Do I give her another chance??

[MamaMandy]

I have a 3.5 year old Holland Lop doe, that is frankly one of the sweetest rabbits I've ever owned. I call her Clara, and she's a gorgeous broken black. I bought her this past summer from I breeder I know and trust. Clara has had several successful litters for the other breeder. I've bred her twice now (well 2 times have actually taken) and each time she has only one, very large, very overdue, dead baby. The first one was born on day 35 and the second one was on day 38! The last one looked to me like it had possibly been dead inside of her for a bit. So, my question is...do I breed her again and give her another chance? I wouldn't even be considering breeding her again if she seemed to be in distress at the end of her pregnancies or if she labored for days. She acts like nothing is wrong and eats the whole time and is as friendly as ever even when she's that far overdue. I'd love to get some babies out of her, but I also don't want to hurt her or risk killing her. Anybody ever had anything like this happen?? Thanks in advance.

 

[Prisma]

If you've been using the same buck, yes. Change the buck and try again. If not the same buck and doing consistently, then no. The bucks would have to be completely unrelated and her still having problems for her to be sent packing if she is NICE.

 

[skysthelimit]

Yes. I had this happen a while back with a Siamese Sable doe I was so hoping to get kits from. I posted about it here quite a bit. After 6 breedings, she finally had one living kit, Uno, who dropped dead at 12 weeks. When I finally culled her, she was full of fat. it just might be that she is nearing the end of her reproductive years. I'd say give it a go as long as you can stand it.

 

[Miss M]

I agree... give her another chance, and with a different buck, if at all possible! Those two may simply be a bad genetic combo.

 

[MamaMandy]

Well, it was a different buck both times actually. But, Sky might be onto something. I thought Clara was fairly overweight when I got her. She has slimmed down a bit since I've had her but she may have internal fat. I'll try her with one more buck and see how she does. Like I said...since she doesn't seem to suffer during delivery I'm willing to try one more time. I'm sure she'd be a great mother. She is just such a sweetheart...

 

[Peach]

Try rebreeding as soon as possible and maybe to a smaller buck. Hollands are tricky! I'd probably cut her chow in half to cut back on the calories and increase exercise time. See if she can't burn off some of that fat. My Mini Lops seem to like a regular breeding schedule. If I break the cycle, I get strenched/dead/ or born outside the nesting box kits. I've been observing my Mini Lops for a while now and noticed giving them lengthy pauses between breedings screws them up. Usually they like one month of rest, but after that, they are needing to be rebred because they pack on the pounds since they are just such a docile breed, that I only ever see them moving when it's really cold out and they hear the clattering of the feed bin.

I have never had this many problems with litters as I did this year. I did one big breeding during the winter, then one or two in the spring. I did't breed some for 6-8 months and I'm dealing with the consequences of getting them back to normal. Proven does that did excellent the first time, are giving birth outside the nesting box...etc. Frustrating when you running behind on next season's show string XD

 

[MamaMandy]

I agree Peach. I think the breeder I got her from only bred a couple times a year. I bet that is what is going on. I'll breed her again and hopefully we'll have a better outcome!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

If she only has one kit or a small litter of two or three, I would be inclined to breed her back the day she gives birth. Many of our members report large litters when doing so, and more kits= smaller kits.

 

[MamaMandy]

True, MSD. I always felt like after such a delayed delivery of such a large baby she'd need a day or two to recover, but maybe not. It's now been a couple of weeks since she had the last singleton. I hope she'll accept a buck. We've been keeping the lights on in the rabbitry and I've had good luck getting some other does bred recently, so wish me luck, and Clara too!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

As long as you don't see any obvious tears on her vulva, she should be fine being rebred.

I can understand your hesitation- you would think that it would be traumatic giving birth to such oversized kits- but they are generally so squashed by passing through the pelvis that I don't think the actual birth is as bad as it seems.