help: peanut baby?

Question
QUESTION: Your Question Edit Question
hi, my rabbit has had babies about 2 weeks ago, 2 of them are big and fat, but ones smaller and got an eye infection, i think it mite be a peanut as they are netherland dwarfs, but ive reseached and theryre only supposed to live a couple of days, shes got a full tummy and ive seen the mother feeding her, shes also very lively?. could you please help? i can send a picture of the baby, mother and dad if needed? thanks

ANSWER: Dear Belinda,

If she's a peanut, there's not much you can do but watch and wait. Some "peanuts" live longer than others, and a very rare few survive.  (This leads some to believe that the peanut trait may be affected by other genes, or that such a baby is not a "true" peanut.)

It is not a good idea to breed two Netherland Dwarf rabbits together because 25% of the babies are likely to express the lethal dwarfing gene and not survive.

Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

Hope this helps.


Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi, yeh i have the mother and father as pets they werent intended to breed as i was told they were both male. its very sad, if i had known of peanuts, i doubt i would of brought nd, dying babies are to upsetting for me to deal with! :( anyway thankyou for your reply! Belinda

Answer
Dear Belinda,

I hope the little family does well.  If mama and papa are together still, then expect another litter.  The male can impregnate the female within minutes of her giving birth!

Fortunately, she has only three babies now, so if she has a small litter she may still be able to feed them all.

But it would be wise to have papa neutered *now* so that by the time mama gives birth again he will not be able to get her pregnant *again*, which would be a very bad toll on her.

Good luck with everyone.  If you are planning on finding homes for the babies, I will be happy to send you a sample adoption questionnaire to help you screen potential adopters.  Just email me at dana@miami.edu

Dana