What breed????

Question
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q39/squishygrl1992/Picture021.jpg
http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q39/squishygrl1992/Picture007.jpg

Hi i got these two beautiful bunnies about 4 months ago they are both now around 5 to 6 months old I thought I was getting two girls from what they told me at the store. I recently noticed the spotted bunny was a male the white one was a female. I've been noticing that the female has been pulling some fur and she is kind of moody can this be a sign that she is pregnant, I was also told that they were both dwarfs but the spotted bunny looks more like a English spot or some other type of breed what do you think. And if the white bunny (princess)is pregnant do you think it might be dangerous for her to give birth since the male (oreo) is just a little bit bigger.

 thanks for helping:),
          Michelle

Answer
Hi Michelle

From what I can tell from the pictures they both look like dwarf breeds.  They look mixed though.  Oreo looks almost like a polish.  Basically if they are under 4 pounds they are dwarfs of some kind.  There are still mixed dwarfs that can grow quite big depending on what genes they get.

I have bred 6 pound rabbits to 4 pound rabbits (of the same breed) and had no problems.  Other times I have bred tiny rabbits to tiny rabbits and just got huge babies.  Unless Oreo is more than a few pounds bigger than Princess I think she should be ok.

The most important thing you need to do is to separate them right away if you haven't already done so.  Give Princess a nice untreated wooden box and line it with a layer of newspaper, a layer of aspen or pine chips (aspen is safer), and then as much fresh hay as you can cram in there.  If she has already made a nest you want to put the box where she has made the nest and just put her own nesting materials on top of the hay.

Then you have to wait and see what happens.  You want to keep the nest box in her cage and cleaned out frequently for a total of 35 days after the last day she was with the buck.  This way if she did end up pregnant she will have a box.  Now is also a good time to go get Oreo neutered.  You don't necessarily have to get Princess spayed but it isn't a bad idea.  If at the least you get Oreo neutered then you can re-bond them.  Otherwise they are going to have to live separately forever.

I am attaching an article on surprise litters from Ms. Krempels.  Hopefully it will help you.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html

Your bunnies are absolutely adorable and I hope everything works out with them.  If you have any more questions please let me know.

Pam