I was a member of Boyd Craven Jr "Backyard meat rabbits" for 8 years. We had a group of over 30k members world wide. The consensus was.. we didn't breed any of the rabbits till they were nearly a year old or at lest 2/3 of their full grown (breed specific) size. Rabbits are funny.. I had one FG had 19 kits and raised 10 of them, then failed to raise even 8 from then till her death to an unknown disease that wiped me out. I've never had a rabbit 'consistently' have larger litters. I've had dozens of breeding does. Your does are still young. They happily kindle till they are 6 or even 8 but the litter sizes do reduce with age. Chin up! Give them some more chances. With both of them doing odd things, it's a bit of a worry that there might be something going around, or it might be 'something in the air' if you get my drift. I'm only recently back into rabbits.. 2 years now. I haven't bred them a lot as I battled a rat plague that I only recently eradicated. Mid Winter now, so I won't start again till February as I just lost an entire litter to freezing.

Ask the vet about a clean out shot.I used to do that for my dog when she would whelp . It gets them to pass anything leftover from her kits .

My first litter (not the rabbit's first litter) had 5 live babies, 2 that looked like the little deceased ones in the nest box but smaller as well as another dead one that looked full size but the amniotic sac was over it's mouth. The Mom is doing great, all the babies are grown and moved to new homes (except for 1 chocolate that I kept). So hopefully your Thumper will be fine too.

I would say it could be the bucks coming out of summer maybe? Just a guess.. I would keep a replacement doe out of your good litter... just what I would do

I would give her a small break and make sure she recovers well. That's just me, though, and I'm a beginner. If you don't already watch Starkey farmstead, they have alot of rabbit content and talk about plants that are good for does that just kindled. Talks about the blood loss and all that too.

@rabbitathomestead

7 ай бұрын

Thanks!

Putting sheets of plastic under your hutches gives you instantly usable fertilizer. Rabbit waste doesn't need to be composted. It can go straight to the garden. Yours or to sell or barter .

In the 1980s I had a doe have one gigantic baby, it looked weeks old it was so big. I was surprised the doe lived through that.

My first two fall litters were small as well. I hope the next ones make up for that

If you like many had a warm fall perhaps a little heat stress was at fault this time. Or perhaps some other stress happened . check doe that only had 2 to make sure none are still inside stuck, she may have had more that were also dead and she ate them before you checked as thier instincts tell them to do. I would give all kits to 1 doe and rebreed other doe if still in good body condition. End of the day things happen and only start to worry if same issue continues. Cool weather now makes rabbits happy and hopfully was just a blip.

@rabbitathomestead

7 ай бұрын

Thanks for your insight! They are doing well. And I’m going to give them a little break then try again

Sometimes when you breed back to back alot. Their body needs a break so they'll have small litters here and there. To me that's a sign not to breed back so fast. Her next litter will probably be a good size litter again.

I have a Rex doe due Wednesday and one due Friday. I was slightly concerned about it being on the warm side during breeding. Did it early in the morning for that reason. 🤞

So sad, to see the loss. Have you ever tried feeding them moringa leaves? I think it is worth a try

@rabbitathomestead

5 ай бұрын

I will look into it! Thanks

On Thumper it could just be that this summer was very hot. I noticed that my litters were getting smaller the older the does got but my two does are just one and both had small litters. 3 and 3. I think this could be weather related or your buck sperm count being low. i don't think this is over breeding. I get 4-5 litters a year from my does

@rabbitathomestead

7 ай бұрын

Good to hear it’s probably not over breeding! It’s probably my bucks like you said. Thanks!