Female rabbit 2 years old, and has not had a "period" is something wrong?

Question

My sister has a female rabbit, and wanted it to have babies, but its like she never went in to puberty. Our first rabbit, 9 years ago has blood all in her cage about 4 weeks after we got her. Then we had her fixed. So is something wrong with my sisters rabbit?

Answer 1

Rabbits don't have a "period" like dogs do. Rabbits are considered "induced ovulators", meaning they produce eggs after they are stuck in with the male and the male attempts to breed them. They normally produce eggs about 8 hours after the male (buck) attempts to breed the female (doe). That's why most rabbit breeders stick the doe back in with the male about 8 hours later.

If the other rabbit you had had blood in her cage, she either messed up on a litter she was supposed to have or she was sick.

After me telling you all of this, then you might wonder why you might still not be having any luck. Your rabbit is 2 years old. If your rabbit hasn't had a litter by now she may be VERY hard to get bred. Rabbits after they get so old, especially if they don't get bred or if they get fed the wrong diet, will develop fat around the ovaries. That fat prevents the rabbit from getting bred. You might think..."Oh, it's fat...I can put the rabbit on a diet and get it off." Wrong! Diet or starve the rabbit all you want, once that fat is around the ovaries the only way its coming off is if it is surgically removed. Another problem that fat brings up is that if you do happen to get the rabbit pregnant, if the rabbit has too much fat around the ovaries, the rabbit will convert that fat when it is pregnant to use for energy. When it gets converted it turns into a toxin. That toxin builds up over the gestation period and normally reaches lethal levels about right before the doe is due to have babies. So she dies about 1-2 days before she is due to have them. This disease is called ketosis.

Normally, I'd recommend that a doe gets bred by the time she is 10 months old. Normally, I recommend waiting till the rabbit is at least 8 months old to start breeding. I'd definitely have the rabbit bred by the time it reaches 12 months old.

So you may have waited way too long to breed your rabbit. So now in human terms you are probably trying to breed a rabbit that in human years would be about 40-60 years old or better.

Answer 2

Well, your first rabbit was the one with the problem... rabbits do not have a menstrual cycle or go into heat. They do have times when they are more "receptive" to a buck though.

If you check the vulva of the doe, you can tell when she's more likely to accept a buck. If it's white to light pink, she'll have little to no interest in him. If it's pinkish red, red or dark purple, she'll be interested. Also, when a doe is ready to accept a buck, she'll lay flat, arch her back, lift her tail and expose her genitals for the buck.

Rabbits are induced ovulators and a doe will be stimulated to ovulate when she is bred (instead of having a natural cycle).

Always use a controlled breeding method. Take the doe to the buck's cage and WATCH what's going on. Don't just let them in there together and assume that they'll do what they need to do. If left unattended they can hurt each other.

Have a nest box ready and put it in her cage on the 28th day. . Put plenty of nice dry shavings in the bottom of the box, along with hay. She'll use these to make her nest.

She'll usually kindle on the 31st day. Investigate the nest right away and look for dead kits or bloody/dirty shavings that need to be removed asap.

Answer 3

Rabbits should not bleed and do not bleed. They are almost always in "heat". They will be red and swollen in the area but no blood. It is not a good thing for a rabbit to bleed.

Answer 4

rabbits come into heat on command, they don't bleed or have a "heat" or "period". they will breed all but 3 day in the month. to palpate your bunny one have a boy handy, two turn her onto her back and set her on your lap. three hold her tail in between your middle finger and thumb. now use your index finger to push back on her vulva and open it (like you were finding out weather she was a boy or not), do this several times, until her vulva is a dark pink or a purple color. now put her in with the male until she breeds, if she has trouble then hold her tail up and thrust her hips backward so he can get to her.

Hope you do well with your bunnies!

Answer 5

Rabbits do not have a menstrual cycle, nor do they bleed from the vulva when they are healthy. If your rabbit is bleeding from the vulva, she may have uterine cancer or hyperplasia (pre-cancer), and she needs to be spayed as soon as possible to prevent the cancer from spreading.

There is nothing wrong with your bunny.

Answer 6

Please don't breed your rabbit. There are so many in shelters that need homes. You obviously don't know what you're doing. Please read these articles.