PREGNANT BUNNY

[Animal Person]

@Ridgetop - I have a Lion Head doe who is almost 2 years old. She had a fairly large litter to beginn with. She had 5 kits but 5 died, leaving 3 healthy kits. So I can only breed her 4 times a year?
@Paster Dave - Thank you for the advice

 

[Latestarter]

You mean she had eight (8) kits?

 

[Animal Person]

You mean she had eight (8) kits?

Oh yes! That is what I meant! haha

 

[Ridgetop]

@Ridgetop - I have a Lion Head doe who is almost 2 years old. She had a fairly large litter to beginn with. She had 5 kits but 5 died, leaving 3 healthy kits. So I can only breed her 4 times a year?
@Paster Dave - Thank you for the advice

No, normally people will only breed their does every 3 - 4 months, allow 30 days gestation and 60-70 days to grow out and wean the kits, that makes 3 months. Some people like to allow the doe to rest a month between litter and breeding. I don't like this because as the doe ages, she can decide not to breed if left unbred for a long time. Physically, the doe is the most receptive and most fertile within 30 days after kindling. When breeding meat (rabbits) you want the most meat for the least time and expense (feed) so it doesn't make sense to give the doe a 2 month vacation between litters. Like Pastor Dave said though, if you are breeding intensively you can wear out the does. That is why I fed a higher protein level and added supplements. A rabbit's life span is not long, and the breeding life of a doe is up to 3 years. Now I know there are people that will disagree because I have also had does that I bred up to 4 years, but fertility starts to decline and a doe that at 18-24 months was producing 8 healthy fat kits will usually only be producing 3-4 fat healthy kits toward the end of her reproductive life (2-3 years). I usually would breed a 2 year old doe that was still producing and give her to my 4-H project kids that were just coming into the project so they could produce their own meat pens for fair and sale or use. The older does were a confident, competent moms since I did not keep any does that were not good breeders. A doe got 2 chances to produce a good litter and prove herself or I culled her. My husband showed his rabbit and won consistently, but we only kept winning animals that were good, consistent producers. My goal was always to produce good conformation without losing sight of the prime goal - meat production.

Now back to your question - you can breed your doe back as soon as you want. Since she had a large litter but is not only nursing 3 our of the 8 (35%) she should be fine to rebreed sooner for another litter.
Definitely give her another chance to produce and raise a large healthy litter. If she consistently produces a large litter and loses more than half, I would cull her and try keeping a good daughter or two. If they have the same problem as the mom, cull that line.

Why did she lose 5 kits? You need to try to determine what happened. Is she a first time mom? Did she kindle on the wire, outside of her box? Do you have predators (possums or raccoons) or even noisy visitors in the barn? (I once had 4 new mothers lose their litters in 2 weeks because something was bothering them at night. I left the lights on; when we got an LGD for our goats and everything went back to normal.) The kits could have gotten chilled, is there enough bedding? Was there a hot spell? In Sothern CA we get sudden hot spells during the winter and I lost 2 litters because the temperature soared to 95 degrees for a week and I didn't realize the winter sun's angle hit the nest boxes! During the summer the sun didn't get in the barn! Did she knock them out of the box when getting in and out? - raise the sides of the nest box. Is she peeing in the box? - relocate it since it may be in the spot she normally potties.

Give her another chance - rebreed her right away and try to determine what caused the loss of most of the litter. If she raises the next litter without a problem, it was probably a one time thing. I am not entirely sure what a "lion head" is, is it similar to the broad headed Holland lops? Some first time mothers can have problems giving birth, but usually you find partially eaten corpses in the cage. Contrary to myth, the mom does not kill and cannibalize her young. She eats the already dead bodies in an effort to clean up the nest (like consuming the afterbirth).

 

[Ridgetop]

Just reread where you said she is almost 2 - has she had litters before this that she raised?

 

[samssimonsays]

Unless you are raising for meat and high production, I liked to give more time to recover. I bred my French lops 1-2 times a year tops, most were only once. My mini lops I rarely let have more than that either. That is just my preference though. If you watch their weight they don't necessarily have any issues the following time they are bred. I always gauged when the next litter would be by the moms recovery from nursing.

 

[Animal Person]

Just reread where you said she is almost 2 - has she had litters before this that she raised?

My bunny is a first time mom, two of the bunnies she did eat part of, one of them was out of the nest and appeared sick, the other 2 were very small, but other then that I do not know why they died.

It gets pretty cold here, by the time they were born it was around 30 degrees. But I had a heat lamp on them all the time, so I do not think they were too cold. I had read that first time mothers often do not have more then half survive. So I was not surprised when they died.

 

[Animal Person]

During the weaning process is where I am confused. I am selling my bunnies to a store that said they will bye them when ever they are ready to be away from their mother. Because you said the bunnies can be weaned by 4 weeks, lets say I decide to wean them at 5 weeks. Do I need to keep them in a cage at my house right away? Or can I just sell them right away?
My bunnies are smaller then the bunnies at the store, so I think they won't be ready to leave at 4 weeks.

Here is what they look like

 

[Pastor Dave]

I have never sold rabbits to a pet shop or purchased any from one, but I would guess they want small ones since they will get bigger the longer they sit in there if they do not sell immediately.
If they eat and drink water, they will do fine being sold.

 

[Animal Person]

Good to know. Thanks @Pastor Dave