# Can rabbits abort part of a litter?



## Kyla (Aug 16, 2013)

Hi everyone!

I have a strange question, I'm somewhat new to rabbits and have a small number of them. Today I had a doe that I was moving to a new pen, when I walked back to check on her I found a dead kit that looked premature (although not much). I moved her to a pen where I could watch her closer and have waited. She's acting very normal. Eating, drinking and acting totally normal. What I'm wondering is... can a rabbit lose part of a litter and carry the rest?


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

theoretically yes, they have two horns to their euterous and each can conceive independently of the other, its POSSIBLE but not nesessarily PROBABLE, but anything can happen,


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## froebeli (Feb 14, 2012)

Had a proven doe last year that had two kits on the wire, day 31. Was sooo disappointed that she didn't take care and no hair pulled at all. She is my best doe. Well, the next day, 24 hours later she had a litter of 12! Hair pulled, perfect nest and all lived. Go figure.....


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Possible, but not very likely.


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## Kyla (Aug 16, 2013)

Thanks for your responses. I kinda figured that was the case and she had the remaining 7 kits in her pen this evening, all dead


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

with all the moving and changing she didn't have a chance to settle, did she have a nest box? pregnant does need to be left alone especially close to delivery, the more you move them around the more it stresses them out, its not real surprising she had the rest and lost them, if you want to raise a litter with her go ahead and breed her back now or in the next day or two and then just leave her be in her cage with the nest box at the right time,


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Stress was probably the problem. Does can pause delivery if things aren't going right but often the kits delivered come out dead. Stressing them can both cause premature delivery and delayed delivery. You seem to have gotten a dose of both. Even if they do get pregnant in both horns of the uterus they cannot deliver one side without delivering the other. It's just that ability to delay when there might be a risk to the kits or an unsafe time to be caught in the middle of delivering a kit that makes the wide gap.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

I had the exact same experience as Frobeli...best doe, 2 on the wire dead...approx. 15 hours later...11 healthy kits in the nestbox..she raised them all. Nothing in her enviorment changed...same routine as usual. She wasn't moved ..I was home all day(no dogs or loud noises in the yard).

The only time that doe has EVER had any on a cage floor OR dead. Completely believe those 2 weren't viable and she knew it ...thus they didn't go where the viables did.

Forgot to mention...this is not just a rabbit,rabbit...she is smart and she is approaching her 5th year...


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