Mini Rex Rabbit - birth

Question
My daughter's mini rex is 8 months old and we bred her with her father.  Last Saturday at exactly 30 days she began nesting.  We cleaned her cage and put in new cedar chips (o.k.?) and moved her to a quieter place.  She was in labor later that night and delivered three babies (all approximately 4 1/2 inches long), all seemingly born dead.  We never saw any movement from the babies or breathing.  No movement, no noise from any of the babies.  She had two babies on the cage floor (not the nesting box) and one in the litter box.  She seemed to get busy right away licking them (we kept the room pretty dark so didn't see everything).
Any ideas what went wrong?  We left her with the babies until the morning and then removed and buried them.  Our bunny seems fine, active, eating...but we're very sad and not sure we want to try this again.
Thank you for your time.

Answer
Dear Jana,

It's possible that by breeding the bunny to her father, you ended up with a litter of babies with some form of congenital, lethal disorder.  It is never a good idea to breed close relatives because this massively increases the chances of expression of harmful genetic conditions.

I would strongly urge you *not* to try this again.  It would be courting disaster.  Instead, please read:

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

for the most recent information on this subject.  You can find a good rabbit vet to help you with spay/neuter here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I am sorry about your loss.  I hope this helps you make the right decision.  Please write back if you have any other questions.

Dana