I heard somewhere that 2 dwarf bunnies cant have babies that live. Is there any truth to that?
Obviously not, or it would be impossible to have purebred rabbits of the dwarf breeds.
Netherland Dwarfs, Holland Lops, Mini Rex and a few other breeds all depend on the dwarfing gene to get the compact animal described in their breed standards. The Dwarfing gene is a growth gene. There is one particular place in a rabbit's genes where it can be found. All rabbits have two genes there, one that came from the rabbit's mother, and one from the father. There are two possible kinds of gene that can be found there, the dwarfing gene or the normal growth gene. If a rabbit gets
one dwarfing gene from
either the mother or the father and
one normal growth gene from the other parent, it will have a shorter, rounder head, shorter ears, shorter legs, and a shorter body. If the rabbit gets a normal growth gene from
both parents, it will be slightly longer in the head, limbs, ears, and body, and will weigh 1/2 to 1 pound more than the rabbits that got the dwarfing gene. The problem comes up when a rabbit inherits the dwarfing gene from both parents. Two copies of the dwarfing gene is a lethal combination. All babies that get two copies of the dwarfing gene die. We call them "peanuts," and they are easy to spot in a litter. They are about 1/3 smaller than the other babies in the litter, with oddly shaped heads and an underdeveloped look to their back ends/hind legs. Peanuts usually dies within 3 days, though I have had a couple that lasted a week or so.
All of the rabbits that fit the breed standard for these small breeds have
one copy of the dwarfing gene, and
one copy of the normal growth gene. When you breed two dwarf rabbits together, each baby has a equal chance of getting the dwarfing gene or the normal growth gene from each parent. There are 3 possible results: a baby with two copies of the normal growth gene, a baby with one copy of the dwarfing gene and one normal growth gene, and a baby with two copies of the dwarfing gene. The ones that get two copies of the dwarfing gene die, but all of the others live.
While it's probable that
some of the babies from your pair were peanuts, it's very, very unlikely that
all of the kits in 7 litters were. One single baby has a hard time regulating its body temperature; baby bunnies usually need to snuggle with other bunnies to stay alive until they get furred out. Single babies often grow too large inside the doe, and it takes the doe so long to deliver them that they often die during the birth process. I'm not sure just what's going wrong with your doe, but the dwarfing gene cannot be the only problem you are having.
Does your doe have a nest box? Is she using it? Is she using it too much (might she be trampling the babies)? Does she have adequate nest materials (hay, etc.)? It takes more than a day for baby bunnies to starve to death, so I don't think we need to look at an inadequate milk supply. Until we know what else is going on, it's hard to say whether any other litters your doe has will live.
