# How soon to rebreed?



## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

My doe just lost her litter. She had them last night on the cage floor instead of in the nest box, and they were all dead when I found them this morning. Almost no fur pulled, too, and that was in one corner of the cage instead of in the nest box. She had six (well, I found five and a half -- she might have eaten another one; she had seven last time), and it looks like they were all born alive and looked like they were healthy. This is aggravating.

But, what I need to know is how long to wait before breeding her back? I think I'll put the nest box in the other back corner next time, because with both this litter and the last one (which she did end up having in the nest box, and they are now nine weeks old and look really good), she originally pulled fur and put it in that corner of the cage. I think maybe I'm going against her instinct, where she wants to have those babies.

Kathleen


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

I always put the nest in the back of the cage. So when my doe wanted to have her kits in the front of the cage, I ignored her. She had them on the wire. I am thinking now she didn't want to have her kits close to the mouse nest that was in the wall.
You also have to watch if the doe uses the box for a potty, you may have put it in her potty corner. Then you have to clean it and move it to a different one.
I bred her back about 5 days later. She is due again this week.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Thanks -- that would be about Monday. Hopefully it won't be too hot between now and then. Timing is a funny thing -- when I bred her for this litter, it had been running around ninety or so during the day, so I wasn't sure if the buck would be fertile or not. Then it cooled off, and has stayed (relatively) cooler until now -- now it's going to get hot again! Oh, well, we'll see what happens!

Kathleen


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Being pg for a rabbit is not any different them any other mammal.
Her body went through major changes and it needs to heal just like us humans when we birth!

For a healthy, good breeding, long lasting doe, wait at least 2 weeks before breeding her again. 
I wait one month. I prefer the doe not only healed from pg and birth but also back in good condition and ready to carry a litter and then nurse it.

Re-breeding in a few days just wears down the animal.
I hate seeing so many does given away by breeders that are only 2 years year old and so burnt out from over breeding that they are useless except for dogfood. Such a waste IMO.


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## FalconDance (Feb 4, 2007)

One of our new does just had a surprise litter...on wire and in a huge mound of fur . Eight popples are all sleek and fat and healthy so far. 

(We only acquired her three weeks ago and didn't know she'd been bred. Guess that's why she was less than friendly to our buck, huh .)

Now careful record keeping can be started here - and thank you for thinking of your bunny instead of just re-breeding her like a little furry machine!


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

RiverPines said:


> Being pg for a rabbit is not any different them any other mammal.
> Her body went through major changes and it needs to heal just like us humans when we birth!
> 
> For a healthy, good breeding, long lasting doe, wait at least 2 weeks before breeding her again.
> ...


You are the first person to say not to breed back in 4-5 days after loosing a litter. I thought it was done to dry up the doe to stop mastitus. If i want to give a doe a break, I do it right after a successfull lactation. 
I'm going to go over my records and see how much success I have had by breeding back so fast and see if there is a pattern one way or the other on the second litter being good or bad.

I've only had 1 doe that I ended up fostering all her litter to other does to take care of. she is due this week, so I have nothing to compare with. She looks healthy and like she is going to have a nice liier. So I guess i don't have anything to compare with.


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Its not how bad the litters are. The litters are usually fine.
Its over breeding the doe that I am against.
They dont need to get pg to dry up. They dont have any kits suckling and they dry up fine just like any mammal that looses a kid.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

Without allowing a doe to go dry on her own, I really wouldn't know one way or the other about the drying up.
I do know I am going to longer between breedings, The 31 day breed back for does is way to hard on them. I've tryed it for awhile and have added a couple of extra does to take on some of the work load from my original does.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

each doe is differint and if you keep them in good condition you can keep them bred back quickly but if you let her get run down with feeding the litters and not keeping weight on they yes you can over breed the doe, 

sence the doe didnt nurse the litter (nursing the litter is what puts a tax on the doe, not carying the litter) then there isnt a threat of over breeding, just waisting production time by waiting, besides if you give her a month off with out nursing a litter she has the very good possibility of getting over fat in the wrong places and not being able to be re bred easily if at all, 

carying a litter doesnt tax the doe because the kits are not caried to full development, most of their development is doen on the outside via nursing, thats what wears down a doe,


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

BlueJuniperFarm, I don't know anything much about rabbits as you can tell so this will sound like a dumb question, but why would the doe kill & eat her babies? Just because she didn't like where the nest box was?


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## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

Backfourty, the doe did not likely kill the kit. If a kit is stillborn or dies shortly after birth, the doe will often eat it, along with the placental material. This serves several purposes. It cleans up the nest so that flies will not be attracted and so that there is no rotting flesh to contaminate the healthy kits. It helps to protect the kits from attracting the attention of predators. (Domestic rabbits still have the instinct, even though they don't often have to worry about predators.) Third, it gives the doe a much-needed protein boost. It is nature at her most efficient... if not her prettiest.


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## Pat Lamar (Jun 19, 2002)

I have a slightly different take on when to re-breed after a doe loses her litter. If re-bred within 3 days after the loss of the litter, the doe is extremely receptive. This is a natural trait for rabbits in the wild, too. We could always count on our yard/barn buck to be sitting underneath the cage of a doe right after she delivered. So long as she was in good condition, we would re-breed her right away. As a side note, I had also noticed that does who lose their litters seem to go through a pretty severe depression. They go off feed, show no interest in anything... very lethargic. Re-breeding right away seems to eliminate it.

Although rabbits are "mammals," they do tend to be quite different in many ways. Yes, a doe can wear out under consistent intensive breed-back schedules. The key is to keep the doe in good condition. True, they are not "machines," but they were definitely created to reproduce... a lot and often... for a consistent food supply. Only too often, we tend to think that rabbits are just like us... and guess what? They're not! What's natural for us really isn't natural for them... and vice versus.

Pat Lamar


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

If breeding back is hard on a doe it would show in her litter. Especially in birth size and growth.
If I compared a rabbit to humans, then I would never breed them. I don't remember pregnacy as being all that much fun. And the kids were even worse.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

Thank you all for the words of wisdom! I've been gone on our church camp-out for several days (my mother dropped in to look after the animals and check on Grandma), so haven't re-bred the doe yet, and it's been so hot that I'm not sure the buck will be fertile. But, I'll put her in with him tomorrow and then we'll see what happens. 

I had re-bred this doe when her litter was five weeks old, then separated her from the litter a week later. They are all in good condition, though suffering a bit from the heat (I'm really hoping to manage some of those underground dens that Cyngbaeld found a link for).

Kathleen


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