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pregnant bunny!

qwertyuiop

Young Bun
for those of you that wrote in my previous thread called...'pregnant rabbit??' i just wanted to say that she definitely IS pregnant...she looks like a barrel lol and is getting through food like i dont know what! does anyone know much about second litters...she had 6 in her last litter that i had to hand rear, i suppose its likely that she will have at least that number again wont she?
 
you should keep her food at the same amont as she normaly has and increase after she has had the kits!!!!! otherwise the kits might become to large for her to pass:cry: :cry: :cry:
 
very true but im feeding her the same amount as i fed her through the last pregnancy and they were all fine. how do i know whne im feeding her too much?? she has about 2 standard bowls of food a day, plus hay and veg...is that ok?!
 
What breed is she?
Personally I think two bowls sound way too much but then again...I have Standard rexes and a dwarf. They only get 1-2 handfuls of pellets each day (1 to the dwarf, 2 to each of the rexes)
 
shes a dwarf lop....but for some reason very large in size (even before she was pregnant) and she has always eaten a least a bowl a day and has never been overweight! she is on supreme rabbit which is less nutritious and filling as the pellets. surely she needs more to feed the babies inside aswell..especially if she has alot?? i know alot about rabbits but this whole rabbit breeding thing is new to me as u may guess! :p
 
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if its new to you, you really should of read up on it or got in touch with an experiance breeder before you bred to make sure you cud give the best possiable care!
 
yep! first time someone else was looking after her and she got out with the male...but everything went fine with the pregnancy other than the fact i had to hand rear 6 babies but they all survived, apart from one which i had put to sleep at 11 weeks due to bad teeth. and this time i was given a new 10 week old rabbit, which the breeder assured me was female, it turned out to be male. im just trying to do the best for my rabbit and im just on here for advice!
 
I'd recommend having this rabbit spayed as soon as the babies are ready;)
You mentioned earlier getting kits with bad teeth and this is genetic, so most likely your female carries the gene for it:? Such rabbits shouldn't be bred.
Besides, unspayed females have larger chances of getting ovarian cancer.
Also rabbits don't need extra food when they are pregnant, and if your rabbit is very large it may well be because she's gotten too much food in the past (or she could just be genereally large:rolleyes: some lops are)
The babies are very small when they are born, and they should be, otherwise as mentioned, she could have problems delivering them. You can start feeding mroe pellets once the babies are born, as she'll then need more for lactating.
 
I can only back up what Raven Rexs and Zakura have said, she should not be having any extra food whilst pregnant, particulary not an extra bowl. If she gains weight she will find it very difficut to give birth and you may well find yourself with dead babies and even a dead mum. I appreciate it may have been ok for you last time but if she didn't lose the wegiht gained last time she is even more at risk now. Please listen to the advice of experienced breeders - we know what we're doing (or some of us do anyway :rolleyes:)

Reduce her food back down to 1 bowl a day - if shes hungry give her extra hay. Do you know roughly when shes due? On average its 31 days after mating. Make sure she has access to a warm quiet area with plenty of bedding to nest in.

Why did you have to hand rear before? Did she refuse to feed them? Did she chuck them out of the nest? Knowing what went wrong last time will enable us to advise you better this time - you certainly don't want to go through the hassles of handrearing again.

It is very important once the babies are born that you leave well alone -DO NOT touch them. I know this site is full of pictures of newborns (which I completely disagree with but thats another topic) but please they need to be left alone in the nest.

Once the babies are born you need to make sure Mum is getting plenty of calcium - dark leafy greens are a good source if shes used to them, or else you can buy supplements to add to her drinking water. Once born you can increase her food ration slightly.

What size bowl is she having? Are you sure shes pedigree Dwarf lop? How much does she weigh?

6 is a large litter for a Dwarf Lop, so i wouldn't expect her to have any more than that.

I would also suggest getting your rabbits neutered/spayed and investing in some secure hutch/run locks. As Raven says, once is an accident but twice?? :?
 
I can only back up what Raven Rexs and Zakura have said, she should not be having any extra food whilst pregnant, particulary not an extra bowl. If she gains weight she will find it very difficut to give birth and you may well find yourself with dead babies and even a dead mum. I appreciate it may have been ok for you last time but if she didn't lose the wegiht gained last time she is even more at risk now. Please listen to the advice of experienced breeders - we know what we're doing (or some of us do anyway :rolleyes:)

Reduce her food back down to 1 bowl a day - if shes hungry give her extra hay. Do you know roughly when shes due? On average its 31 days after mating. Make sure she has access to a warm quiet area with plenty of bedding to nest in.

Why did you have to hand rear before? Did she refuse to feed them? Did she chuck them out of the nest? Knowing what went wrong last time will enable us to advise you better this time - you certainly don't want to go through the hassles of handrearing again.

It is very important once the babies are born that you leave well alone -DO NOT touch them. I know this site is full of pictures of newborns (which I completely disagree with but thats another topic) but please they need to be left alone in the nest.

Once the babies are born you need to make sure Mum is getting plenty of calcium - dark leafy greens are a good source if shes used to them, or else you can buy supplements to add to her drinking water. Once born you can increase her food ration slightly.

What size bowl is she having? Are you sure shes pedigree Dwarf lop? How much does she weigh?

6 is a large litter for a Dwarf Lop, so i wouldn't expect her to have any more than that.

I would also suggest getting your rabbits neutered/spayed and investing in some secure hutch/run locks. As Raven says, once is an accident but twice?? :?

Good advise, I certainly would suggest neutering as it is known that there is a inherent genetic tooth problem with this female as she has had a maloccluded baby before.
 
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Just as a guide to how much you feed your bun. My Vet told me, 1TableSpoon of food for every 1Kg of Rabbit. For example my boys weight 3Kg, so they get 3 Tablespoon each everyday, along with a bowl of Simply Grass and Massises of Hay.

My cousin had two accidental litters (two different buns) and he was feeding this buns as per normal amount and he never ive knew they were pregnant and everything was fine.

m
xx
 
Yeah, Patches the lop dwarf at school has had 4 litters and only one was intentional:rolleyes:
The first time we didn't even know she was pregnant, two other lops gave birth at the same time so we think she's had "help". :? When the kits were weaned we moved her into another cage which unfortunately wasn't secure...she escaped, and we caught her, then she escaped again, at the same time as her father:roll: A month later she gave birth to her own half-siblings...but they did fine.
Third litter was intentional, with an unrelated male, her last litter was born this summer and once again we had no idea she was even pregnant.
Typically she was away when that happened...and she gave birth the day she was going to be brought back too school:roll: The students who looked after her moved her nest into a transport cage with her only baby and put the transport cage into her cage at school.
 
thankyou everyone for ur advice! i have alot of experience with rabbits...just not breeding so yep i do know how to sex a rabbit raven rex...i just stupidly didnt think to double check when i first got the male - but then everyone makes mistakes! but i appreciate your advice as im sure it comes from alot of experience :)

the first litter the mother got a womb infection and her milk dried up and thats why i had to hand rear all the babies but i did it well and like i said they all survived :)

but anyway i am taking her up to the vets tomoro for a check over...the babies should be due anytime from next tuesday onwards. i have cut her food down now, she is only on supreme rabbit anyway...not pellets so i think thats why she was eating more cos i assume its alot less filling that the pellets.

walnut earth i am sure she is a dwarf lop but she is one of those ones like you said that is just generally large and always has been. and the size bowl she has been having is only small.
jnr 10 - i have already booked her in for neutering once she has got over having the babies...and i am getting the male done as soon as he is old enough.

thankyou for all your advice...i have learnt from my mistakes but i just hope everything goes well with this litter!
 
How old is the male?? Cause if he has got her pregnant, he can get neutered. And if you get him done now, he will be fully recovered by the time it is her time for her spay.

:D :D :D

m
xx
 
oh really...my vets said they dont neuter until the rabbit is at least 5/6 months?! i did think that was quite a while away considering they are fully developed by a few months! but i think its more to do with them surviving the anaesthetic isnt it?
 
Female rabbits some vets wait for 5-6 months, whilst males are as soon as their testicles have appeared. If your vet does not have the experience to do this, try another vet. If you can give us a rough location for yourself, someone may be able to suggest a vet.

I have a rabbit with me who was neutered at 12 weeks as he was adequately developed to do this.

Many vets prefer to neuter at a younger age as they will not have had the time to lay down lots of fat depsosits, fat makes them hold on to the anaesthetic longer in their bodies which makes them slower to recover and respond after surgery.
 
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