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Advice re: babies

Wizbit

Alpha Buck
I have just been on a different forum and picked up this post...


my nieces rabbit had a litter who are now about 5 wks old - today she discovered the mother has had another litter!

How has this happened? The male rabbit was taken away from the female about a week before the first litter was born (or so they thought). they separated them as soon as they realised they had male and female and not 2 females.

Do you think the first litter were maybe born before the male was taken away and they didn't realise the babies were there?

Surely this can be the only explanation

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about breeding to be able to answer this question.... can anyone else tell me how I should reply?
 
Does can retain sperm! They can get pregnant from having not been near a buck for a while, I've heard of it happening before.
 
i would think the most feasble explanation would be that the male wasnt taken away soon enough, she probably took him away once she knew the doe had indeed had a litter and he had got her pregnant again in the mean time
 
That's great, thanks everyone. I will pass this on. In the meantime I have posted something back saying that the most important thing is to get both the male and female neutered and spayed!!
 
Yep, the most likely solution is usually the most simple one - the male rabbit has been in contact with the female after she's given birth to the first litter.

Are their actually any officially documented cases of females retaining sperm? It seems like rumour that goes around as people can't work out why their female is pregnant again. Imagine it could usually be tracked down to the male not being removed soon enough or them not be secure enough... or the kids thinging the dad was lonely and wanted to 'play' with the other bun etc.

Tam
 
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