Trying breeding again.

[Laur]

I told you about my Holland Lop Reva last month. She had a stuck baby for several hours, which was born dead. No other kits were born

https://www.rabbitsonline.net/threads/rabbit-labor-and-birth-concerns.93159

We bred her again a few days ago. Our Buck, Bambi, is now 6 months and quite the energetic little Casanova. I see what they mean by grunt and fall over. OMG is it funny. It is so goofy looking we laughed hysterically. He did that at least three timed, plus two times in the beginning that were similar, but instead of falling over he kind of wiped out under her. Anyhow hopefully that will result in a large litter and smaller babies.

We let them court a bit on the living room floor. After Bucking Buck Bambi finally tired himself out, and Reva got revenge by mounting him back, they curled up and cuddled together.

Is there any harm in letting them associate with each other for the next couple weeks, if they continue to enjoy each others company, if there is no squabbling over him being a pest and her getting sick of it? Is there a risk of having two due dates and litters because of the Doe's particular uterus/cervix structure?

We are so excited. Bambi's coat was questionable as a baby, but judged loved everything else. Now is adult hair seems like typical holland rollback. Reva has several legs. It is like when you buy a lottery ticket and you dream about what you will buy if you win. Prayers for one baby with their opposite of each others best points. But I am probably "preaching to the choir" here, lol.

 

[Khloe]

I would say the top amount you can have them together is a week or less. Because she can have two litters at once since rabbits do have two uteruses, and when her first litter is ready and coming out she will have the second litter as well. The second litter could be under developed, and both the litters will most likely not make it. Hope this helps and good luck, my cousins bunny had a litter and 3 weeks later she had another, luckily the previous babys were old enough and they started eating solids, but the litter just born didn't make it.

 

[Laur]

Thanks. Wow, that is so weird. Good thing I joined this forum because no books or web pages I read had that information. Books about breeding are written by breeders - in other words people with 50 rabbits in an out-building. So they say "Do it this one standard way." But do not say "why" or what happens if you do something differently.

 

[SableSteel]

I would not keep them together.
She might be fine now, but once her pregnancy hormones kick in she'll be more likely to attack the buck than anything. And they can easily injure the bucks.
This is where test breeding comes in - they actually use the fact that pregnant does are more likely to attack the bucks to see if they're bred.
I'd be more worried about his safety (and hers if he were to fight back) than about her getting pregnant again. That's possible but pretty unlikely.

 

[majorv]

Agreed, I wouldn’t keep putting them together. If she is pregnant then after about 24 hours she could well attack him if you put them together again. The other problem is that if you keep putting them together - and they keep mating - you won’t know exactly when the kits are due.

 

[AyaSora]

Agreed, I would keep them apart for now so now you only have the one due date range (as it can be a couple day range)
I have personally seen 1 doe carry two litters. It was a new zealand mix that one of the county shelters around me had, she had one litter day after arriving at the shelter and approximately 3 weeks later had another litter- so the shelter went from 1 rabbit to 15 (two litters of 7 kits) in a month. Then had to wait for a while before they could rehome any at all. I was a busy body sexing them and separating them for a while.