HI all! I had a holland lop kindle born to a first time mom on the 21st. Five babies. I noticed one runt on the first day but have mainly left them alone. Today i pulled all the babies out and the runt definitely hasn't been eating. Is there anything i can do for it? its about half the size of it's four siblings if not smaller. The rest of the babies are very chunky. I don't have any other moms right now to rotate babies out. I was thinking of getting some KMR and seeing if that helps. Thanks!
If it is a Holland Lop, which is a dwarf breed, what looks like "runt" may have two copies of the dwarf gene and be what's called a peanut.
Normal Holland Lops have one copy of the dwarf allele <
dw> and one copy of the allele for normal size <
Dw>. The dwarf gene is called a "lethal recessive," which means that when an animal gets two copies of the allele <
dwdw>, it is fatal. Among other effects, like a large rounded head, short ears, short legs, and a very small body, relative to a rabbit with two normal size alleles, the dwarf allele also affects development of the gut. A rabbit with two copies of it - a peanut - has a gut that cannot extract enough nutrition, so even if the peanut nurses, it starves.
Peanuts are always much smaller than their true dwarf and false dwarf siblings. Peanuts tend to have especially large, rounded, bulbous heads, extremely small, even almost nonexistent ears, extremely short legs, and underdeveloped hindquarters relative to their siblings. Many of them die before or during birth, but the ones that are born live never look as well-fed as normal kits, and they die within days, maybe a week or so. No matter how much you try to force supplemental milk into it, if it's a peanut, it will die.
It's sad, but I usually euthanize peanuts (we see them in our Hollands, Mini Rex and Netherland Dwarfs) since I don't like to watch them suffer. (I assume that starvation involves suffering, though peanuts often look fairly peaceful, maybe because they have no energy). Every once in awhile, if there are only a few kits in the litter and the peanut is relatively robust, I'll leave it for added warmth in the nest. However, you need to be careful about that, and keep an eye out to remove it as soon as it dies, since a dead kit can chill the rest of the litter. Sometimes the other kits manage to push it out of the nest bowl, but other times they all get cold and die, too.
When you breed Holland Lops that fit the standard, you are breeding "true dwarfs"<
Dwdw>. In that case, statistically you'll get about 25% peanuts - about one out of four (or five). Here is a schematic that demonstrates it (if you don't already know, it's called a Punnet Square):
The top line is the genotype of the sire, the left column is the dam's genotype. The four boxes show the possible genotypes of the kits. Since this is a statistical projection, it may not be apparent in every single litter; we've had litters of four peanuts and one false dwarf, which is the kit that didn't get any copies of the dwarf allele.
False dwarfs are still small rabbits, just with longer heads, ears and legs and larger bodies then true dwarfs; they usually, though not always, go over the maximum weight for the breed. I actually like to keep a false dwarf doe or two around, as they can be wonderful for breeding. They do not
ever have peanuts, since the kits can only get a <
Dw> from the false dwarf dam. I love that, since peanuts make me desperately sad. The larger body size of a false dwarf doe often means she can gestate and raise more babies, and they often make good foster mothers (for that one true dwarf trying to survive in a litter of peanuts).
Here is a Punnet Square showing the potential results of breeding a false dwarf doe to a true dwarf buck. In reality, you may get a different ratio of false and true dwarf kits in any one litter, but you'll never get anything other than those:
Here is a page from
@ladysown that has an image of two peanuts:
https://athomepets.weebly.com/at-home-pets-blog/peanuts
All in the learning experience
