Why Pregnant Rabbits Miscarry or Have Stillborns
📝 Summary
A pregnant doe can lose litters to nutritional, toxic, mechanical, or disease causes. This guide breaks down each cause so owners can manage diet and stress to prevent loss.
1 Causes of Stillbirth and Miscarriage in Pregnant Does
1. Nutritional: from a single-food, poorly balanced diet. Lack of protein — the raw material for the fetus — stalls or stops development. Lack of vitamins and minerals lowers disease resistance and triggers loss. Lack of vitamin A causes uterine lining to keratinize and shed, detaching the placenta; lack of vitamin E late in pregnancy causes premature birth. Lack of calcium, phosphorus, selenium, or zinc starves the fetus and causes deformity or loss.
2. Toxic: moldy, rotten, or spoiled feed, high-acid rations, or pesticide-contaminated feed poisons the doe, upsets digestion, and causes loss.
3. Mechanical: rough handling, hard capture, pressing the fetus too hard, or fright can all cause abortion.
4. Disease: enteritis, high fever, reproductive defects, or parasites in the doe can cause loss; overdosing medication during pregnancy also does; viruses are another factor.
There are many causes, but careful standard feeding, avoiding mechanical injury, and good disease control effectively prevent miscarriage.
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