Being mammals. Rabbits have certain reproductive cycles. The females can give nearly 60 healthy babies per year. The rabbits can mate during any time of the year, and their cycle is not seasonal. Adult or female rabbits also display natural signs of fertility like other humans.
Do rabbits have periods? Even though rabbits are mammals, the females do not have periods. Does will not bleed if their ovulation occurs. They do not need to have a building to discard the unused eggs. Hence, a female rabbit will not have periods during its life.
What is the cause?
Rabbits are induced ovulators. They usually release an egg if they find a suitable mate for mating. They will release the eggs before or during mating and will become pregnant.
Doe usually requires stimulation for induced ovulation. They need to be close to males or bucks or physical contact with their opposite gender to start their estrous cycle because it does not have it.
Since they do not have a menstrual cycle like humans, bleeding is unnecessary to end the cycle and start a new cycle.
Usually, rabbits require external stimulation to start the gonadotropic hormones and get an egg. They will only release the egg if necessary. In rabbits, the egg will get released within nine to thirteen hours of the stimulation. But, the pregnancy will take formation within ten hours after mating.
So do they have a cycle?
Rabbits do not have a similar cycle to humans. Their fertility cycle or menstrual cycle is different. Since they do not have an estrous cycle, there is no need to bleed for them. But does go through a certain cycle when it may lose interest in mating with a buck.
Pregnancy in doe
So, rabbits do not get a period, so how do they get pregnant?
Well, a female rabbit releases its egg before or during mating and waits to get pregnant. If a doe is sexually aroused, its vulva will become more prominent and reddish or brown.
After mating, the rabbit will get pregnant within ten hours. Their pregnancy is also very short. A rabbit will give birth after thirty days. Rabbits give birth in the litter, and usually, they give birth to six to eighteen kits at once.
The whole pregnancy usually takes seven to thirty minutes to get complete. The procedure of giving birth is known as kindling in rabbits.
Like other mammals, rabbits are also vulnerable to pseudopregnancy or false pregnancy. It can happen due to sterile computation. This incident is usually sixteen to seventeen days long. The rabbit might display signs of pregnancy, including the development of the mammary gland and uterus. After the cycle, a doe may lose interest in mating and take a few days’ breaks to get into heat again.
Final Words
Does or female rabbits do not get periods. They get ovulation from external stimulation and do not go through an estrous cycle like humans. Instead, females can release an egg during or just before mating, which results in a kit litter of six to twelve babies.
