I need help with my lion head doe and her kits like color and such.

[hagmegsis]

I have two problems I will start with the easy one and that's not knowing what color all of her 5 week old kits are.
So I know 1 is a harlequin, 1 is a tort, 1 is a broken tort I think you can see brown spots starting to come through but he is also pointed, and I think the 1 other one is going to be a sable point but I don't know what the black and grey stripped one is? She has no orange in her to make her harlequin.

Okay now for problem number two I breed my doe in april nearly 40 days later on june 5th she finally had 6 kits but one passed at birth. Well now on July 14th she had 6 more babies with one dying at birth. The other 5 were already removed for weaning 3 days prior to their birth so that isn't the problem. The problem is that she has only been bred once with no way of her coming in contact with any bucks. How did she have two litters in 5 weeks with only breeding one time and how come her first litter was so late to begin with? Thanks

 

[Bunnylady]

The black and white one is a Magpie. To a Harlequin breeder (the breed, not just the color) Harlies come in two groups, Japanese and Magpie. Japs have a yellow/orange background color, Mags have white.

The last two pics are a bit out of focus, so I'm not exactly sure what I am seeing. One possibility is a Sable Point with harlequin bleeding through. Sable Point, like Tort, is a non-extension color, and you can get harlequin markings showing up anywhere the darker parts would be on a Tort or Sable Point.


When you say the doe has not had any contact with bucks, I assume you mean that she isn't even housed next to one (rabbits can breed through wire, you know). One item in a rabbit's reproductive bag of tricks is a thing called "delayed implantation." It is possible for a doe to get bred by a buck and release eggs that get fertilized, but the resulting embryos remain in a sort of state of suspended development and don't implant until some later date. I believe the longest interval between breeding and kindling that has been documented was something along the lines of 6 months!

 

[hagmegsis]

Wow 6 months is a long time but nope my buck is in a seperte cage multiple feet away or else he gets really frantic and upset about being able to see other rabbits. Do you think maybe he breed her twice during the initl breeding and she suspended them that would account for the late delivery and the unexplained 2nd litter. Well if that's possible that is

 

[Bunnylady]

We've kicked this one around a few times over in the rabbit section on the Backyard Herds forum. I can remember at least 3 threads about a mysterious second litter after only one known encounter with a buck. I remember one person that believed the litter was sired by a 4 week old buck in the first litter, but I just can't go there. You know what it's like sexing them at that age, a little guy that mature would be a real eye-opener, wouldn't it?

 

[hagmegsis]

Wow my litter had two bucks but they definetly haven't dropped yet plus in order to deliver with in 28 days they would have to breed when he was 1 week old. Maybe humans have just interfered to much and now things like this are happening

 

[hagmegsis]

I just checked up on the kits who are only a day old now and they already have fur, I can already tell I have 3 double manes and 2 single manes. I can tell some colors too I have 1 harlequin and 2 brokens. Isn't tht crazy for a 1 day old kit to look like that. I will add pics in a minute to show you guys the newest litter

 

[Chicken Frenzie]

I just checked up on the kits who are only a day old now and they already have fur, I can already tell I have 3 double manes and 2 single manes. I can tell some colors too I have 1 harlequin and 2 brokens. Isn't tht crazy for a 1 day old kit to look like that. I will add pics in a minute to show you guys the newest litter

They're so precious!