Rabbit's special # in a litter

jollysrabbits · Feb 2, 2013

so I have a beautiful steel flemish who is on her 2nd litter, she seems to have a special # of kits she can take care of, do any of you run into this? 1st litter she had 13, 10 survived. 2nd litter she had 16 we have lost 2 per day till we are down to 10 again. Iam not mad at her or anything she is a great mom, builds a nest every time IN THE BOX. I guess I just found it interesting. Anybody else have any special #'s ?

Secuono · Feb 2, 2013

10 is a lot of kits, rabbits aren't pigs who have and can feed 14-16 pigglets. I wouldn't expect her to take care of more than 8-10 without assistance as the general norm.
Try feeding her a higher quality of feed and see if that helps any. But 10 kits all fighting over the same 8 teats. If she was able to feed them all, some would end up growing more slowly just because there isn't enough milk nor teats to go around. Unless you try and breed a rabbit with 10 or more working teats, I don't see it working out.

LeAnn24 · Feb 2, 2013

Yes Jollysrabbit it is pretty common. As CnB stated it is really hard for a doe to handle 16 kits with only 8 teats. Ideally if you could have a couple other does bred at the same time to even out the kits that would be great. Either way though 10 kits is still a nice size litter and a great job for any doe!

skysthelimit · Feb 2, 2013

Yes. I had two does that had 9-12 in a litter and raised them. Mola always seems to have 8-9. Then I had one, who had up to 12, but no matter how many she had, only 6-7 ever lived. now her daughter seems to have 5-6 kits. The holland never has more than 5, and raises all 5. Pretty consistent with the number kindled and raised.

Dood · Feb 2, 2013

I know the number of kits each of my does can comfortably raise and cull any extra kits a day or so after birth. It can range from 10 to 6 depending on the does milk production, body condition and the temperature and I rarely let my girls nurse more than 8 in the winter.

skysthelimit · Feb 2, 2013

See, I prefer to let nature take it's course. And so far none of these kits have died. I have the second generation that will be ready to breed in a few months, so I will see what the inheritance factor is like.

jollysrabbits · Feb 2, 2013

yeah 10 is a lot and I know she does great so like I said not complaining I just find it interesting that the # is the same every time. I normally just let nature take its course, but if I know which ones are going next I put them out of their misery.