When I was young during the 90s our family reared rabbits. But we were told never to handle their babies with our bare hands because their mothers don't feed the ones that smell like humans. So we always wore a glove to handle them.
But i see you a holding them with your bare hands. We must have been misinformed.
We haven't had issues with ours, but I do know that wild rabbits will reject the young if you touch them... not sure.
This is actually true in case of wild rabbits and as well as some domesticated rabbits. But it depends in case of domesticated rabbits. Not all do that.
Okay, I don't know the specie we had but they were white. Thanks for the info.
Wild rabbits are one of very few animals who are extremely sensitive to human smells, and will do as you say and abandon their offspring if they have been touched by humans. Luckily most domesticated rabbits don't exhibit this behavior, but some do - so I think you were smart to not touch them without gloves. But there's no guarantee that @papa-pepper's rabbit will abandon its babies.
Thanks for the info. I don't know which continent they came from from but they were white. I live in West Africa. Any idea what specie that is? Every once in a while they would give birth to one grey colour baby among as many as twelve white ones.
No, I don't know much about African rabbits, sorry!