Can you breed a runt?

Question
Hey sarah,
        I am starting to breed my rabits. My rabbit has just had her 1st litter. There was only 3 kits. Two where healthy and happy. The other one was too but we could tell that he was smaller than the others. Now I was wondering if you can breed the runt? I'm not sure if you can or can't so i dicided to ask you first. So can you breed the runt?

Answer
It depends on why it is small. If it was just born a little small, most runts catch up by the time they are an adult and will be about normal sized. In that case, they are perfectly capable of breeding without any problems.

However, dwarf breeds of rabbits (Netherland dwarfs, dwarf hotots, Holland lops, mini rex, Jersey woolies, American fuzzy lops, some lines of Polish, and some lines of Dutch, plus occassional lines in other small to medium sized breeds) have what is called the dwarfing gene. When there is just one of this gene, the rabbits are small with rounded heads and short ears. This is desirable in all of the dwarf breeds, so they all have it. The problem comes up when the baby gets two dwarf genes. Then it turns fatal. It results in a small baby that usually has a shrunked hind end, flap-like triangle-shaped ears, and a head tha seems too large for the body. These babies die before maturity, so of course it is not possible to breed them.