breeding meat rabbits?? Help please.

[erinszoo]

We have three meat rabbits ... two males and one female. They are all separated in their own hutches. Despite putting the female in the male's hutch repeatedly and the male being very interested in doing his deed, he keeps mating with her head or her side or on top of her tail. Only once has he done the deed and then fallen off backwards but because of the position they were in we couldn't see if the female had her tail up or not. She lets him lick her and nuzzle her and lays down but doesn't seem to know to raise her tail. Could they be too young to mate yet? They were about two months old when we got them in mid-Sept and we had them for about two weeks or so before the boys had balls that we could see. Does it take them some time to figure it all out? Everyone told us they would breed like ... well, like rabbits but our girl is still not preggers. Help please.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

They may be a larger breed being meat rabbits, and these breeds do often take a little more time to figure things out. Our male Elop did not reach sexual maturity until six-seven months. When he did start to figure things out, he humped the head of the female he is bonded too, and promptly fell backwards. Had he not been fixed at that point, I'm sure eventually things would have gotten themselves worked out. Seems like the interest is there for both, and it'll eventually happen.

 

[erinszoo]

Thanks. That makes sense now that you say it. They are just getting all their colors showing up on their ears, tails, noses, and such but we don't know what breed they actually are. They were solid white when we got them in September and now their ears are dark gray and their noses have patterned black splatches and we noticed today that the female's tail is turning dark as well. The people we bought them from told us that we should have babies ready to eat by Christmas though ... sigh ... guess they exaggerated a bit.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Would love to see photos.

Most of the meat rabbits we have locally are mixes, with Flemish, New Zealand, dutch, and Californian mixes probably being most common. Haha, my male Elop has such a soft grey coloring around his nose, I was wondering if he was just a poorly marked black tort. Then, puberty hit, and his fur came in extremely dark very suddenly! I've never had a young rabbit before, so i had no idea their coats changed that much. XD

Ah man, will have to be Christmas goose this year!

 

[sommrluv]

Quote:
You usually don't want to breed them before they are six months or seven months old. It's not really good for them. Also, one buck can service many many gals, you I think you can get rid of that extra buck.

If he fell off, it usually means it was successful. You should expose her to him twice in a 24 hour period, and than leave her be. Some people can palpitate at about 14 days after to see if she's is preggers, but it's very difficult and I've never been able to tell. A rabbit's normal cycle is 28-32 days, but give or take a day isn't uncommon. You'll want to put a nest box in with her around day 26.

If he has never bred before the confusion in where to hump is normal. He's just really excited and eager, is all.

Also, if it's been very hot where you are, bucks can experience heat sterility and that might last a couple months. Needs to shoot out all the 'blanks' so to speak.

Also, your sellers absolutely exaggerated about the Christmas dinner. A rabbit is pregnant for about a month, and than you butcher generally at 12 weeks old for most meat breeds. Some at 8 weeks but that's all assuming a perfect cycle of no mistakes. Rabbits are kind of notorious for not being very good with their first litter.

It took until my NZW was about 7 months for his testes to really be prominent. Like...ridiculously different from before. lol

 

[erinszoo]

Here are some pics of our female and one of our males.

This is our girl Marshmello.

This is our boy Graham.

 

[CCourson05]

Well it looks like a Cali x NZW... It could be another albino breed, but considering the size that is my guess.

These rabbits reach sexual maturity at about 6 months. So you probably won't get anything with that breeding...

I suggest you go to the BackYardHerds forum and read and discuss there. They have everything neatly indexed for rabbits...

To breed, you need to introduce the female to male to induce ovulation, as a doe chooses to ovulate rather than that time just rolling around as in humans. After the introduction, wait 6-8 hours and reintroduce the doe to buck. This will ensure that there is an egg waiting to be fertilized.

 

[debilorrah]

Sometimes, rabbits are just not the bright candles on the cake and you may need to turn him around to get it done properly. I have a seasoned buck that ALWAYS tries to mate the head first. Dummy.

 

[hemet dennis]

yep they are Californian you should not breed her till Feb. she is still growing her self. After that you should get 5 to 6 litters a year
please wait good luck

 

[CCourson05]

And don't think that just because he stiffens up and falls off it was successful... That means it was a good chance, but not guaranteed.

Debi, do you pick him up and show him the correct way every time, or do you just wait for him to finish with the head??