Problem with Kit Size

[lilybuns]

Hi Guys! Just looking for a little bit of advice.

I am new to rabbit breeding and just wanted a little bit of advice about one of my does first litter.

I bred her a couple of months back with my buck (her first litter) and she gave birth to 3 dead babies outside of her nest box, they were in her litter tray when I went to check on her. They appeared very large to me compared to my other does successful litters.
She is absolutely fine and back to her normal self but I wasn't sure if it is safe to rebreed her? I can't seem to get any solid word on this and I do not want to cause unnecessary stress or harm to her and potential kits again and would be more than happy to neuter her but I just wanted to see if anybody has had experience?

All of my rabbits are mini lops and I know each of them between 4 and 5 generations back.
They are all health checked regularly and up to date with vaccinations etc.
I also understand it's quite controversial to breed, however, I do take full responsibility for my rabbits and have plenty of space to keep babies etc.

I hope everyone's day is going well!

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hi Guys! Just looking for a little bit of advice.

I am new to rabbit breeding and just wanted a little bit of advice about one of my does first litter.

I bred her a couple of months back with my buck (her first litter) and she gave birth to 3 dead babies outside of her nest box, they were in her litter tray when I went to check on her. They appeared very large to me compared to my other does successful litters.
She is absolutely fine and back to her normal self but I wasn't sure if it is safe to rebreed her? I can't seem to get any solid word on this and I do not want to cause unnecessary stress or harm to her and potential kits again and would be more than happy to neuter her but I just wanted to see if anybody has had experience? They are all health checked regularly and up to date with vaccinations etc.

Sometimes when kits are too large, it is difficult for the doe to deliver them, and when the first one gets stuck, the others in line die while they're waiting. In my experience overly-large kits can result from either the doe being overweight, or the litter being so small that the kits grow bigger than normal.

Even if they were not too large, if it was the doe's first litter, it may have taken her body a little too long to figure out how to push the kits out. There's a good chance that next time everything will work perfectly.

If the doe looks and acts healthy, it should not be a problem to rebreed her. I would encourage you to first make sure she's not fat, though, since overweight does can have all kinds of problems conceiving and kindling. Feel around her shoulders; fat rabbits will be flabby in that area, if they're really fat you can even feel the fat lumps there. Especially if she's a mini lop, she should be built like a brick, with no flabbiness. Don't worry about loose skin, or a flap of skin/fur around the base of her hindquarters, like a skirt; those are pretty typical of lops and don't necessarily mean they're fat.

If the doe had vaccinations recently that might possibly factor into her difficulty kindling, depending on which shots she got and when.

I also understand it's quite controversial to breed, however, I do take full responsibility for my rabbits and have plenty of space to keep babies etc.

Breeding rabbits is not considered controversial at all on this forum. Many or even most of those posting here are breeders or intend to become breeders. They're also as non-judgemental a group as you'll find.

 

[Chaos]

I'm still new to this. My does are Silver Fox x New Zealand. The tan one neglected her 1st litter to death but seems to be doing great with 2nd litter. My black doe lost her 1st litter because I wasn't ready, but all 7 were large. Her 2nd litter was only 3, all born dead but very large. .Just guessing but I'd say they were born about as big as week old kits from the tan doe.
No more breeding this summer, but should I cull the black one since it seems she produces
too large kits in normal gestation time?

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I'm still new to this. My does are Silver Fox x New Zealand. The tan one neglected her 1st litter to death but seems to be doing great with 2nd litter. My black doe lost her 1st litter because I wasn't ready, but all 7 were large. Her 2nd litter was only 3, all born dead but very large. .Just guessing but I'd say they were born about as big as week old kits from the tan doe.
No more breeding this summer, but should I cull the black one since it seems she produces
too large kits in normal gestation time?

If the Kits are too large then the problem could be the Buck

 

[Alaska Satin]

I'm still new to this. My does are Silver Fox x New Zealand. The tan one neglected her 1st litter to death but seems to be doing great with 2nd litter. My black doe lost her 1st litter because I wasn't ready, but all 7 were large. Her 2nd litter was only 3, all born dead but very large. .Just guessing but I'd say they were born about as big as week old kits from the tan doe.
No more breeding this summer, but should I cull the black one since it seems she produces
too large kits in normal gestation time?

I'm finding that maternal neglect, very small litters of huge kits, and unreasonable numbers of stillborns can all result from dietary imbalances. I'm struggling with the fallout of a year-long undetected vitamin E deficiency in my herd, and have had so many episodes just like you're describing. I've bred the rabbits I have now for many years and I know how they should behave, so I knew there was something up. This may or may not be your problem but it's worth at least thinking about.

Overly large kits and difficult kindling can also be related to the doe being overweight.

Large kits are typically a cause for rejoicing as long as the doe is not pinched in the hindquarters. If she is pinched, she has a narrow birth canal, and kindling can take so long that all the kits basically die waiting. One clue that a doe has really struggled to give birth is that the kits are usually terribly bruised by their exit. It can be bruising on the nose and head, even extending down the entire body in some cases.

 

[Scooter1A]

My doe loses her large kits and this time she expelled one a day later. Someone here advised me there is probably giants in her bloodline. I agree. She is retired now but has given me many great babies.

 

[CedarRidge]

One of our does had 2 kits her first litter. She went 2 days longer than normal and they were very large. One was stillborn and the other normal. We attributed the largeness to the small number of kits, as well as the extra days to kindle. We breed her again 3 weeks later and she had 6 normal size kits and delivered on the due date. Our other 2 does have had 8 - 10 kits for each of their 4 breedings, all on time and normal size. Sometimes one just doesn't follow the mold their first time out of the gate.