Can a doe really Carry 2 litter?
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Can rabbits have multiple litters?
In fact a rabbit can give birth to a couple kits one day from one horn, and a full two days or more later a couple more kits from the other side (I had it happen with a Mini Rex litter, with 4 babies). It has to do with the amount of eggs the doe is capable of producing.
Apr 23, 2010
Larger LItters: double pregnancy? : Meat Rabbits
rabbittalk.com/larger-litters-double-pregnancy-t668.html
In fact a rabbit can give birth to a couple kits one day from one horn, and a full two days or more later a couple more kits from the other side (I had it happen with a Mini Rex litter, with 4 babies). It has to do with the amount of eggs the doe is capable of producing.
Apr 23, 2010
Larger LItters: double pregnancy? : Meat Rabbits
rabbittalk.com/larger-litters-double-pregnancy-t668.html
Well I put a doe and buck together after false pregnancy. Thought I never saw a successful mount. This was aug 10, Put her in again Aug 25 witnessed 2 successful mounts. (Grunt, fall off) Expecting her to kindle Sept 25. I cleaned cage yesterday and put a bunch of hay in as always. Well this morning 5 healthy kits. I quickly prepared a nesting box and placed them inside. Should I expect more kits? Or did she deliver and get rid of them..... I guess I will be prepared either way
Obviously the doe was pregnant from the August 10 mating and has kindled right on time. The falling off in the second series of matings indicates only that the buck successful ejaculated. The doe would not become pregnant from that occasion because she was already gestating a litter.
It used to be believed that a doe could carry two litters at different stages, but in recent years the thinking is that this is not possible after all. I doubt very much that you will see a second litter.
It used to be believed that a doe could carry two litters at different stages, but in recent years the thinking is that this is not possible after all. I doubt very much that you will see a second litter.
In all the years I have raised rabbits, I have never seen two different age litters carried at the same time.
........I did have an unexplained litter once, from a doe I was going to cull, she had been placed in a separate area after weaning, awaiting dispatch, -- but, i wanted to let her gain a pound or so --so she was not butchered right away.- somehow- she had a litter about 2 months after moving her-- there were no buck rabbits in that area...
........I did have an unexplained litter once, from a doe I was going to cull, she had been placed in a separate area after weaning, awaiting dispatch, -- but, i wanted to let her gain a pound or so --so she was not butchered right away.- somehow- she had a litter about 2 months after moving her-- there were no buck rabbits in that area...
Science says even if they somehow had some eggs released and fertilized at different times there is no way one uterine horn would maintain the pregnancy through birth of the other. It does not work independently. It is mostly just shaped differently and will cycle as one and expel everything at once. There has been some thought that under developed kits born with normal ones were the result of 2 separate breedings but different stages of development have been born in cases where it was known there was only one exposure to a buck. Personal claims otherwise have never been proven and with the number of mystery pregnancies that occur probably never could be proven in a typical rabbitry setting.
