rabbit breeding question...

[coonhoundmama87]

I have a new zealand buck who is young and blind in one eye. I tried breeding him with a new zealand doe but his inexperience and eye seemed to give him a problem and he didn't get the job done. I have a nice calm dutch doe that I would like to try him out with but I'm concerned that would not be a good combination seeing as he is bigger than her. We are breeding them for butcher so I'm not concerned about cross breeding. Anyone have any thoughts? Any comments are appreciated! TIA!

 

[Glenmar]

He may just be too young to be interested. He should be at least 8 months.

 

[Ally Rose]

BREEDING RABBITS FOR A BUTCHER? No no no no no no no no! DONT DO THAT! It is cruel to the poor animals! I have a pet rabbit and he is so sweet and he is my life! I hope this changes your mind! Please dont put those poor bunnies through that! I dont know why anyone would eat a bunny either. Tsk tsk...

 

[dainerra]

rabbit is excellent meat.
I would worry about him being larger than her. I'm not sure if too large kits would be bad for her

 

[coonhoundmama87]

Sorry Ally Rose but we love eatting rabbit. We raise animals for food and nothing will change our minds on that!

I'm not exactly sure how old he is, the seller wasn't sure because it was his sisters. I figure he was about 6 months when we got him in the fall though. So he should be plenty old. He was interested but just couldn't quite figure it out. I'll probably just wait until the NZ doe can be bred again and give him another go.

 

[Oregon Blues]

It should be OK to breed him to the Dutch. Dutch are good meat rabbits. The doe is unlikely to produce kits larger than she can give birth to. Kits are born really tiny, even my Californian X New Zealand which grow to be large rabbits are just little specks when they are first born..

I would expect them to grow fast and big, so keep the good food available for the doe and food available for the bunnies as soon as they can eat solid food.

Ally Rose, we promise not to eat your pet bunny. However, just because you have a rabbit as a pet does not mean you get a say in what other people do with their rabbits. Not any more than a person with a beloved pet cow gets to tell the rest of the world that they are no longer allowed to eat beef.

 

[coonhoundmama87]

thanks Oregon for the advice!

 

[Totalcolour]

thanks Oregon for the advice!

We have a rather smallish doe (we think a dutch cross; hubby got her at an auction) that we bred to a larger, Standard Rex, and she gave birth to 8 lovely kits with no problems. If the sizes were too extreme, I wouldn't do it.

We breed meat rabbits, and usually breed a smaller, Florida White buck to our large breed does (Standard Rex and Champagne D'Argent). The resulting crosses produce wonder meat rabbits.