When bunnies attack!!!

[bwahk]

Was feeding one of my bucks last night, he attacked and pandemonium ensued.

Any ideas why? My other Buck and two does are Flemish... not exactly sure what he is. Usually he lets go after he nips, but he darned near took off my knuckle this time.

 

[Bunnylady]

How old is this buck, is he intact, and how long have you had him?

I have been nipped a few times in the 25+ years I've had rabbits, but only really chomped once or twice. In fact, I have a lovely little scar on my wrist from a rabbit that really meant business. That rabbit attempted to attack at every opportunity; we finally decided to put him down to prevent him from hurting somebody else. Some rabbits are just nasty customers, but fortunately, they are rare. I hope your buck isn't one of them.

 

[bwahk]

I hope so too. He's young, four to five months maybe, intended to be paired with my Flemish doe for breeding meat rabbits. We've had him under two months.

Just realized he must've hit my tendon when he ripped into my finger. I'm pretty sure he meant business ... he was intent on taking my finger off.

 

[sourland]

I would be tempted to cut my losses and eat this buck. Chances are he may sire aggressive young. In my experience, such aggression especially in a buck this young only increases with age.

 

[bwahk]

Wow, really? Well that's good to know. I'm tempted to, although I might give it a few more days to see if my Flemish Buck moderates that temper... I put them together after he bit me.

 

[bwahk]

I take back every mean thing I said about him...

It turns out he get he was protecting his mate. She went into labor last night and I came in to three tiny babies this morning. still more to come!

 

[tadpole98]

waiting to see pictures.. haha!

 

[tadpole98]

i think you are supposed to separate the two once she births. but im no expert.

 

[PoultryPower]

I hope you did separate them, or else the buck may eat the kits.

 

[Bunnylady]

I hope you did separate them, or else the buck may eat the kits.

You know, I've bred rabbits for over 25 years, and I've never seen a buck show any interest in the kits at all, either good or bad. Of course, with the vast majority of my litters, the buck wasn't in the same cage, so he didn't have a chance. Several times, though, I have put older does and bucks together in a sort of "colony" arrangement, and the does may kindle with a buck still present. What I have seen in those cases is the buck obsessively pursues the doe, and she gets upset and runs around, jumping in and out of the nestbox. Kits may get trampled and killed in the melee, but it isn't intentional killing by either rabbit. Sometimes, another doe may choose the same nest box, and kits may get killed or injured when she digs in the nest as she "prepares" it for her litter - but once again, the damage doesn't seem deliberate to me. I find that removing a doe that is obviously pregnant from the colony makes things calmer for all concerned.

A very good reason to separate is that does will rebreed immediately after kindling - with a very high likelihood of settling with a large litter. It's a bit of a strain for a doe to nurse two litters back-to-back like that; most people like to give them a little bit of a break in between. At the very least, litter #1 would have to be weaned at about 3 1/2 weeks to allow the doe to prepare for litter #2.