Rabbit pregnancy limitations?

by Ali Nas
(Iran - Tehran)

Dear Sir/Madam
I would like to thank you for precious information cited in this website. I wanted to ask you a question about rabbit pregnancy. I was wondering if there would be any age-limitation in terms of pregnancy in rabbits. For instance pregnancy in human after age 40 is not highly recommended. I was wondering if there would be any comparable situation like this in rabbits.
Regards
Ali Nas

****Karen Sez****
Good question. Like humans, and probably most animal species, 'middle age' brings a sharp decrease in capabilities. In humans as you note, that age is around 40. In rabbits, that age is somewhere around 3-4 years old. "Middle-aged" does fail to conceive with greater frequency, or have fewer kits, or succumb at an increasing rate to illness as their immune systems begin to lag.

Nothing says you can't keep breeding them, but at some point, if you're trying to earn a living with breeding rabbits, keeping them is no longer cost effective. That's when it's time to retire them to pethood or to the soup pot.

Hope that helps, and God bless you,
K