Time between births.

My doe had a kit at 7pm. I tried to put it under her pile of fur but she kept digging and the kit was wandering around. She did not have a good nest and since I thought it was a singleton I decided to put the kit in a sock to keep it warm. Overnight she had 2 more but they died of exposure because I didn't use a nestbox. Now I wonder if newborns wander when they get cold because too much time between births prevent them from forming a warm pile of bodies.

This can easily happen, especially if one gets stuck or there is another reason some are delayed in birth. I would think especially this time of year. Since she only has one you could rebreed in a couple of days.....

Yes newborns can wander and can move a surprising distance. I've heard of kits being found as far as 5 ft from the cage. That's why it's important to have a good nest box. They can chill even if enough fur is pulled, if the nest isn't deep enough. The walls of nest box serve to keep the fur and bedding piled around the kits and to keep the kits together.

This can easily happen, especially if one gets stuck or there is another reason some are delayed in birth. I would think especially this time of year. Since she only has one you could rebreed in a couple of days.....

I have had does go 24 hours for giving birth... Main time was when I found one kit on the wire, took it in and kept it warm. Went out a few hours later to see her digging around in the nest and a flash of pink. Battered and bruised kit being tossed around in the nesting material. Next day one large, stretched kit, and a couple more dead ones in the nest she had finally built . It's like the first two caught her off guard, she wasn't ready, then the others had issues with the large kit blocking the way and ended up dying. She did something similar a second time, though not nearly as drastic. Unfortunately, she actually had some underlying issues in the form of a cyst/tumor in her reproductive tract (she ended up getting HUGE, with what looked like 3 dewlaps and rolls everywhere... overall wonky hormones I think. THe rapid and extreme weight gain is what caused me to go ahead and cull her).

macksmom98":kqnsuhme said:

This can easily happen, especially if one gets stuck or there is another reason some are delayed in birth. I would think especially this time of year. Since she only has one you could rebreed in a couple of days.....

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I'm thinking of breeding her with a dwarf so smaller kits may be easier on her.

Unless you are breeding some of the smallest breeds it's usually not helpful to lower the buck size in order to get smaller kits. The female decides most of the size in many animal breeds. Aside from the small breeds they should be able to handle any properly developed kit they produce and stuck kits after the first litter are usually abnormally large irregardless of the buck. There can be a big range in kit size in the same litter without a genetic defect. They just don't all get the same nutrients and grow at the same right. First time does always have an increased risk and in some lines or breeds people just completely write off the first litter from every doe as an expected failure. Some are very good with their first litters and you may never see problems with that group of rabbits but it depends if they've been selected for. With good rabbits usually just going ahead and breeding again will get you a healthy litter. The doe will realize what is happening and has a lower rate of stuck kits after her first litter. Even in dwarf breeds the odds of stuck kits goes down quite a bit the following litters but with the way dwarf genes work the buck can impact the kit size more and it's easier for the does to have problems with the larger kits. Sometimes this extends to other small breeds like mini rex.