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loop ear rabbits breeding

22 10:44:51

Question
my sister in law loop ear rabbit had four baby bunnies one came out dead. one she ate. two dead few days after birth. what could the problem be why there all dead, also why did she eat one want could cause her to neglect her babies? thank you.

Answer
Hi Michelle

Rabbits especially if they are first time mothers don't usually mean to neglect their babies.  They just don't know what they are doing.  Often times when the babies are born torn in half or mangled it is not because she intentionally ate them.  What usually happens is all of the sudden these things are coming out of her and she doesn't know what is happening so she will try to help and sometimes the babies will be bitten in half during the attempt.  Sometimes when they are biting the cord free they will get the baby by accident.  In any case I doubt she did it on purpose.

Rabbits do have an instinct built in to them that helps them ensure their own survival.  If they detect immediate danger such as a mouse, rat, cat, dog, raccoon, hawk or other type of predator lurking they will sometimes eat their offspring.  I don't know why some of them do this as most will just run away and leave the nest to itself.  Generally the mothers stay as far away from the nest as possible and only come back for feedings.  Although studies have been done and conclusions have been made can you ever really know what is going on inside an animals head?  It certainly makes sense that they would want to leave the nest alone as much as possible to avoid attracting attention to it.  I for the life of me can't figure out why they would eat all of their babies when danger is lurking.  They could easily just run for their lives, yet some doe's will sit there until every last bit of evidence of their existence is gone.  I guess in rabbits that are in a cage they can't really get away but to see them do this in the wild is extremely bizarre.

The best thing I can tell you is that it does happen.  It happens very frequently.  I don't condone the breeding of non-purebred and pedigreed rabbits except for meat purposes which I personally don't do but have plenty of friends that do and certainly care for a great deal of meat herds.  If your sister-in-law is serious about breeding rabbits and has a purpose such as showing them or eating them then she should really join the American Rabbit Breeder's Association.  Even if you don't live in America you can still be a member.  There are people all over the world that are members.  One of the top breeders of American Fuzzy lops, which is one of my breeds is from Japan.  I enjoy national convention every year because it is likely the only time I would ever get to see her.  There are plenty of good people, experienced people and friendly people who would be willing to help her.  With the membership she also gets a free book that explains many things.  Including some of the reasons that rabbits are not such good mothers.

Anyway, I would say that if she is just a pet then it is best not to breed her again.  It is to stressful and it is so very sad when she loses the babies.  If she is an expensive top quality show rabbit that you absolutely must have babies out of then I would say don't give up.  I have seen rabbits that have been horrible mothers up until the 4th or 5th time in which time they were suddenly perfect.

http://www.arba.net/

Good luck Michelle and I am sorry about the loss of the babies.  I know how very sad it is.

Sincerely,

Pam