No kits to show for?? Help lol

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Mk.mom.13

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Georgia, USA
I’ve had successful fall offs but no kits. The girls aren’t over weight or sick. Anyone else had this problem????
Also I have a buck who refuses to breed….he isn’t even remotely interested in the opposite sex lol. Both issues buns are mini rexes. (I have two mini rex does who I can’t seem to get kits from. One lifts and one refuses)
 
How hot is it where you are? Buck can go heat sterile if it’s to hot. When my buck went heat sterile he didn’t want to breed and when he did there were no babies. In a month your buck would probably be fine again.
 
Mk.mom.13 said:
I’ve had successful fall offs but no kits. The girls aren’t over weight or sick. Anyone else had this problem????
Also I have a buck who refuses to breed….he isn’t even remotely interested in the opposite sex lol. Both issues buns are mini rexes. (I have two mini rex does who I can’t seem to get kits from. One lifts and one refuses)
Click to expand...
We went through 8 months of no kits due to animals not cooperating. We ended up trading out our does who both refused to lift or had one halfway falloff to a man who wanted only does for pets. We have been gathering stock from other breeders and people wanting out of thenrabbit life and had 2 successful litters, now 3 weeks old, and 6 large does waiting on kits (hopefully) plus 5 smaller rabbits also hopefully kitting in mid-February.

I think some of our problem was not enough light for the rabbits, and part may have been genetic. We tried multiple different bucks to no avail. Ultimately, I think we are learning. Hopefully we can be successful, thanks to some helpful folks both here online and in our acquaintances.

I have heard that apple cider vinegar in water can be helpful for health in general (1/4 cup per gallon) and that fresh parsley can also give a healthy boost for fertility. My experience did not confirm this, but if y I u have a local froend or acquaintance with rabbits, maybe they could let you try out one of their bucks woth your does, or perhaps try your buck on a doe of theirs.

Something else that helped us was to give the breeding animals more space to run around, so we put the romantic couples in either the chicken coop (sans chickens) or the chicken run. Putting them into a larger area lets them get a little exercise, sunlight, and thrn allows the buck to catch those stubborn does mid-hop to make the falloffs happen. If they were in cages, the doe could just paste herself to thenfloor in a corner, but in the open, she could kove and the buck could catch up and do his job better.

Good luck!


Also, where are you located, and why are you breeding minirexs? Show, pets, other? Perhaps someone on here also has some minirexes and lives near you.
 
Mk.mom.13 said:
I’ve had successful fall offs but no kits. The girls aren’t over weight or sick. Anyone else had this problem????
Also I have a buck who refuses to breed….he isn’t even remotely interested in the opposite sex lol. Both issues buns are mini rexes. (I have two mini rex does who I can’t seem to get kits from. One lifts and one refuses)
Click to expand...
Could it possibly be the feed? A few years ago a fellow breeder and I had months on end of the same troubles - does refusing, does cooperating but not conceiving, does having dead litters, bucks not interested... This was both Satins and Mini Rex. What we discovered was that the feed company had changed sources for some of the ingredients, and the feed ended up deficient in Vitamin E. (Interesting tidbit - the clue that solved it for us was the Satins' ears lopping over at the tips - another symptom of Vit E deficiency. None of mine had this symptom, but my friend's Satins did.)

Vitamin E deficiency can wreak havoc on reproduction and reproductive behaviors. It might be hard to determine from the feed itself, but you can try supplementing Vit E to see if it makes a difference. Mix wheat germ oil together with BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) and oatmeal and give them about a teaspoon a day. In a few weeks to a month, if that's the problem, you should see a difference.

With Mini Rex it might also be protein; sometimes the dwarf breeds do better on higher protein feeds (18% versus 16%), although I would be surprised if that was the only thing going on.
 
Several years ago we had Vent disease in our herd. It's basically rabbit syphilis and we had no litters for a year after repeated breedings and lots of fall offs. After five weeks of a penicillin shot once a week for the entire herd, they were cured and liters started showing up again. Hopefully this isn't the case with your herd.

It's a sexually transmitted disease, mostly, anyway. We'd fostered a kit who's mom had died. I'd thought it was from a dog attack, turned out she'd just been mysteriously flat and then the fostered baby gave it to the nursing mom, who in turn was bred to a buck who in turn was bred to, etc., etc. Ended up pretty much across the whole breeding herd. Since then, we've gone into strict bio-security and don't allow outside rabbits into the herd.
 
Cosima said:
How hot is it where you are? Buck can go heat sterile if it’s to hot. When my buck went heat sterile he didn’t want to breed and when he did there were no babies. In a month your buck would probably be fine again.
Click to expand...
it gets pretty hot in the summer but ive tried in the fall, early winter (60-70's) and throughout the rest of the year.
 
Captaincatholic said:
We went through 8 months of no kits due to animals not cooperating. We ended up trading out our does who both refused to lift or had one halfway falloff to a man who wanted only does for pets. We have been gathering stock from other breeders and people wanting out of thenrabbit life and had 2 successful litters, now 3 weeks old, and 6 large does waiting on kits (hopefully) plus 5 smaller rabbits also hopefully kitting in mid-February.

I think some of our problem was not enough light for the rabbits, and part may have been genetic. We tried multiple different bucks to no avail. Ultimately, I think we are learning. Hopefully we can be successful, thanks to some helpful folks both here online and in our acquaintances.

I have heard that apple cider vinegar in water can be helpful for health in general (1/4 cup per gallon) and that fresh parsley can also give a healthy boost for fertility. My experience did not confirm this, but if y I u have a local froend or acquaintance with rabbits, maybe they could let you try out one of their bucks woth your does, or perhaps try your buck on a doe of theirs.

Something else that helped us was to give the breeding animals more space to run around, so we put the romantic couples in either the chicken coop (sans chickens) or the chicken run. Putting them into a larger area lets them get a little exercise, sunlight, and thrn allows the buck to catch those stubborn does mid-hop to make the falloffs happen. If they were in cages, the doe could just paste herself to thenfloor in a corner, but in the open, she could kove and the buck could catch up and do his job better.

Good luck!


Also, where are you located, and why are you breeding minirexs? Show, pets, other? Perhaps someone on here also has some minirexes and lives near you.
Click to expand...
yea im still currently trying the apple cider vinegar but nothing yet, most of the time ours are on the ground except when its breeding time. im in nw Georgia, working with mini rexes right now for local folks who are looking and mostly the pets store i sell to wants mini rexes
 
Alaska Satin said:
Could it possibly be the feed? A few years ago a fellow breeder and I had months on end of the same troubles - does refusing, does cooperating but not conceiving, does having dead litters, bucks not interested... This was both Satins and Mini Rex. What we discovered was that the feed company had changed sources for some of the ingredients, and the feed ended up deficient in Vitamin E. (Interesting tidbit - the clue that solved it for us was the Satins' ears lopping over at the tips - another symptom of Vit E deficiency. None of mine had this symptom, but my friend's Satins did.)

Vitamin E deficiency can wreak havoc on reproduction and reproductive behaviors. It might be hard to determine from the feed itself, but you can try supplementing Vit E to see if it makes a difference. Mix wheat germ oil together with BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) and oatmeal and give them about a teaspoon a day. In a few weeks to a month, if that's the problem, you should see a difference.

With Mini Rex it might also be protein; sometimes the dwarf breeds do better on higher protein feeds (18% versus 16%), although I would be surprised if that was the only thing going on.
Click to expand...
thats interesting! thank you for that! ill have to look around i know the tucker brand which is local to me only has a gmo and non gmo feed but everything else is the same
 
hotzcatz said:
Several years ago we had Vent disease in our herd. It's basically rabbit syphilis and we had no litters for a year after repeated breedings and lots of fall offs. After five weeks of a penicillin shot once a week for the entire herd, they were cured and liters started showing up again. Hopefully this isn't the case with your herd.

It's a sexually transmitted disease, mostly, anyway. We'd fostered a kit who's mom had died. I'd thought it was from a dog attack, turned out she'd just been mysteriously flat and then the fostered baby gave it to the nursing mom, who in turn was bred to a buck who in turn was bred to, etc., etc. Ended up pretty much across the whole breeding herd. Since then, we've gone into strict bio-security and don't allow outside rabbits into the herd.
Click to expand...
ive looked into this but i dont see the same visual symptoms when i look it up. i had a doe recently bleeding from her lady bits but it stopped. how did you determine that was the culprit?
 
Alaska Satin said:
Could it possibly be the feed? A few years ago a fellow breeder and I had months on end of the same troubles - does refusing, does cooperating but not conceiving, does having dead litters, bucks not interested... This was both Satins and Mini Rex. What we discovered was that the feed company had changed sources for some of the ingredients, and the feed ended up deficient in Vitamin E. (Interesting tidbit - the clue that solved it for us was the Satins' ears lopping over at the tips - another symptom of Vit E deficiency. None of mine had this symptom, but my friend's Satins did.)

Vitamin E deficiency can wreak havoc on reproduction and reproductive behaviors. It might be hard to determine from the feed itself, but you can try supplementing Vit E to see if it makes a difference. Mix wheat germ oil together with BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) and oatmeal and give them about a teaspoon a day. In a few weeks to a month, if that's the problem, you should see a difference.

With Mini Rex it might also be protein; sometimes the dwarf breeds do better on higher protein feeds (18% versus 16%), although I would be surprised if that was the only thing going on.
Click to expand...
Lots of reports out there across the nation of infertility, much is connected to bad feed especially the main brands that have heavy doses of roundup. A real problem! If you can organic is best and X anything with gmo ingredients.
 
Vitamin deficiencies in commercial feed happen when the feed is stored in poor conditions or simply prolonged storage. Even when the feed was adequate at the time of manufacturing, some vitamins tend to be lost in storage.

Both Vitamin E and Vitamin A are necessary for both the desire to mate and breeding success. In addition to Alaska Satin's excellent advice on Vitamin E, I recommend adding some leafy greens such as dandelion greens or parsley,
 

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