# Can unborn kits "disappear"?



## DianeS (Feb 3, 2011)

I posted before about my young (3 month old) doe that had gotten pregnant. I was told she was younger than she apparantly was. Because she lived with the other young rabbits, I have no idea what day she got pregnant or what day she could have been expected to kindle.

She had pulled hair, dug a nest in her straw bedding, carried straw around in her mouth to add to the nest. When I palpated her abdomen I could feel at least one, large kit on her left side, nothing on her right. 

For the next week she continued the nesting behavior, and she went from always hungry to picking at her food. She got bigger, and her belly was so wide it hid her back feet when she sat. I checked the cage every day since I don't know her due date.

But two days ago I noticed that she no longer "looked" pregnant. I palpated her (for the first time in a week), and felt nothing at all on either side. I checked all through the cage, and no kits, and no evidence of kits being born. I have a very sensitive nose, especially to the smell of blood, and there was no smell of blood in the air at all. 

She is continuing the nesting behavior, rearranging the straw and fur, and digging. 

So - any ideas on what's going on? Could the kit(s) have died and somehow been absorbed by her body? If she gave birth and cannibalized the kit(s), could she have eaten the bones, including skull? (But that still doesn't explain the lack of blood smell.)

Thoughts appreciated.


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## dbunni (Feb 3, 2011)

In the original discussion I told you she might be having a false pregnancy.  The doe goes through all the same process, just does not deliver.  Some does build amazing nests with a false.  The hormones are there, just not the babies.  I have had does that do this when they first cycle.

As to other questions ... yes ... doe can eat the new borns, but you often see blood or parts in the cage or pan.  Yes, they can absorb/abort.  As for palp, many people have felt what they thought was a kit, but it was actually normal body functions.  This especially common when palping angoras as the wool passing through can present as a kit (the feces is pulled together in groups).  Even the most experienced breeders can mis palp a doe ...and I know a few that admit they just don't because they don't 'have the touch".

My guess is a false ...


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## cattlecait (Feb 3, 2011)

It sounds like to me she probably was pregnant and not going through a false one, since she was getting bigger. Just my thoughts.

She very well could have absorbed them, especially her being so young.


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## dbunni (Feb 3, 2011)

During a false, does will gain weight.  Some of this is the doe, some of it is the owner increasing the feed because of the expected litter.


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## DianeS (Feb 3, 2011)

What I could feel in her abdomen felt like one or maybe two fully formed, full size kit(s). About two-three inches long, as big around as a small egg, with a skinnier area in the middle. Solid, but slightly squishy and very slippery - wouldn't stay in one place but slipped away sideways every time I tried to push more firmly to feel it better. Then about three days after the last time I felt it, it simply wasn't there anymore. 

The rabbit in question is a mixed breed meat rabbit, not an angora. 

Also, remember she was on a regular fixed-amount diet until she started showing pregnancy behaviors, which included NOT eating as much. So size gain couldn't have been from eating more, since she didn't eat more. 

So tell me more about a doe absorbing a litter. Any dangers with that I should be on the lookout for? Any special treatment she might need?


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## Bunnylady (Feb 3, 2011)

DianeS said:
			
		

> About two-three inches long, as big around as a small egg, with a skinnier area in the middle.


This does not sound like a kit to me. A newborn kit of a large breed is 3 to 4 inches long at birth, but only a little thicker than your thumb.  

I've never noticed that my does ate any less when pregnant, so I don't consider that a pregnancy behavior. Combining her lack of apatite with these odd things you felt makes me think that she may have been flirting with an impaction. She may have ingested some of the fur she was pulling, it's a good thing she didn't get totally blocked. Besides, I don't understand why you were apparently limit-feeding a rabbit this young? Everything I have ever heard or read has held that they should be fed free choice for at least the first 4 to 5 months, until they are close to their adult weight.

Does can absorb kits, but only up to a point. Bone doesn't get absorbed. A kit that doesn't get born can get mummified, but the bones are still there (I've seen a couple of these mummies get passed, they are  weird looking to be sure!) I've had the odd abortion in my rabbits too, the kits are undersized and underdeveloped, but the problem of no blood sign remains. I'm suspecting a false pregnancy, too.

Just as a side note, the earliest I have seen a doe pull fur was about 10 days prior to kindling. (That particular doe was a Jersey Wooly; she continued to pull fur until she kindled. Her entire cage floor was covered with drifts of wool, I really don't know how she managed to squeeze the kits into the nest box, it was so full of fur. She only had a "Mohawk" of fur about 2" wide right along her spine, the rest of her body was completely bald.) I have also seen does continue to add fur to the nest for as much as a week after the kits are born, particularly on cool nights.


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## DianeS (Feb 4, 2011)

As far as a false pregnancy, when that was first mentioned it was mentioned as a possibility "if the doe had been exposed to a buck too early". Well, she wasn't exposed to a buck too early, she simply lived with her littermates until 9 weeks of age and since then has lived alone. So since that was the only reason given to me that she might be having a false pregnancy of course I dismissed the possibility. Are there other things that can cause a false pregnancy? Do they just "happen" in does this young sometimes?

As far as impaction, would an impaction (or almost-impaction) cause a difference in her droppings? Her droppings haven't changed at all since I got her. 

What about the apparent coincidence of being impacted at the same time as experiencing a false pregnancy? I would think the two things at exactly the same time would be unusual - unless being impacted might actually cause a false pregnancy?

There are just so many things that "might" be going on that I have gotten quite confused. They really DO sit around and think of ways to drive us nuts, don't they? This one doe is reminding me that I know next to nothing about rabbits!

(Bunnylady - I'm not limiting her diet at all, if she ever ate the whole amount that she was given each time then I'd happily increase it. She just dumps her food when she's finished eating for the time being, so I always give her just a tiny bit more than I know she'll eat. She gets fed three times a day, as much as she wants to eat and a few extra pellets for her to dump at the end. The result is less food waste and I know exactly how much she eats each day, that's all. )


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