how often can a rabbit breed

Home Community Rabbits how often can a rabbit breed

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  • #478006

    lucy
    Member

    i was wondering if someone can help me with my rabbits. how often can a rabbit have babies. and how do you take care of rabbits babies and how do you know when to put in a nest box if you don’t know when the rabbit concevied. i reaaly need help thanks.

    #478007

    Rebecca
    Member

    I’m worried that you are breeding without knowing what you are doing, can you tell us what your circumstances are so we can help better. A rabbit can get pregnant as soon as she gives birth, like 10 mins after, so can litterally have a litter a month but this would kill her and the babies pretty soon, so please never think about doing this!! once a female is mated, seperate the male permenantly! unless he is snipped! put a nest box in at 26 days just in case, you can always take it out again if she isn’t pregnant, but if you don’t know when they conceived, put it in now, and if they treat it as a toilet take it out again and try again a few days later. and mum should feed the babies ok, you can tell if they have been fed if they have round bellies, like they have swallowed a ping pong ball, check on them when they are first born, remove any dead and check they are healthy, make sure you get mum’s scent on your hands first though by rubbing your hands on her or in the sawdust. Mum will prob only feed the night after giving birth so check the next morning for the bellies, if they look sunken there is a problem, but hopefully that won’t happen. really we need to know more about the circumstances, young mum’s are more likely to have problems with babies as they are immature and don’t know what to do, but let as know as much as you can about the situation, and pls read loads of books and sites too about this

    #478008

    lucy
    Member

    ok here is the reason i was asking. i have had these two rabbits toheter for about four months now myabe five. i had them outside in my garage and they have been ok no problems i don’t have an extra cage for the other male. when i got the male rabbit they told me that is was a girl rabbit so i said ok. i don’t know how to check if it was a m or f. then three days ago i went out to feed the rabbits and i discoverd 6 babies dead from the cold. i was shocked becuase the gray rabbit was suppose to be a female. well now i have them inside from the cold and i have no other cage to put the male in so that is why i was asking if she could get prgnant again soon. iam not breeding them on purpose i didn’t even it was a male. so now i have to seperate them by buying another cage sometime soon and figure out if she is pregnant. she just had them three days ago i think. when i took the babies out of the cage they were not stiff or anything just they died from the cold. there was no hay becuase the other two have puched it all out. they are in the house now and i have no idea how to take care of babies but i can learn easy so iam just asking for help to anyone who can help me with it if she is pregnant again. also what are the fisrt signs of a rabbit pregnancy. just so i know. they both are dwarf rabbits they same size and all. so if you can offer some ideas that would be great thank you. and what can i put in the nest box. let me know tweetluc@yahoo.com please email me thanks.

    #478009

    Susan
    Member

    Yes she is probably pregnant. The same thing happened to us. We got two rabbits for the kids at easter, they were both supose to be sisters. We found one dead baby, I thought somehow a squirrel got in and had a baby. Then I realized one had a dewlap (extra skin under chin) and the other didn’t. I put a bunch of hay in the bed area and the next morning their were 7 more babies. 6 lived. 30 days later she had 8 more babies, and 6 lived. You need a nest box or just large pile of hay if she’s in a small cage. She’ll pluck her hair and add it to the nest either a week or only a few hours before she delivers. You can’t really tell by looking if they’re pregnant or not. Maybe at 2 weeks along you can feel little grape size lumps on her belly.

    #478010

    lucy
    Member

    ok thank you. so if i keep them together she will just end up prgnant all the time. and if so how come they were together for the 6 months and she never got pregnant maybe she was too young they are only about 10 or eleven months i think. well if you have any other advice please let me know. my rabbits are ver picky about what they eat like the only lettuce they like is romaine. so they are hard to shop for. is there extra things they should eat while pergnant and not eat. lucy

    #478011

    Susan
    Member

    I don’t know why she wasn’t pregnant earlier, maybe she was and was scared so she ate the babies, that happens rarely though. Do you feed them rabbit pellets, preferably made from timothy, not alfalfa. (Alfalfa is o.k. for babies or rabbits under 12 months, it’s too fattening for older rabbits.) They also need constant hay to eat, also timothy preferred. The veggies are more of a treat. My rabbit gets constipated on just pellets so I feed her only a 1/4 cup pellets and the rest of they day she gets Kale, sometimes romaine, a piece of carrot, brocolli, or cabage. They also like apples, bananas, etc. Fruits and veggies should be given in small amounts, kale and romaine can be given more freely (iceburg lettuce is too watery no value, could cause diarhea.) Good luck with the babies!

    #478012

    Susan
    Member

    Actually you don’t even know if she’s pregnant. If she is it takes approximately 31 days until birth. Maybe around Feb.23rd would be due date if they mated immediately. Since she never had babies before that maybe the male doesn’t get interested very often and she’s not pregnant. But just in case you will want a nextbox in there by maybe the 19th of February. Fill it with straw or hay. She should put fur in it right away or the night before she delivers. When she’s about 2-3 weeks you should be able to feel little grape size lumps, could be two rows of them just inside her hips on each side of her stomach. If you want them back in the same cage you must get both of them fixed, or at least the male so he doesn’t mark, the female so she doesn’t get uterine cancer.

    #478013

    lucy
    Member

    well my rabbits have never gotten hay. the only thing they eat is the pellets, lettuce romaine, carrots, brocoli every now and then, also kale once in a while, radishes, and water. that is it. there is no place to but hay in my area. so they don’t get it. they also get the food that has the little treats in them. like the gourmat rabbit food. mostly regualr pellets though.

    #478014

    Susan
    Member

    Hay is the most important part of a rabbits diet! Rabbits need lots and lots of fiber. You can buy small bales at a pet feed store and give them a large handful a day. It’s really important for their digestive system, also plenty of water to go with it.

    #478015

    lucy
    Member

    we have no feed stores around that have hay and only one pet store that dosen’t sell it only the alfalfa stuff and none of my rabbits will eat that stuff.so i can’t but it no one sells it where i live. very small town i tried looking back when i got them. do you know where i can get some.

    #478016

    Elisabeth
    Member

    You can order it online, just google "order timothy hay" or "order sweet grass". Sun Seed is one company that makes hay (you can’t order direct from their site), I think they are pretty good, but I would suggest doing some research to find the best kind. You can read on Sun Seed’s site about why hay is better than pellets.

    #478017

    Susan
    Member

    I get mine from the local feed store, it’s cheaper than petco or petsmart. If they are out I usually order from oxbowhay.com.

    http://www.oxbowhay.com/Shop/showProduct.sp?PRODUCT_NO=35

    #478018

    lucy
    Member

    hey great thank you so much for your help. i will try to order them some. i will let you know if they have any rabbits or if she is pregnant. iam sure i will have questions and iam in the middle of trying to seperate them. is it true that female have two places they can get pregnant i read that somewhere on the internet. anyway thank you again. lucy

    #478019

    Susan
    Member

    The uterus is split into two rows. If she only got pregnant on one side then she could get pregnant later on the other side. Which would cause both sides to deliver at the same time. So hopefully if they do get pregnant at different days it will be within only one or two days, otherwise the babies that weren’t in very long will be born premature and probably dead. Usually when they live together though like yours they may do it several times and have both sides full of babies. So if she is pregnant it will probably be a large litter. If she’s a dwarf 4-6 at the most, if she’s larger breed could be 8-12.

    #478020

    lucy
    Member

    i think they are floppy eared there ears hang down the other rabbit i had that i got rid of was a dwarf rabbit. the two we have been talking about are a medium size like the size of a cat just a lot fatter and there ears hang down. i will try to keep an eye on her. also if i sepertate them will they be ok alone because they have been together for so long. and how much dooes it cost to get him fixed.

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