Pregnancy Help Please!!

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m4ddi3b

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Hi i was wondering if i could have some help with my bunnies :) Recently I got a new doe who is netherland dwarf around 6months to a year old. I also have a buck who is 2 ( either a lion lop or mini lop). Because neither are neutered or spayed I keep them apart at all times. I planned to get my buck neutered but it was cancelled due to quarantine. However today, i put my doe out in a run in the garden and she was happy and the buck left her alone as he has the whole garden to run around. I left them for a few minutes and returned to the buck inside the doe’s run. He was mounted on her and humped until he grunted and fell on his side. It was too late for me to stop but I separated them immediately after however I’m still worried that she might be pregnant and i’m not sure what to do if she is. I’ve done research to learn the basics incase. I’m also slightly worried on size difference, but it wasn’t meant to happen.I’m very worried about the doe possibly dying, is this likely? Doe is on the left and buck the right. I’m only 16 and might struggle to afford vet payments and coronavirus is making it hard
 

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Oh no! I think size-wise she will be fine, but the babies will probably not make it which is very normal for their first litter. Here is a link that should help you: Here's How to Tell If Your Rabbit Has a Bunny (or 14!) in the Oven.
Is there normally just a playpen between them? Because they can mate through the cage bars so she might already be pregnant.
Hi, just wondering why you say that babies most likely won't make it? If they will be prepared and will take a good care of the mother with proper food and housing, making proper nest etc it doesn't really matter that it was her first litter. Only I would worry a bit that she is smaller than buck so she might have difficulties giving birth if babies are on a larger side, but they could also be mini sized as she and if buck has mini lops in him as well, so it's possible that she can have baby stuck.

I had a pregnant rescue she was/is lop and dwarf mix, she's not mini but she's more like compact size, and father of the babies was full size holland bigger than she. She had 6 babies, all are compact size, all healthy and that was her first litter. So it's a matter of luck but you can't really do anything here as she most likely is pregnant as they properly mated so you can only wait and see, and hope the kits will be smaller size so she won't have problems kindling.
 
Hi i was wondering if i could have some help with my bunnies :) Recently I got a new doe who is netherland dwarf around 6months to a year old. I also have a buck who is 2 ( either a lion lop or mini lop). Because neither are neutered or spayed I keep them apart at all times. I planned to get my buck neutered but it was cancelled due to quarantine. However today, i put my doe out in a run in the garden and she was happy and the buck left her alone as he has the whole garden to run around. I left them for a few minutes and returned to the buck inside the doe’s run. He was mounted on her and humped until he grunted and fell on his side. It was too late for me to stop but I separated them immediately after however I’m still worried that she might be pregnant and i’m not sure what to do if she is. I’ve done research to learn the basics incase. I’m also slightly worried on size difference, but it wasn’t meant to happen.I’m very worried about the doe possibly dying, is this likely? Doe is on the left and buck the right. I’m only 16 and might struggle to afford vet payments and coronavirus is making it hard
Hi, I would say she is most likely pregnant now and you will have babies in about 30 days. There's nothing you can change about it just wait and do some research to prepare yourself and her for the babies.

Firstly make sure they are properly separated from each other, although if she is already pregnant she can be aggressive towards him if he'd try to mate her again, pregnant does won't accept buck.

As you described she should be pregnant, so just get a nest box and stuff it with absorbing material underneath and hay on top and give her lots of hay, give her that box around day 28 from today, she will most likely give birth on day/night 31 but can be from day 28 to day 35, sometimes longer up to 45 days (rarely).

You can slowly increase her food portions and even change her food to junior pellets with high protein and calcium level, but if you can tell us what pellets you feed now we can suggest, just give us name and ingredients, how much protein (13-16%) and fibre, calcium, and what are main ingredients (alfalfa, lucerne, timothy etc) and we can advise. She will need more protein and calcium for the babies inside her and 8 weeks after giving birth while she will be nursing as she will need to produce milk to feed them.

Generally, don't panic, rabbits are great mothers and will know what to do even if it was her first litter, just take a good care of her, lots of food, fresh water (she will drink more just before giving birth and after that for milk) and give her some privacy, relaxed environment, also trim her nails about 10 days before the date so she couldn't accidentally damage babies with her long nails.

Any question you can ask here and you can post some pics of her setup or anything you would like to be advised on. Don't panic, she'll be fine

Here's how to prepare nest box short video

Proper nest box you can buy possibly


Or use what you have at hand like this plastic box
 
Oh no! I think size-wise she will be fine, but the babies will probably not make it which is very normal for their first litter. Here is a link that should help you: Here's How to Tell If Your Rabbit Has a Bunny (or 14!) in the Oven.
Is there normally just a playpen between them? Because they can mate through the cage bars so she might already be pregnant.
thank you for the help :) yes it was her first time out in the garden so i used a play pen for her as my buck gets free roam of the garden but I hadn’t noticed any mating through the cage bars only when he managed to get in there
 
Hi, just wondering why you say that babies most likely won't make it? If they will be prepared and will take a good care of the mother with proper food and housing, making proper nest etc it doesn't really matter that it was her first litter. Only I would worry a bit that she is smaller than buck so she might have difficulties giving birth if babies are on a larger side, but they could also be mini sized as she and if buck has mini lops in him as well, so it's possible that she can have baby stuck.

I had a pregnant rescue she was/is lop and dwarf mix, she's not mini but she's more like compact size, and father of the babies was full size holland bigger than she. She had 6 babies, all are compact size, all healthy and that was her first litter. So it's a matter of luck but you can't really do anything here as she most likely is pregnant as they properly mated so you can only wait and see, and hope the kits will be smaller size so she won't have problems kindling.
Thank you for the help, what would happen if the babies did get stuck? I’m hoping it all goes well as I’d hate to lose my doe
 
Hi, I would say she is most likely pregnant now and you will have babies in about 30 days. There's nothing you can change about it just wait and do some research to prepare yourself and her for the babies.

Firstly make sure they are properly separated from each other, although if she is already pregnant she can be aggressive towards him if he'd try to mate her again, pregnant does won't accept buck.

As you described she should be pregnant, so just get a nest box and stuff it with absorbing material underneath and hay on top and give her lots of hay, give her that box around day 28 from today, she will most likely give birth on day/night 31 but can be from day 28 to day 35, sometimes longer up to 45 days (rarely).

You can slowly increase her food portions and even change her food to junior pellets with high protein and calcium level, but if you can tell us what pellets you feed now we can suggest, just give us name and ingredients, how much protein (13-16%) and fibre, calcium, and what are main ingredients (alfalfa, lucerne, timothy etc) and we can advise. She will need more protein and calcium for the babies inside her and 8 weeks after giving birth while she will be nursing as she will need to produce milk to feed them.

Generally, don't panic, rabbits are great mothers and will know what to do even if it was her first litter, just take a good care of her, lots of food, fresh water (she will drink more just before giving birth and after that for milk) and give her some privacy, relaxed environment, also trim her nails about 10 days before the date so she couldn't accidentally damage babies with her long nails.

Any question you can ask here and you can post some pics of her setup or anything you would like to be advised on. Don't panic, she'll be fine

Here's how to prepare nest box short video

Proper nest box you can buy possibly


Or use what you have at hand like this plastic box

Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it. They are currently fed on tiny friends farm rabbit nuggets mixed with supreme science selective nuggets. For the tiny friends farm i found this
Crude Protein - 14.0%

Crude fibre - 19.0%

Crude Oils & Fats - 4.0%

Crude Ash - 5.0%
and for the supreme science selective
Crude Protein 14.0%, Crude Fibre 25.0%, Crude Oils And Fats 4.0%, Crude Ash 8.0%, Calcium 0.6%, Sodium 0.3%, Phosphorus 0.4%​
 
Thank you for the help, what would happen if the babies did get stuck? I’m hoping it all goes well as I’d hate to lose my doe
You would need a vet then she will need some medication. If she's young and strong she may survive without vet's help but she can be very exhausted after and generally will be very weak, she might be able to recover in a week or two with much love and good food. Also she can die in labour and if there are some babies already born before that they would have a very slim chance to survive, you'd have to hand-raise them it is not impossible but you need your plan A (find another nursing rabbit nearby so she could foster your babies) and plan B (have milk replacement at hand and try feeding by hand).

Also you can contact your vet a bit before due date and explain your situation, they can possibly examine her and check if fetuses are too big for her maybe they can suggest something or give you some medicine so you can have it ready when/if needed.

Also she can get spayed asap and her uterus will be removed with fetuses so she will never have babies.
 
Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it. They are currently fed on tiny friends farm rabbit nuggets mixed with supreme science selective nuggets. For the tiny friends farm i found this
Crude Protein - 14.0%

Crude fibre - 19.0%

Crude Oils & Fats - 4.0%

Crude Ash - 5.0%
and for the supreme science selective
Crude Protein 14.0%, Crude Fibre 25.0%, Crude Oils And Fats 4.0%, Crude Ash 8.0%, Calcium 0.6%, Sodium 0.3%, Phosphorus 0.4%​
I know those pellets they are alfalfa based and you can continue with them or get other pellets with more protein like 16% and more calcium 1%, look at junior pellets from a reputable manufacturer and mix them with old pellets gradually reducing old and increasing new. After about 3 months from now when she stops nursing you can transfer her back to her old nuggets
 
You would need a vet then she will need some medication. If she's young and strong she may survive without vet's help but she can be very exhausted after and generally will be very weak, she might be able to recover in a week or two with much love and good food. Also she can die in labour and if there are some babies already born before that they would have a very slim chance to survive, you'd have to hand-raise them it is not impossible but you need your plan A (find another nursing rabbit nearby so she could foster your babies) and plan B (have milk replacement at hand and try feeding by hand).

Also you can contact your vet a bit before due date and explain your situation, they can possibly examine her and check if fetuses are too big for her maybe they can suggest something or give you some medicine so you can have it ready when/if needed.

Also she can get spayed asap and her uterus will be removed with fetuses so she will never have babies.
I would take her to the vets but, i’m 16 at the minute and would struggle affording it as I can’t get a job due to lockdown and it’s also harder to get them to the vets because of this :)
 
I know those pellets they are alfalfa based and you can continue with them or get other pellets with more protein like 16% and more calcium 1%, look at junior pellets from a reputable manufacturer and mix them with old pellets gradually reducing old and increasing new. After about 3 months from now when she stops nursing you can transfer her back to her old nuggets
Thank you :) I’ll look into it
 
I’ve been doing some research on what breed my buck might be so I made this :)
Personally i think he looks closest to the lionhead x mini lop
 

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I know visiting vets would be very difficult or impossible right now maybe you can just phone them maybe they will have some suggestions for you, or maybe you will be just fine. It is hard to say from one photo you posted in your first post, maybe he's not that much bigger than she and she'll be fine as babies won't be too big for her? If he is a mini lop she should be fine, lionheads also are more compact breed just very fluffy and look bigger. Well my lionhead isn't big at all but with all his fur he looks bigger. Other lionhead I have is a girl she's also just fluffy. I have lionhead and lop crosses they are all compact size, well, except of one sister is larger size now she is 8 months now and she's bigger than her sisters and brothers but they were about same size when they were born. But her mother had no problem with kindling as she's larger than their father.

In your situation, if she is true netherland she's small, but if he's mini lop maybe she will be fine. Fingers crossed :)
 
I know visiting vets would be very difficult or impossible right now maybe you can just phone them maybe they will have some suggestions for you, or maybe you will be just fine. It is hard to say from one photo you posted in your first post, maybe he's not that much bigger than she and she'll be fine as babies won't be too big for her? If he is a mini lop she should be fine, lionheads also are more compact breed just very fluffy and look bigger. Well my lionhead isn't big at all but with all his fur he looks bigger. Other lionhead I have is a girl she's also just fluffy. I have lionhead and lop crosses they are all compact size, well, except of one sister is larger size now she is 8 months now and she's bigger than her sisters and brothers but they were about same size when they were born. But her mother had no problem with kindling as she's larger than their father.

In your situation, if she is true netherland she's small, but if he's mini lop maybe she will be fine. Fingers crossed :)
Thank you so much for the help, I really appreciate it. I’ve got my fingers crossed too! I’ll try and post some more pictures of the doe and buck. I also posted a thing about what breeds he might be :)
 
You can also weight them, separately, which one is heavier :)
 
The first photo is my doe and the second my buck. Excuse the mess near my buck, he’s gets rather excited before food😂
 

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As I said in my 2nd comment I have a girl she's lots smaller than buck and she was fine, 6 healthy kits they are 10 weeks now and she's all good. But she was very tired after kindling she was exhausted but recovered after 3-4 days
 
The first photo is my doe and the second my buck. Excuse the mess near my buck, he’s gets rather excited before food😂
They are gorgeous :) He doesn't look so much bigger than she in there he looks like a mini lop to me
 
As I said in my 2nd comment I wave a girl she's lots smaller than buck and she was fine, 6 healthy kits they are 10 weeks now and she's all good. But she was very tired after kindling she was exhausted but recovered after 3-4 days
I’ll make sure afterwards she gets the time she needs to recover, just hoping everything else goes smoothly :)
 

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