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[ChirpChickens]

I'm very new to rabbits
I got this nzw x silver fox doe this past Saturday. Her name is Grace, and she was born in April. The lady I got her from for the basis of my meat rabbit herd said to wait until December to breed her?

I'm picking up a purebreed nzw doe tonight that's just 2 months old. What questions do I need to ask? The sired parents are on site, the daddy buck is 16lbs!

I was planning on breeding the biggest buck each doe produces onto the other doe, for hybrid vigor to get into my freezer fastest, what age does one start breeding? I will maybe also breed my Grace onto the 16lb nzw buck first? I had thought maybe my nzw x silver fox was old/big enough to breed?

I feed pellets, which Grace could take or leave it seems. She loves hemp stalks (hemp is legal to grow where I'm at) & it's pretty nutritious compared to alfalfa etc as far as fiber, protein, vitamins minerals, but it is just a supplement/treat. She hates green beans. Of course she gets pellets and as much alfalfa as she wants.

How do I get her more easy to handle? She really tore up my bf AND my 24 year old son when we got her home, I mean really started blood dripping everywhere! My bf won't let me try to hold her/bond/pet her b/c she is so strong and mean. She's beautiful though, and I guess even though she's dark, she and the male I was planning on breeding her with will throw out white, blue and her dark coloring babies from what the lady who sold her to me said.

Any help is appreciated!

When I first got my doe she was a lot like that too. I don't know if yours is an outside rabbit, but mine was. For the first two weeks I kept her in a large cat carrier right next to my bed and it helped her get used to me and my smell. I don't know if it would work much for you, depending on your lifestyle and such. I also spread out a couple towels on the bed and just gave her free range of it with me sitting there on my laptop or reading a book or something. She was always too afraid to jump off the bed so it was really easy. By the end of the two weeks, that little booger had a habit of trying to run across my keyboard!

oh! and good treats help too! mine all really like apples! about the first 2 pieces I let them take the apple from my hand and back away and eat it but after that they had to stay near me and eat it from my hand.

Gorgeous rabbit by the way! Good luck!

 

[Sarapc]

Our four baby rabbits that are a little over 2 weeks old were taken out of their hutch for a little play time. And when they were out on the blanket in the backyard, they started eating grass. Is that okay or should we not allow them to? We do not put any chemicals on our yard.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

I did the same with apple to tame mine. Once they got crazy over apples, I held the apple for them to eat out of my hand. Then I started petting them while they ate. Apples worked well. (Give her a very small amount of apple a day and make sure to remove the seeds, they are toxic. )

 

[Double Kindness]

I got another bunny

she is a nzw that's 2.5 months old. I guess I'm supposed to wait until December to breed her? Her dad is 16 lbs!

Grace tore into my bf again. She was born in April, when can I breed her

?

And this is our first hand built rabbit cage

I have the Rubbermaid tote under it to gather droppings easier to use in my garden. There's a tarp over it to provide shade and wind break, rain protection. It was built in a couple hours using leftover hardwood flooring, 1/2" hardware cloth, and some rebar and hooks for latches, and metal l bracks for bracing on the lefs and to attach it to the fence posts. It's visible from our bedroom window.

It got kinda hot yesterday, so last night I put 2 bottles of water in the freezer to put with my buns today when it gets hot.

This gives some idea on dimensions of the cage

which will eventually house both my buns and their kits when the time comes.

Should I build a bigger cage for grow out than this one, or is this a good size? We're trying to get it done before winter, we'll probably breed Grace next month if she's big enough.

 

[SternRose]

2.5 weeks? Oor bunnie. Why is it away from its mom?

 

[SternRose]

5-6 months for small rabbits, 6-8 months for giants.

 

[Double Kindness]

I corrected it, she's 2.5 months old the new zealand white.

My other doe is a nzw x silver fox born in April. Is that considered giant or small rabbit? Sorry, I know almost nothing about rabbits except they are tasty, quiet, strong and they need pellets and alfalfa and not to let them get too hot or wet. And not to put them together.

Grace isn't the nicest bunny YET!

 

[Lynzi777]

I don't understand how I'm always ending up with Torts! I had three litters this year - 2 Holland litters and now this Lionhead litter. My Holland does were Frosty to a VM Blue Tort and a Sable Point to a Broken Blue, I got all Torts from the Sable Point and one Tort (+3 other colors) from the Frosty. My lionhead is determined to be a VM Torted Otter that was bred to a Pointed Pearl or Sable Marten and I got ALL torts! I don't have a single Tort in either of these pedigrees but that's what I end up with! LOL

 

[SA Farm]

I corrected it, she's 2.5 months old the new zealand white.

My other doe is a nzw x silver fox born in April. Is that considered giant or small rabbit? Sorry, I know almost nothing about rabbits except they are tasty, quiet, strong and they need pellets and alfalfa and not to let them get too hot or wet. And not to put them together.

Grace isn't the nicest bunny YET!

Go ahead with your plan to breed Grace next month. If she was born in April that will make her 6 months old.
Small/Med. 5-6, Large 6-8, Giant 8-10 months are the recommended breeding ages. If you know approximately what weight she should be when full grown, some breeders will breed as soon as the rabbit has reached 80% of adult weight.
NZs are considered Large breed rabbits.

 

[Bunnylady]

I don't understand how I'm always ending up with Torts! I had three litters this year - 2 Holland litters and now this Lionhead litter. My Holland does were Frosty to a VM Blue Tort and a Sable Point to a Broken Blue, I got all Torts from the Sable Point and one Tort (+3 other colors) from the Frosty. My lionhead is determined to be a VM Torted Otter that was bred to a Pointed Pearl or Sable Marten and I got ALL torts! I don't have a single Tort in either of these pedigrees but that's what I end up with! LOL

The answer is fairly simple, though the explanation gets a little complicated, so bear with me.

There are a bunch of different genes that influence a rabbit's color; it is the interaction of all of them that determines what color the rabbit is. Some genes only have two possible forms (black vs. chocolate, dilute vs. non-dilute), while others have several possibilities; we call them gene "series."

The A series has 3 possibilities: Agouti(A), Tan(at), and Self(a). Self is the most recessive gene in the A series. for a rabbit to be a self, it must have 2 copies of the self gene. Tan (including Marten and Otter) is the next step up in the series; tans have the white "trim" like the agoutis, but the body color of a self. A tan may have two copies of the tan gene, or one tan and one self. Agouti is the most dominant form in the A series. As long as a rabbit has 1 copy of the agouti gene, it will be agouti patterned, and you can't tell just by looking whether the rabbit has 2 agouti genes, an agouti and a tan, or an agouti and a self. When you have one known, more dominant member of a gene pair, and one unknown member, the pair is written like this: A_. That means you know this animal is an agouti (because it is expressing the agouti pattern), but you don't know what other gene it is carrying but not expressing.

Tort may not look it, but it is a self-based color. Torts have two copies of the self pattern gene (aa). The other gene series that is critical to producing a tort is the E series. In that series, there are several possibilities, but the one that produces self is the non-extension gene (e). Non-extension is the most recessive in the series, so for it to be expressed, the rabbit has to have 2 copies of it (ee). Because it is the most recessive, it can hide behind the other genes in the series, ,most notably the full-color gene (E).

To keep this post as short as possible, I won't explain what all of the other genes do; but you may have seen colors laid out by the genes that are required to produce them, like this:

A_ B_C_D_E_enen vv(Chestnut Agouti)

Here are the crosses you have mentioned, with the critical genes highlighted:

A_B_cchd_D_ eevv (Frosty) x aaB_C_ddeeVv (VM Blue Tort) ----> aaB_C_D_eevv (tort) because the Frosty and the Blue Tort only have non-extension genes in the E series, all of their babies will get a non-extension gene from both of them. The Blue Tort only has self in the A series; obviously, this Frosty has a self gene there too, since this cross resulted in a Tort.

aaB_cchl_D_eeenenvv (Sable Point) x aaB_C_ddE_Enenvv (Broken Blue) ---> aaB_C_D_eeenenvv (tort) Both of these parents have only self genes (a) so that's all they can give to their offspring. Clearly, though the Broken Blue has one full-color gene in the E series, he must have a non-extension gene that he isn't expressing, since he gave it to his offspring.


aaB_cchlcddeeenenvv (Pearl Point)
at_B_C_D_eeenenvv (Torted Otter) x ----> aaB_C_D_eeenenvv (Tort)
at_B_cchlcD_E_enenvv (Sable Marten)

If you get self-patterned babies from Otters or Martens, clearly, those tan-patterned rabbits are carrying but not expressing a self gene. Not hard, but kind of funny when that's all you get!