
Continue to support the rabbit’s whole body as you take it to the ground to prevent it from leaping out of your grasp.
Why Do Rabbits Lay Eggs on Easter?
Now that we have established that as mammals, rabbits do not lay eggs but give birth to live babies, it is natural to wonder why the Easter bunny lays eggs on Easter? After all, the whole confusion about rabbits and eggs started with the Easter bunny. So let’s go back in time to the origin of this tradition.
The Easter Bunny (or Easter Rabbit) is a mythological figure and symbol of Easter, represented as a rabbit carrying Easter eggs and occasionally clad in clothing.
The Easter Bunny’s actual origins are unknown. However, according to one interpretation, the rabbit’s symbolism dates back to pagan times, notably the festival of Eostre, a fertility goddess whose animal symbol was a bunny. The egg-laying bunny is thought to have originated with this ancient festival, which celebrates the coming spring, rebirth, and fertility.
Rabbits are often associated with fertility festivals, which is understandable. Rabbits, after all, have a remarkable ability to reproduce. Combining bunnies and eggs seems like the ideal package for a spring event, given their shared ties to rebirth and fertility.
This pagan symbol of spring and fertility is supposed to have blended with Christian customs in 17th century Germany. The Christian celebration of Easter, which remembers Jesus’ resurrection, is the outcome. Some believe that Eggs symbolize new life and signify Jesus’ resurrection.
Easter egg decorating has been around since the 13th century. On Easter, Russian high society began gifting ornately painted eggs, some even studded with jewels, in the nineteenth century.
According to some reports, the Easter rabbit came to America in the eighteenth century with German migrants who settled in Pennsylvania. They brought their custom of an egg-laying rabbit known as “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws.” Their kids even built nests for this bunny to lay its colorful eggs.
The Easter morning deliveries of the legendary rabbit eventually grew to include chocolate and other sorts of candy and gifts, with adorned baskets replacing nests. Children also frequently left carrots out for the bunny in case he became hungry from all of his hopping
The Easter Bunny and Eggs: Interesting Facts
Some facts about the Easter bunny include:
- In some other countries, bunnies are not the traditional Easter animal. Other animals associated with the festival include cuckoo birds in Switzerland and bilbies in Australia.
- The world’s largest Easter egg measured over 34 feet in height. The chocolate egg, created in Cortenuova, Italy, weighs 15,873 pounds.
- The most expensive non-jeweled Easter egg was worth more than $10,000. The 110-pound Venezuelan Amedei chocolate egg decorations were gold flowers and chocolate shavings.
- People once constructed Easter eggs with cardboard instead of plastic in the past. Fillable eggs were manufactured of cardboard and wrapped in satin throughout the 17th and 18th
- There were 501,000 eggs in the world’s largest Easter egg hunt. The hunt, which took place in Winter Haven, Florida’s Cypress Gardens Adventure Park, drew around 10,000 kids.
What Mammals Lay Eggs?
Interestingly, while rabbits do not lay eggs, some mammals do. There are three groups of mammals.
1. Placental mammals
The largest group of mammals is placental mammals. The young develop entirely in the mother’s uterus, linked to a placenta. The placenta nourishes the baby as it grows, and they emerge at a late stage of development.
Most mammals like humans, rabbits, whales, etc. belong to this group
2. Marsupials
The Adult females in this group have a marsupium or pouch. After they give birth to tiny underdeveloped babies, The pouch serves as a warm, protective environment for the babies to develop. Kangaroos and wallabies are examples.
3. Monotremes
Monotremes are the only animals that lay eggs rather than give birth to live offspring. They are warm-blooded, have hair or fur, and nurse their young with milk. Except for platypus and echidnas, most members of this group are extinct.
Conclusion
Finally, though Easter connects rabbits and eggs, rabbits do not lay eggs. Instead, they give birth to live babies. So it is quite fascinating not only that some traditions indicate that rabbits lay eggs but that some mammals lay eggs.