I bred my two Holland lops together and she was due in March and made a nest but no babies. I rebred her and she had 3 babies one peanut, one stillborn and one healthy baby so I left her alone and the next day the baby passed away and she is still pulling fur. She had a litter last year of 7 babies 5 of which survived and were very healthy. I don’t want to rebred her in case this happens again but does anyone know what may have happened? There’s no problem with the buck as he’s had good babies before! I’m really concerned that she may be unhealthy or too stressed!
Help! Rabbit Breeding issues!
- Thread starter Jaylin
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It might have been just a fluke. But, you can't blame her for a peanut, stillborns do happen, and singletons have a lower survival rate (like when they can't keep warm enough to keep their digestion going)
Many breeders keep to the 3-strikes rule, it always can happen that something goes wrong, even twice, but at the third time it's quite likely that there's really something wrong and she's out.
It can happen again, or her next litter might be ok, there's only one way to tell. Your decision and responsibility, weight your pros and contras.
Many breeders keep to the 3-strikes rule, it always can happen that something goes wrong, even twice, but at the third time it's quite likely that there's really something wrong and she's out.
It can happen again, or her next litter might be ok, there's only one way to tell. Your decision and responsibility, weight your pros and contras.
We usually followed the 3 strike rule. If the doe had a litter but were stillborn or died we usually waited 1-2 weeks before rebreeding. If the doe turned out to not be pregnant we bred again right away.
Imbrium
Jennifer
Kits have a 25% chance of being peanuts when breeding two parents who each have one copy of the dwarf gene (2 copies in the same rabbit = peanut). If you wish to avoid peanuts in the future, you can try breeding one true dwarf (has copy of gene) to one false dwarf (no copies of dwarf gene; will be too large to meet "show" guidelines for the breed). It's best to breed a dwarf male to a non-dwarf female, simply because mom being larger lowers the chance of things like stuck kits. Regardless of how you pair them, approximately 50% of the offspring will be true dwarves... it's a matter of whether the other 50% is all false dwarves or 25% false dwarves + 25% peanuts. Mind you, that's all just a little biology lesson - if you're happy with your pairing and don't mind peanuts, there's nothing wrong with the way you're doing things 
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I agree that it was probably just bad luck this time around... like Preitler said, it's harder for a single kit to keep warm before they grow fur vs multiple kits snuggled together. She's been a successful mom before, so this may easily have been a fluke. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of animal you're breeding, pretty much all experienced breeders operate by the 3 strike rule, so I see no reason not to give her body a week or two to recover from the pregnancy and then breed her again.
.I agree that it was probably just bad luck this time around... like Preitler said, it's harder for a single kit to keep warm before they grow fur vs multiple kits snuggled together. She's been a successful mom before, so this may easily have been a fluke. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of animal you're breeding, pretty much all experienced breeders operate by the 3 strike rule, so I see no reason not to give her body a week or two to recover from the pregnancy and then breed her again.
SableSteel
Well-Known Member
Holland lops are known to have problems with kindling... when I bred them it was probably about a 50% chance that a litter would live. I would breed her again ASAP before she has a chance for her hormones to go down or to build up internal body fat (which can lower fertility) again. You want the largest litter possible from a holland imo because then the relative size of each kit will be smaller and they'll have an easier time giving birth, so that means breeding them at the peak of fertility.
Imbrium
Jennifer
Disregard my advice about giving her a week or two first, then. In many breeding situations (not specifically rabbits) that's the way to go, but SableSteel's extensive hands-on experience beats my educated guessing any day of the week so that's definitely who you should listen to .
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Different breeds can have their own unique situation. The 3 strike rule is a general rule.
