Miscarriage/Baby Bunny Death

Question
QUESTION: My healthy rabbit lost all of her babies. It was her first litter and this is how it went:
1- premature
3- "peanuts"
1- Stillborn
1- Caught a chill afterward
1- Accidentally stepped on by momma bunny

While the last two are complete accidents and preventable--
I was wondering if the rest had anything to do with using the product Bi-Odor. It is a deoderant that you add to the rabbit's water and it is supposed to deoderize the animal's stool/urine.

While the pregnancy was a completely surprise, I know full well not to add anything to a pregnant rabbit's diet that would be potentially dangerous.

HOWEVER, the Bi-Odor product does NOT have cautions against giving it to a pregnant bunny. (Again, the pregnancy was a surprise up to the morning it happened, so..)

I chaulked the terribly weak litter to it being her first litter, her age of only 5 months, and parental inexperience.

But I am starting to wonder if the Bi-Odor has any ingredients that would have caused the malformations.

Here is the ingredient list:
deionized water
aspartic acid
threonine
serine
glutamic acid
glycine
alanine
valine
methionine
isoleucine
leucine
tyrosine
phenylamine
histidine
lysine
arginine
cysteine
proline
(May or may not contain:
sodium bicarbonate
hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
sodium benzoate)

Do you know if any of those ingredients could be potentially dangerous to a pregnant rabbit? Thanks.

ANSWER: Dear Tegan,

The only ingredients in the product are amino acids and water (and possibly some benign preservatives), none of which should cause miscarriage or teratogenesis (birth defects).  This sad surprise was most likely due to the mother's young age and also possibly to poor genetics of the babies.  If both parents are dwarf bunnies or have a dwarfing gene, then crossing them will potentially yield 25% lethal "peanut" babies--not a good proportion.

Before considering breeding her again, please read this:

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

I hope this will help you prevent any future mishaps.

I am sorry about the loss of the babies, but am glad mama is doing okay.

Take care,

Dana



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

QUESTION: Is Dutch a dwarf? No, the father is either a Flemish Giant or Giant Chinchilla. Both are healthy. I got them both from the same breeder--who doesn't breed a rabbit if it yield's a bad litter the first time--and will honestly tell you if it's from a bad litter and not to breed it.

Mama is still looking for the babies. :/

Thanks for telling me about crossing dwarfs, because I was wondering what she would look like crossed with a holland lop--but now I will certainly not entertain that idea!

I will certainly look at the link.

ANSWER: Dear Tegan,

It's extremely dangerous to breed a small bunny like a Dutch with a large male, such as a Flemish Giant or Giant Chinchilla.  Your bunny is lucky to be alive, since hybrids like this would often be far too big for her to safely deliver.

I'm glad she's okay, but hope you won't let the big males near her again, for fear of a true disaster.

Hope this helps you make the right decisions.

Dana

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

QUESTION: :( Well, when I first suspected that she was pregnant I posted a question on here--to which a certified breeder told me that the cross between the Dutch and the Flemish Giant or Giant Chinchilla would be okay. Because I was scared the kits would be too large--but he said it would be fine, and that I really don't have to provide any pre-natal care (which I was concerned about).

Answer
Dear Tegan,

I guess all I can say is that you are much smarter than that breeder, and that I strongly disagree with that breeder's assessment of the risk of such a small bunny bearing babies sired by such a big one.

I hope all goes well from now on with all your bunnies, though!

Take care,
Dana