Dead babies

[genuinesqueak]

Hi there,
I'm new to the forum, and fairly new to breeding rabbits.
I bought a breeding trio from a friend who was having no luck with breeding them. Which I put down to young rabbits and breeding at the wrong time of year. Anyway I bred them a week after I got them and 31-ish days later got my first litter from my favourite girl 'Daffodil' who had previously had a litter but they were dead and then went missing, eaten? This new litter of 6 thrived and she was a great mum. The next bunny 'Milo' had her first litter of 4 and they also thrived to my relief as I was expecting dead babies since it was her first litter.

So we gave them about six months off, we didn't want to just pump them out and have bunnies everywhere haha. So I mated Daffodil with the same male, and put Milo in with a new boy I got 3 days later. Daffodil and Silver got straight to it, Milo and Vegemite fought more than anything but I left them to it. 30 days later Daffodil started pulling fur and making a nest, she also went off her food, all signs she did before her last litter. How ever in the morning when I checked on her there was a single dead baby in the nest. Took it out and left her to it and that night I noticed she was still pulling fur and her nest was epic. This morning I found another single dead baby out of the nest just in the cage part.

Has anyone experienced this before? Since this is her third litter should I expect dead babies from her and just cut my losses and give her away as a pet or should I keep trying? I'm not sure if maybe I'm doing anything wrong or if the live litter was just a fluke? I did everything the same as that litter. Although it's summer now and last litter it was winter. Milo is now looking to be nesting so I hope we have a better outcome with her, although I wasn't expecting her to even be pregnant since the new boy isn't as experienced. Daffodil is still laying in her nest so is it possible she's still having more or is she just thinking she's having more?

Thanks for any help/advice.
Cheers
Sarah

 

[woahlookitsme]

I am no help but maybe you could describe your breeding procedure a little more.

Who do you put in whos cage?

How many times do they breed within what amount of time?

Also how old your rabbits are?

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

My in laws raised rabbits for a time and they had a doe deliver a litter of two dead kits. I think these things happen and you should not give up on her just yet. That same doe later delivered a litter of 11 and she raised every one of them by herself! She was a half sister to my Fraggles

 

[genuinesqueak]

Thanks for your replies.
The first time I bred them I left the female in the male's cage for 2 days and then waited a day and put the other female in with him for one day (as he was harassing her much more than the previous female). This time I left her in for the two days as the first time though I saw him get her within 30 seconds of her being in there, so I'm thinking maybe I should have taken her out that night? There's so many conflicting advice on the internet, some say leave them in for five minutes and then take them out and repeat several times, others say leave them in for 1-3 days.
They're roughly about 18 months old now I think.
I hope her next litter survive because she is a lovely girl.

 

[genuinesqueak]

Just thought I'd add that I read that some doe's have more trouble with smaller litters as they're bigger? Maybe that's why? Has anyone got any suggestions on getting larger litters? haha

 

[majorv]

What have the temps been there? Sometimes it's hard to know what went wrong. When we had Californians we did leave one of our does with the buck overnight, but only because we could tell they were getting along. We had another doe who was pretty agressive with the buck and didn't even consider leaving them together overnight. We show different breeds now and just leave them together long enough to breed a few times, wait a couple hours and do it again. Everyone has their own way of doing things...its whatever works for you.

Kindling in the heat is more stressful on does and kits. We have a Himalayan who trampled half her kits while kindling in the heat. That was her3rd litter.We had another doe who kindled onekit on the wire because she had it during a rainstorm. She had made a great nestbox, but was stressed by the storm.

If it were me, I'd give the doe another chance. If its too hot, consider waiting til the weather is cooler to breed her.

 

[genuinesqueak]

I think there could have been a few factors involved, it was warm yesterday but raining the day before, probably fairly humid that day too. Our weather has been crazy lately, meant to be summer but it's been raining one minute and then summer heat the next. The night of the first dead baby the dogs were barking a fair bit (the dog pen is roughly 10-15 metres away from where the rabbits are) which could have also stressed her out. I'm working on finding a more suitable area for the rabbits on the other side of the house (though I'd much rather get rid of the dogs! haha).

Good news is though that the other female Milo had her litter this morning and from what I can see there's 5-6. I never saw them mate but obviously they did. I might rebreed Daffodil in a week or so with him and see if we have more success. Now if I could just get Daffodil to stop pulling her fur out and making a nest that'd be great!

 

[majorv]

It's funny how some does will only pull a little hair and some will pull a lot. We had one doe who was practically bald on her sides because she pulled so much!

I didn't mention that the one doe who had a kit on the wire during a rainstorm had a successful 2nd litter a few days ago. We re-bred her a week after it happened and she had 7 beautiful kits in the nestbox. We fostered 2 over to another doe who only had 3.

Good luck on your next try

 

[genuinesqueak]

Oh that's great news I hope the same happens for Daffodil. Last litter we had she had six and Milo had four so once they were up and moving around I evened it out so they each had five. (well at first the babies kept getting mixed up into different pens, since they're side by side they found holes they could fit through. So in the end I let them and they kind of shared them. I felt sorry for the one who'd end up with 9 while the other had one... Once they were big enough to not fit through the hole I just did five each.)

Anyway I hope I have some good news to share in just over a month's time!

 

[CCWelch]

It is possible that with the 6 months off, Daffodil may have put on some fat, if it is around her reproductive area she could be having a problem kindling. Weigh her and make sure she doesn't weigh more than 10 lbs, if she does, cut her to 10 oz of food daily even while pregnant until almost the end of her pregnancy, supplement with some calf manna so she gets the extra needed protein, no more than a tablespoon a day and as she gets closer to a due date (like 3 days before) feed her a half of a berry flavored tums each day to build up her calcium to make birthing easier and increase milk production.