What is going on???

[luvabunny]

I have a doe that has had 2 very huge, very late babies out of the last 3 litters.
The first time she was 3 days late. I found 2 huge dead babies when I removed the nest box.
The second time she kindled on time and raised 7 perfect babies.
Yesterday she was 5 days late and had 2 huge babies. One was dead, the other alive but so bruised and battered I put it out of it's misery.

On a side note, this is the same doe I wrote about some time back who has such huge poops they won't fall thru the cage bottom wire.

This doe is out of good lines and an asset to my brood program. The babies she raised are amazing. I'd like to get more out of her. She is less than 2 years old and this is the sum total of her litters, so she's not been overbred. I know she was covered 3 times within 30 minutes and put back in her cage. I have stackers so she cannot be reached by other bucks. She was bred one day only, during a 30 minute time frame.

Is there anything I can do to prevent this in the future? Is it worth trying to rebreed her again, or should she be removed from the barn? Its getting hot, so all does are on a summer hiatus now and won't be attempted to be rebred until at least Oct. I really don't want to take up cage space and feed her all summer, if I'm only going to get 1 viable litter out of 3.

Any suggestions?

 

[PSFAngoras]

I think it sounds like she's overweight. How much are you feeding her? She could have been closer to a healthy weight for the second litter, causing her success with that litter.

An overweight doe will have low conception rates, and usually problems kindling. My best doe has to be bred back every three months or her food needs cut back. I found this out when I waited six months before breeding her back. she wouldn't take for two breedings, and then when she finally took she had a litter of six (compared to her usual 9), and since It was such a small littler for her the kits were too large and 3 were lost in kindling. I almost lost her too.

I bred her back three months later before she could put the extra weight back on and she had a beautiful litter of 8, only one DOA, and no kindling troubles. She's also taken first try every breeding since, just like she did before she gained the extra weight.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

A lot of our members report larger litter sizes when the does are bred immediately after they kindle. If there is any way you could keep her in the house where it is cooler in the last week prior to kindling, I would breed her back right now in the hope of her having a larger litter with normal sized kits.

I bred through the summer last year and my does were outside. I used a fan in the rabbit barn on the hottest days (and I think I may have given them frozen bottles too, but can't remember for sure), but other than that didn't go to any extra lengths for them. I did have one doe die just prior to kindling, and one that was going into heat distress (she had a successful litter the following morning), but all of the other does handled it well.

Even if you can't bring her in but are willing to take the risk of losing her- which it sounds as though you might be since you don't want to feed an unproductive doe- you could breed her back anyway and hope for the best.

 

[luvabunny]

I agree she could be overweight. I hadn't thought about that. She has always been one of my biggest does. "Capacious" was the word used in her selling information.

I am not ready to rebreed at this point. I have bunnies coming out of my ears right now because of breeding up for convention, and I simply don't want nor need any more right now.

I'll put her on a 1 cup per day diet during the summer and see how that goes. I don't guess I'm truly ready to get rid of her just yet. I think she still has more to offer my brood program. But her next chance may end up being her last.

I was just hoping I could give her apple cider vinegar or something, that would help her to settle more eggs and keep her on track with her delivery date.

 

[squidpop]

I agree with what others said about her being possibly overweight. I've read people who say that an overweight doe will kindle less babies, and I've also read people say does carrying small litters or only one baby kindle late and have huge babies.
Also, with the large poos, their is something called megacolon that rabbits get especially if they are Charlies or carry two spotted genes for their coat. It looks like this http://thebunnyguy.com/wordpress/gettin ... /poop-033/