tdodson
New Member
My daughter has aholland lop doe who is a little over a year old. She had her first litter of kits yesterday and there were four babies. Two were stillborn and two are still wiggling around today. I have tried to read online all day (here, and other sources) to make sure that they are going to be OK or to be prepared in the event that they are not going to make it... A friend with more experience in breeding is out of town, so I am a little at a loss for answers to my many questions. The two that were stillborn were much larger than the two that are still thriving. I do not think that the two we haveare peanuts because they don't seem to exhibit the smaller backside, larger head, and crossed back legs that I see mentioned frequently. The two that died also seemed to be normally formed kits... is it common for a doe to havesuch different sized babies? (We did breed her 12 hours after the first breeding as most recommend - would that be thereason?) The two smaller ones are only about 2/3 the size of the other two.Why would the two larger ones not survive? It seems that it would be the other way around. Our mommy rabbit is not acting the most maternal, which I understand is common. She is still pulling hair out like crazy and I have moveda lot of itinto the nest box, as she has notreally made anest with it, just covered her cage floor - everywhere. Although the babies were clean yesterday when we found then, I can't tell if she is feeding the babies - which may not be the case since it's so soon. I did hold the babies to look closer today, after I read more...they were both very active and actually both of them peed on me as they werelaying on my hand. I took that as a very good sign that they were not currently starving...Any thoughts or suggestions would be great!
Thanks!
Tracie
Thanks!
Tracie