dwarf rabbit kits

Question
Our dwarf doe gave birth to 2 babies. Both were very long. We discovered them the next morning. Both dead and one had been half eaten by the mother. Is there a genetic problem that would have caused the babies to be so large?

Answer
Dear K,

Although there is no single genetic malady that I know of that will cause abnormally long bodies in baby rabbits, this could be a genetic defect.  It also could be an artifact of a difficult birth, and it may be lucky that your mama bunny was actually able to deliver the oversized babies and not die in bunbirth.

If the father was another dwarf, or a regular sized rabbit, then she may just have given birth to "normal" sized kits that were too big for her to deliver normally, and her small birth canal may have caused them to become misshapen as they were delivered.  A mother who devours her newborn young is extremely stressed, and this comes from overgrooming the baby, not from aggression or a murderous nature.

Since I can't see the babies to know if they showed any signs of a genetic syndrome, the only thing I can offer is that if you can take a clear picture and send it to dana@miami.edu I might be able to give you a better idea.  

But you're probably aware that breeding purebred rabbits together will often cause the expression of harmful genetic conditions in the offspring.  This happens in any type of organism as a result of inbreeding (mating between close relatives, which the members of a certain breed are, in comparison to members of other breeds).

You don't say who the father was, what breed, or how closely related to the mother he was. All of this would be important information to know in this case.

Please also read:

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

I hope this helps.

Dana