Beginner at breeding

[Kt1992]

Hi. I recently bred our holland lop. She had 4 babies. 2 looked good and fully developed and 2 look deformed. Sadly, they were all dead. Not sure why. I am going to try to breed her one more time . How long should I wait for her body to heal before breeding again?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I always give my Does a week off but you can bred her right away
How recent was this? You could wait a couple days to see if she has more

 

[Preitler]

Holland lops are a dwarf breed, right? If you used two true dwarfs those two deformed ones could have been peanuts.

 

[eco2pia]

I am not a dwarf breeder, but I believe @Preitler is right. I am hoping another dwarf breeder will chime in, but I think this is a case where there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You can breed a true dwarf to a slightly larger "dwarf" that does not stay under the max weight and some of those babies will stay small and some will grow to be too big. Or you can breed 2 dwarfs and all surviving babies will stay under the max weight but a proportion will not survive, or something like that. The non-surviving babies look like runts with oversized heads, hence the nickname "peanut". They can survive for a short time before dying, or they can be stillborn I believe. Someone who has bred dwarfs should clarify the exact ratios here.... @ladysown aren't you breeding hollands?

 

[ladysown]

Yes, I've had a variety of dwarf bunnies over the years.

When you say deformed how?

In this post you can see what a peanut looks like.
https://athomepets.weebly.com/at-home-pets-blog/peanuts

 

[Kt1992]

I am not a dwarf breeder, but I believe @Preitler is right. I am hoping another dwarf breeder will chime in, but I think this is a case where there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You can breed a true dwarf to a slightly larger "dwarf" that does not stay under the max weight and some of those babies will stay small and some will grow to be too big. Or you can breed 2 dwarfs and all surviving babies will stay under the max weight but a proportion will not survive, or something like that. The non-surviving babies look like runts with oversized heads, hence the nickname "peanut". They can survive for a short time before dying, or they can be stillborn I believe. Someone who has bred dwarfs should clarify the exact ratios here.... @ladysown aren't you breeding hollands?

My buck is a true dwarf however my doe is a a false

Yes, I've had a variety of dwarf bunnies over the years.

When you say deformed how?

In this post you can see what a peanut looks like.
https://athomepets.weebly.com/at-home-pets-blog/peanuts

2 were completely normal looking but the 2 deformed ones looked like they may have been stuck together at one point and then separated? I don’t really know how to explain it and I didn’t get pictures. Definitely didn’t look like a typical peanut if that’s what they were.

 

[MsTemeraire]

I am not a dwarf breeder, but I believe @Preitler is right. I am hoping another dwarf breeder will chime in, but I think this is a case where there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. You can breed a true dwarf to a slightly larger "dwarf" that does not stay under the max weight and some of those babies will stay small and some will grow to be too big. Or you can breed 2 dwarfs and all surviving babies will stay under the max weight but a proportion will not survive, or something like that. The non-surviving babies look like runts with oversized heads, hence the nickname "peanut". They can survive for a short time before dying, or they can be stillborn I believe. Someone who has bred dwarfs should clarify the exact ratios here....

The Dwarf gene is dominant, so only needs one copy. This works for all breeds where the Dwarf gene is present - Hollands, Netherlands, Mini Rex etc.

DW/DW is non-dwarf (oversized).
DD/dw is the 'show size' i.e. expected size within weight for the breed.
dw/dw is 'peanut'.

When you breed DW/dw to DW/dw you will get some of each - roughly 25% DW/DW, 50% DW/dw and 25% dw/dw.
To avoid breeding peanuts you can breed DW/DW to DW/dw.

 

[eco2pia]

Thank you @MsTemeraire I kinda remembered it was like broken, but I haven't thought about it for almost 10 years!