could she be pregnant or is it a health problem?

Spring Flower

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Congratulations!! Adorable little babies! <3
Not sure if you've already tried this...but I thought I'd mention that when I have a doe (usually always first-time breeders) that doesn't want to 'lift' I can usually get it to happen if I put my hand under her and lift her slightly when the buck mounts :)

I have tried that as well. She usually just screams louder but sometimes she lashes out. I know alot of people would have sold her or cooked her... But my schedule is my mom's schedule and she's been to busy to take her to someone else and she was the first rabbit of mine I bought myself for a "pet"( my plan was to breed her and sell the babies as pets. It was the only way I could get her) rather than the meat rabbits.

So given everything I figured if I had her here might as well try.

Thank you guys for everything ❤️

I will probably post weekly pictures of my bunnies... Should I make another thread for that or would this be fine?
 

Bunnylady

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Congratulations!! Adorable little babies! <3
Not sure if you've already tried this...but I thought I'd mention that when I have a doe (usually always first-time breeders) that doesn't want to 'lift' I can usually get it to happen if I put my hand under her and lift her slightly when the buck mounts :)

I'm curious to know how often forced breeding works out for you. I remember seeing a study that was reported in Domestic Rabbit many years ago, where they recorded only about a 20% conception rate when force breeding, and about 80% when the rabbits bred voluntarily. It seems that most of the time, the doe's refusal to lift is probably because her body isn't at the correct phase of her cycle to breed, so (for the participants in this study, at least) 4 times out of 5, it was a waste of time.
 

AmberLops

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I'm curious to know how often forced breeding works out for you. I remember seeing a study that was reported in Domestic Rabbit many years ago, where they recorded only about a 20% conception rate when force breeding, and about 80% when the rabbits bred voluntarily. It seems that most of the time, the doe's refusal to lift is probably because her body isn't at the correct phase of her cycle to breed, so (for the participants in this study, at least) 4 times out of 5, it was a waste of time.

It works out almost every time...about 4 out of 5. The times when it doesn't work well is when it's a doe that has been bred and had a litter before and for some reason she doesn't want to breed even weeks or months after kindling.
That is when intervening doesn't work for me and I just have to wait until she's ready.
When it's a first-time breeder who doesn't know what to do, holding her up just makes it easier because after she has a litter, she'll always breed on her own.
Refusing to breed has never proven to be part of a cycle to me, because it will go on for many months and even up to a year if you wait that long.
 

Spring Flower

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I gave them a bucket to hide in just incase they got scared. They would run under there rabbit house and then it takes me ten minutes back and forth to get them out.
IMG_20190414_091946086.jpg
 

Spring Flower

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Guys new problem! I don't know rather or not I should post a new thread or not but....

Apparently baby rabbits are the best escape artist . They were getting out of the cage somehow so I gathered up the babies for the night so I can go to the store and get some hardware cloth. The babies were on our second story balcony. We got back and since it was dark we went ahead and feed everyone and counted them in the meantime. We are two babies short. We looked everywhere outside and on the balcony and can't find them. We have two cats and four dogs so I'm scared that didn't end well for them.

Anyway my problem
I went down the hill to see if the babies made their way down the hill to their mama. I heard her digging in the house. Sooo I felt bad for her and figured she missed her babies so I was gonna bring her up and put her with her babies right..

SHE WAS BUILDING A NEST...... Is it because she is going crazy without her babies or..... See I didnt know she was pregnant to begin with...Soo I did try and breed her to Flinn about 29 days ago but she never lifted then either...
Why is she building a nest?
 

AmberLops

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I'm sorry that this happened!
Babies can squeeze through very tight spaces which makes it really easy for them to escape.
Hardware cloth will save your other babies.
Mom could be building a nest because her babies are gone (that happened to my does a few times) or it could be that she is pregnant. Keep an eye on her, keep her nest in there and wait and see.
How old are her babies now?
 
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