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Re: Rabbit Babies death
Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 8:14 am
by vancheese
Bah, My Doe which had a litter of 9 rabbits has had two deaths - Both around the 4 weeks. I found the rabbits squashed. One was the runt, the other was quite healthy. Any thoughts of what might be causing this?
Re: Rabbit Babies death
Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 8:37 am
by doofaloofa
did you notice anything amis the day before?
Any diahorea or bloating?
Glazed eyes?
Innactivity, loss of appetite?
Re: Rabbit Babies death
Posted: Thu May 09, 2013 8:53 am
by trinder
As to your question on using grandfather to granddaughter. As stated by a previous poster it is usually only done to maximise the gene probability.
Those who support it call it line breeding. Those who object (or are disrespectful) call it inbreeding.
an example :-
Two unrelated adults mate, the offspring have 50-50 of each parents genes. If this mating produced one fabulous champion offspring within that litter, that is just random and the chances of "him" (for the purpose of this example) siring champions are simply random. if however the line has been selectively bred not to just "hope" for one champion but to promote a particular "trait or quality" that will ultimately improve the breed (in the breeders opinion) then that is a the reason for line breeding. I hasten to add that going as close as grandfather gives a fairly acceptable gene pool but the choice of mate for the offspring would need careful considered planning. Including a study of the pedigree of the selected mate to ensure that "it's" gene pool is not too close.
NB I have no axe to grind here. I simply understand the stuff.
Re: Rabbit Babies death
Posted: Sat May 11, 2013 7:02 am
by vancheese
doofaloofa wrote:did you notice anything amis the day before?
Any diahorea or bloating?
Glazed eyes?
Innactivity, loss of appetite?
Only a little inactivity they seems fine :S
Re: Rabbit Babies death
Posted: Sun May 12, 2013 1:55 pm
by doofaloofa
I'm currently battleing some nasty disease that has curently killed 20% of the cuurent crop of babies (5/25) and another 2 look like they are on the way out
AFAIK it was bought in by a rabbit I bought that died a few days later, and since then I have had a terrible time loosing between 100% and 20% of babies and several adults
The current flush seems to be affecting mainly one litter, so I'm guesssing there is some genetic aspect to it
Interwebbing has resuled in lots of possibilities as to the cause