dangers of breeding too early?

[Robin]

I bought a Creme doe yesterday, she's about 14 weeks old. Not until I got home and was sitting down (busy day yesterday) did I realize that this doe had been in a hutch with her two brothers when I picked her up. Should I worry about her being pregnant? What health risks might she face being a young mama? What issues might show up in the kits (from having an immature mother and being so closely inbred)? Should I put a nest box in her cage now? If she's pregnant I'd have no idea when she'd be due, but I also don't want her using it as a place to potty.

Anything else I should think about?

 

[MaggieJ]

If you can, contact the seller and ask whether they had been housed together all along. If they were just put together for your viewing, she may not be pregnant and at least you would know when to give her the nest box. Otherwise, give her long enough to choose a potty corner in her cage and then put the nest box elsewhere and hope she doesn't use it for a potty.

Most young does seem to brush through early pregnancy just fine, but it can be harmful to their development in a few cases. Not much you can do about it except to make sure she gets excellent nutrition, especially later when she is nursing. Nursing takes more out of them than pregnancy.

Don't worry about the inbreeding. While brother/sister matings are not recommended, they are usually not attended by any problems. All inbreeding does it emphasize the characteristics, good or bad... so if both are healthy, chances are the kits will be too.

I raise my fryers to 14-16 weeks before butchering and I have never butchered one that was pregnant. (This may be because they are fed a natural diet and so mature in all ways more slowly.) You may escape without an OOPS litter.

 

[akane]

My larger breeds I don't worry about separating in the colony until 3 months. I butcher the bucks sometime shortly after 3 months and then the does at 4months. I haven't ended up with a pregnant doe. Now the mini rex are a different matter and I have to be sure to separate them by 8weeks.

The mini rex that I've had get pregnant really early on accident didn't suffer any bad effects. The litter was lost every time because they were either born premature or the doe wasn't ready to care for them but the doe didn't even end up stunted. In fact the one MR doe I had get pregnant around 8 weeks and give birth around 12weeks finished growing at heavier than the allowed weight for a mini rex.

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

In fact the one MR doe I had get pregnant around 8 weeks and give birth around 12weeks finished growing at heavier than the allowed weight for a mini rex.

That's called 'baby fat'

 

[akane]

She had no fat. She was all muscle and actually still a bit lean and lanky at the time I sold her.