Breeding Question..

[Minniechickmama]

Here is my 2¢. I know you can breed the doe back the day she kindles a litter. However, I personally would never do this. I also like to think that a doe deserves a little time off between litters. The process of going through the pregnancy is taxing on their bodies, then the feeding/raising the litter is additionally taxing. I give them at least a month to recover. Having had children, I don't look at animals any differently. If you want them to produce longer, let them recover from the last litter before forcing them to raise another. I can't think of too many women who had kids who said, "Let's do it again!" the day they had their last.
But if you are just looking at cranking out as many kits as you can in the shortest amount of time, I am sure you would disagree. By the way, I give my kits 6-weeks with their moms, then pull them out gradually so she has a chance to let her milk slow down. I take the biggest ones out first and the smallest ones come out last and I spread it out by 2-3 days between taking any out.
That being said, I had put my does in with the bucks immediately after delivery if they lose the litter either from being stillborn or some other demise that befalls them.

I would say start trying to breed now. I have a couple of receptive does, but a couple are still giving me a hard time, or should I say giving the bucks a hard time

. They may not be receptive to breeding until it gets a little warmer, and it looks like we are going to dip down below zero again this next week. By March it is always warm enough for litters if they are sheltered. I actually have found my boys are a little less than "active" right now. I didn't think the the time of year made a hoot of a difference to them, but it does. Having more light for them is helpful, I am told.

I must disagree about composting the poop. I have read in numerous sources that rabbit poop does NOT need composting. The poop itself is not "hot" or high in nitrogen, it is the urine. I would definitely compost the urine and litter. I have put the poop right on my flower beds and it does great, but JUST the poop. I have also used baking soda to keep the smell down, it neutralizes the ammonia a bit. I use about 1/2 cup per pan when we change them out. You can buy it in bulk through feed stores sometimes.

Good luck. We may be trying some meat rabbits this year too. I am a little squeamish since I have never eaten rabbit and our kids are pretty much against the idea, but they will learn.

 

[Penturner]

We would re breed our Does when their current litter was also about 4 weeks old. It was more of a watching the Doe thing than it was an exact time. she will start not tending to the litter she has as much and in a couple of weeks will be doing everything she can to get away from them. that is the time to remove the babies from the mommas cage and let her get settled in for the next litter. We would do the back to back litters for 2 litters. if the Doe was still going strong maybe 3 and then give her a good rest and let her get her "Form" back. Again this was not a by the clock thing, it was a look at each individual Rabbit and determine if they could go again or not. they then did not get used again until they looked filled out again. some for a few weeks some got a couple of months or more. We had at one time 700 females and never had any problem managing them one at a time. You simply got good at giving them an eying over.

 

[anthonyjames]

Thanks for the info. The intent was not to breed them to wear them out. I have no intentions of breeding durning the winter months. Only Spring, Summer, Fall. And I was concerned about timing being every 16 weeks to breed, have kits, rest, rebreed, etc. But I found I was way off by just about double.

That being said I decided to take what I was told from a breeder and put in what the breeder told me was the male and to my surprise the breeder had them backwards. My doe is a buck and the buck is a doe. So when I put the buck in the does cage he immediatly mounted her and then got a dazed look and kind of slid off. Not fell off like others would say. There is no chance a buck would mount a buck is there?

That being said I now know who the buck is and I am really upset that what they told me was wrong. How do you sex a rabbit?

Well I guess I will bring the female into his cage in a few hours to see if they do the deed again. Also, I asked earlier if having the doe right next to the buck in cages is an issue. Is it? Because I don't have the space until spring to seperate into his own section when I move them.

Thanks again for all the info.

 

[uhuh555]

We have kept meat rabbits for 30 some years. If you feed a complete rabbit pellet you can continuously breed a doe every 6 weeks for its productive life time-as long as 2 1/2 years. We have had some up to 3 1/2 years. The key is plenty of fresh water and complete diets. We feed our trimmings from the raspberries and Japanese willows. Raspberry canes have medicinal properties and boosts the immune systems. The Japanese willow is great for gnawing on to keep their teeth from over growing.

Does do not go into ‘heat’. The interaction between doe and buck triggers the doe to release eggs. It is important to breed does twice in the same day to ensure litters of 8 to 10 kits.

We limit liters to 10; extras are transferred to other does. By rubbing a small amount of vicks on the doe’s nose that is receiving kit(s) will prevent rejection.

They love wooden blocks and balls to play with; it cuts down boredom and prevents aggression between cage mates.

A good website:

http://www.radil.missouri.edu/info/dora/RABBPAGE/rabbit.htm

Try keeping a few rabbit with you chickens in their outside runs. It works well. Provide protected places for the rabbits to hide their kits.

Good luck!!

 

[SteveH]

" The poop itself is not "hot" or high in nitrogen, it is the urine. I would definitely compost the urine and litter. I have put the poop right on my flower beds and it does great, but JUST the poop "

It may be a silly question , but how did you keep the two seperate ? My rabbits were kept on wire and the " by products " collected on the concrete below in my shed , on the ground under my outside hutches . I scooped it up and used it directly on my garden , orchard , raspberries , blackberries , and lawn . While I did not mind it , the areas under the outside hutches was burnt to where nothing grew . The garden was heavily mulched for weed control and did well with heavy applications , but the berries did not like the excess nitrogen and production dropped dramasticly , and possibly was not good for apple production either . I actually just used a walk behind fertilizer spreader to spread it over my lawn and the flower beds that were along it , mowed so it wasn't an unsightly mess sitting on top of the zoysia grass , and they looked great .

You can sex a rabbit simply by using your fingers to push the area inward where the genatalia are hidden , and the male's penis will be visable . I have seen a doe attempt to mount a buck , but that particular doe was a cull due to her eating her kits . Some bucks will mount anything that moves LOL .

 

[anthonyjames]

SteveH,

By seperate I meant not next to each other in ajoining cages. I thouhgt that was the whole point of taking the doe to the buck. If done the other way around the buck would smell and spray and not do his job.

If you look at my photos here you will see what I mean. http://gallery.me.com/anthonyjames420#100306&bgcolor=black&view=grid

When you look at the photos they are the two straight back on a wooden structure in the second photo of the run area.

So I just switched who was supposed to go into which cage to have the go at it again and this time the Black and White one mounted the white one. So now I am really confused on who is who. I guess I will have to go out and try sexing them and see who is what.

 

[RiverOtter]

Adjoining cages is fine.
You bring the doe to the buck's cage because the doe is more territorial about it and may want to fight or dominate the intruder in her own cage. Also, there's something about moving around that gets a doe in the mood. LOL, an old trick with a hard to breed doe is to put her in the car and drive her around the block.

If you rabbits are 6 months old, your buck should have pretty visible cajones if you turn him over.
To make extra sure (a buck can pull his "boys" up if he's stressed) you need someone to show you, but you can look at these pics and maybe figure it out. I needed someone to show me how.
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/sexing.shtml

Sometimes a doe will mount a buck, it's been said it's either frustration or dominance. For whatever reason they'll do it. If they are doing it right, you will see the doe (on bottom) lift her hind end and the male will thrust and then curl his whole body. Some of them slide off, some of them fall over, some lie on their sides and twitch like they're dead, some leap straight upward with a scream, some just hop off and circle back to do the deed again. ALL of it is normal.

As uhuh555 said, they are induced ovulaters. It is their, ahem, interaction, that makes a doe's body release eggs, so letting them get together once in the morning and once at night should give larger litters. By once, I actually mean you should let them go through their routine for 10, 15 minutes or so. They will do it considerably more then once.

While I breed does on the schedule I said, when the litter is 4 weeks old, I don't worry too much about "overbreeding" the doe. A healthy, well fed doe will do just fine and if a does body needs a rest she will - in one of the mysteries of science - reabsorb the embryos and get a rest that way.

 

[anthonyjames]

Riverotter,

Thanks. I did see that site eariler and tried to sex the two. But they are both so fiesty and freaked out when I reach my hand in the cage compared to my other 6, that I have a hard time grabbing them. But seeing as they are both 6 months and each weigh about 8 - 10 lbs is there a way to hold them? Because holding that weight by the sruf of their neck worries that I will be hurting them. I guess the bigger question is, is there a way to hold them to get them to submit?

Again, thanks for all the info and guidance. I thought I read, researched and got all the info I needed in the months before I started this venture and it is nothing like raising chickens, quail and turkeys. Always some type of learning curve I guess.

 

[Minniechickmama]

It is tricky to get a rabbit who is skiddish to submit at first, but the best way is to lay them on their backs. To do this with their face toward you, grasp their ears between your index and middle finger and hold firmly. At the same time that you lay its head back scoop its butt toward you with the other hand. If you have their ears firmly, it is harder for them to struggle away. But watch out for their feet, they can still kick and scratch. It may take a few times to get them used to and it takes practice.
Push one finger just forward of the genital opening and push back on the area above the poopy hole (for lack of a gentler term). A penis will pop out pretty easily and significantly, a vaginal opening will look split with a v-shaped flesh. A doe's vent will protrude a little, but not like the bucks' do. Plus their testes should be visible by the time they are old enough to breed.

Good luck.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Quote:
If you screen the droppings, then you can separate the poop from the urine. I don't, but the poop I use is not sitting in the wet pee settled in the bottom of the pan. In summer when I do use it, we are cleaning our pans frequently and it doesn't have a chance to soak in much. I wouldn't dump the litter on the garden directly because it takes longer to break down and needs to compost.