rabbit does failing to carry

[tielie135]

hey so i have been trying to breed my rabbits for awhile now and i have been having nothing but problems. i have 3 does (two NZW and a rex) and one rex buck. i have put them in and the buck only ever has one fall off. it is immediate then he has no interest in the doe or doesn't have another fall off, i can leave them in all day and still only one. if the doe takes she generally has very few and about halfway through the pregnancy they slowly start disappearing, by around 10 days to birth there is either one or none. have had no live or dead born. each of the 3 does have concieved and failed 2 to 3 times now. all of them are old enough and i am rather concerned. my rex doe is due in 10 days and i can only feel one, she 100% had at least 5 in there last week. all does and bucks are unproven due to this. is it the buck or a deficiency? all of them are healthy weight fed 16% rabbit feed (will switch to 18% after birth) with constant hay and water.
any help or advise is appreciated.
i originally posted to BYC but was told i would get better answers here. all of them are healthy and show no sign of illness.

 

[Beekissed]

That is truly a mystery! The only time I've ever had NZ or Rex not breed well was when all parties were too fat, but either the doe would not get pregnant at all or wouldn't let the buck breed by clamping her butt to the ground or even have small litters but never had any that would get pregnant and then reabsorb the litter. They say that's usually from malnourishment or infection but that doesn't sound like the case with your buns.

I'm wondering if it's possible that where you get your hay they use Roundup to eliminate weeds. It's hard to find solid info on it but I found an article that had this quote:

"Herbicides are not designed to affect animals, but we are learning that they can have a wide range of surprising effects by altering how hormones work in the bodies of animals."

Could explain hormonal changes that would cause your rabbits to reabsorb litters and your buck not having much testosterone.

And another similar quote from another article...

Laboratory studies on animals and in vitro experiments on human cells indicate that glyphosate herbicides and glyphosate alone are endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDCs). Endocrine disruption can cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive and developmental problems.

 

[Nao57]

Wish I could help but I'm new to rabbits also.

The only thing I can say is don't give up. Generally if people stick with it when things get hard, at some point they cross the threshold of doubt/adversity and find an answer. IF they choose to not stop.

(Don't give up doesn't mean that you should or shouldn't sometimes switch rabbits though; but others can help you figure that out.)

 

[tielie135]

That is truly a mystery! The only time I've ever had NZ or Rex not breed well was when all parties were too fat, but either the doe would not get pregnant at all or wouldn't let the buck breed by clamping her butt to the ground or even have small litters but never had any that would get pregnant and then reabsorb the litter. They say that's usually from malnourishment or infection but that doesn't sound like the case with your buns.

I'm wondering if it's possible that where you get your hay they use Roundup to eliminate weeds. It's hard to find solid info on it but I found an article that had this quote:

"Herbicides are not designed to affect animals, but we are learning that they can have a wide range of surprising effects by altering how hormones work in the bodies of animals."

Could explain hormonal changes that would cause your rabbits to reabsorb litters and your buck not having much testosterone.

And another similar quote from another article...

Laboratory studies on animals and in vitro experiments on human cells indicate that glyphosate herbicides and glyphosate alone are endocrine disruptive chemicals (EDCs). Endocrine disruption can cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive and developmental problems.

the place i get hay from doesn't use herbicides and is local (i go to the actual farm to get it.) they use timothy hay with clover and it is really high quality stuff so i dont think that could be the cause.

 

[promiseacres]

Saw on fb that some were having issues with blue seal feed, not sure what you're feeding. But make sure it's fresh and locally milled.
Some rabbits are seasonal though not generally new Zealands
Have you tried bringing her back after a fall off? at 4 and 8 hours. Remove her between breedings. The first one will induce her to ovulate and the next two will fertilize the eggs.
Palpation can be difficult. Have you considered maybe you're feeling poop, not kits?

 

[tielie135]

Saw on fb that some were having issues with blue seal feed, not sure what you're feeding. But make sure it's fresh and locally milled.
Some rabbits are seasonal though not generally new Zealands
Have you tried bringing her back after a fall off? at 4 and 8 hours. Remove her between breedings. The first one will induce her to ovulate and the next two will fertilize the eggs.
Palpation can be difficult. Have you considered maybe you're feeling poop, not kits?

i haven't fed that food, but i think i will try that re-breeding thing! when palpitating i have felt little balls the size of grapes or larger which slowly disappear. they do grow though.

 

[Ridgetop]

If you are having the problem with all the does conceiving, then having small litters, try replacing the buck. While he may appear healthy he may not be very fertile.

Once the buck breeds the doe and falls off, he doesn't always go back for another go at her. I find that breeding the doe once, then taking her back to the buck a week later is better. If she refuses the buck she is probably pregnant at that time, otherwise she will breed again.

Are you sure that you are feeling kits when you palpate? Some times poop can feel like kits. You can't palpate later than 10 days to 2 weeks or palpation is not reliable. If you are not experienced at palpating you may not be actually feeling kits. If you are new to rabbits and haven't had any litters yet, you may not be doing the palpation correctly.

I suggest you replace the buck and try breeding again. A sterile buck can be otherwise healthy. Don't worry about palpating the does. Instead, 1 week after breeding, the does put them back with the buck and see it they will allow him to rebreed. It sounds more like the buck is sterile which can happen. Bucks can also go sterile during heat spells, and older bucks go sterile faster and say that way longer than young bucks. I always used bucks no older than 6 months during the summer.

If you are trying to breed in the winter months, your rabbits may not have enough daylight hours to trigger their normal ovulation. Try leaving lights on in the rabbitry to increase their exposure to light. Like chickens laying eggs, rabbits rely on lengthening daylight hours to ovulate. Since you are in Canada if you are not leaving on lights in your rabbitry the rabbits wont breed until the days get longer.

 

[Niele da Kine]

The palpitation itself could be the problem. Breed the doe and then leave her alone. If you see a fall off, figure the deed is done, put the doe in her nesting site and wait twenty eight days. Then give her a nest box and nest material.

Are these proven does? If they're over a year and a half old and have never had a litter before, they may have problems conceiving. If your buck is older, he may have a fertility problem. How old are the does, how old is the buck?

Are all of them in condition? Not too skinny, not too fat? Are they being properly fed? We've added BOSS (Black Oil Sunflower Seeds) and rolled barley to their rabbit pellet ration and are now seeing larger litter sizes.

We had a problem with Vent Disease several years ago. We'd fostered an orphan kit from someone else and then found out later that the doe had only had one baby and then mysteriously died. !!! Had we known that, we wouldn't have let that baby into the herd. From the time the baby was fostered, it was within a year that we went down to zero fertility. It took penicillin shots once a week for five weeks for the whole herd to get rid of the disease. With two dozen rabbits, that's a lot of shots. Fortunately, a cow sized bottle of penicillin isn't that expensive and there's enough there to treat hundreds of rabbits. Even after they were cured, the rabbits were still having much smaller litters than normal. Several generations later, we are now back up to normal sized litters and normal fertility rates.

A friend of mine tried raising rabbits, but she had a dog kennel in the yard with the rabbits and they never had kits. I think it was because the dogs were too close and too noisy.

Breeding rabbits is more tricky than many folks think!

 

[Ridgetop]

Predator problems in the barn will cause does to reabsorb litters. Not coyote and dog predators, but possums, racoons, and rats running loose through the barn will upset the does and cause them to reabsorb litters.