|
|
| Breeding Your Rabbit Breeding your rabbits can be an exciting and rewarding experience. People choose to breed thier rabbits for different reasons. Some like the joy of seeing new life entering into the world. Some view it as an opportunity to educate their children in responsablity. Some focus on the financial benifit of raising their own source of meat and the ability to sell the fur. Some will breed their rabbit in order to sell the kits to suppliment their income, others just enjoy rabbits so much that they choose to have many of them around. Before anyone begins to breed their rabbits some things must be considered. This is a fascinating process that occurs in a very short time, but in breeding your rabbit you take on an entirely new level of responsability. Rabbits truly fit the stero type that is put on them about their ability to reproduce. The gestation period for a female last a short 28-34 days and they are capable of being rebred almost imediatily after deliviering their litter. In the wild rabbits gernerally will only have one or two litters per year so the chance of overpopulation is not great, but it is a different matter for domestic rabbits. Rabbits that are kept for pets or livestock have been bred to be able to concieve frequently. They have no true heat cycle so you could say they are always in heat unless they are pregnant. Without responsable planning you can quickly end up with way more rabbits than you can handle. It is not exagerating to say that if you have two rabbits in January you could possibly end up with 100 by January the next year. Careful planning is needed in order be a responable breeder. Leaving your male and female rabbits together all the time and just letting nature take its course is neither being a responsable breeder nor responsable pet owner, so please plan carefully. When breeding rabbits it is necessary to be familar with proper termanology. Buck- a male rabbit Doe- a female rabbit kit- a baby rabbit weanling- a baby rabbit that is between 4-16 weeks of age
Junior- a buck or doe that is between 6-8 months old
intermediate- a buck or doe that is between 4-6 months old kindle- to give birth nest- the area prepared by the doe for the kits to stay after birth litter-group of baby rabbits born to a doe dew lap- A fold of skin under the chin of a doe that develops at maturity What to do and What to Expect First things first, a rabbit will not be sexually mature until about 3 months of age, but just because they are able in no way means they should be bred this young. It the equivalent of person. Just because a young girl reaches puberty at 10 does not mean her body is ready to properly carry a baby at that young age. I personally do not recommend breeding your doe until she is at least 4 months of age or older. I raise medium breeds which develop a dewlap at maturity. I really prefer not to breed them until their dew lap is well developed which is between 4 and 5 months old. If the doe is somewhat small I will wait longer to give her plenty of time to develope before having to carry a litter. This makes for healthier kits and healthier does. In order to breed your rabbits you must know if they are sexually mature. To determine this you must check the vulva of the doe and the testicals of the buck. If the doe is mature the vulva will be dark pink. A pale pink means she is not ready. The testicals of the buck should be fully descended and have an appetence of being full. After determining if your rabbits are mature then you can breed. To do this always take the doe to the buck's cage. You must do this and never take the buck to the doe. By taking the doe to the buck she is taken out of her territory and will be willing to mate instead of protecting her territory. The female rabbit can be very territorial and will fight the buck if he invades her space. She can and will injure him. So take the doe to the buck and place her in his cage and close the door. She should not be aggressive toward the buck if it is done this way. The buck will immediately attempt to mount the doe, usually before you can shut the door. The doe may run away from the buck for several minutes but watch her. If she is wiggling her tail up and down then she will allow him to catch her within a few minutes. Once the buck mounts the doe the actual breeding takes only a few seconds. The doe should lift up slightly when the buck mounts her. After a successful breeding the buck will usually fall over and may grunt a little. If he does not fall over the breeding was not successful. It is best to allow the buck to mount the doe more than once but not to the point of frustrating her. After the breeding has taken place is when conception occurs in a female rabbit. Unlike people a doe will not ovulate at a specific time. She will not ovulate until she is stimulated to do so by the buck attempting to mount her. For this reason many breeders will take the doe back to the buck about 6-8 hours after the first matting in order to make sure that there will be an egg present to be fertilized. Now you mark the date of breeding on your calendar and wait. There is no test that can be carried out to determine if your doe is pregnant. The only way to find out is to check her. To do this you will palpate her abdomen. Between 10-14 days after breeding if your doe is pregnant you should be able to feel the kits. Place your doe on a flat , hard surface, you can do this in her cage if it is easier for you. You want to feel her abdomen just behind and under her rib cage. Press gently but firmly inward and upward. You should feel small knots about the size of a marble. These are the kits. This takes some practice but is not hard to do, nor does it hurt the doe or kits. After 14 days you will not be able to feel the kits, they will be too large to distinguish from other internal organs. On day 21 you need to give your doe a nest box if there is not a permanent one in the cage. Place hay or wood shavings in the nest box to give her some nesting materials. Do not use saw dust, this can suffocate the kits as they will burrow down into the nest. Your doe will at some point start to take hay into the nest and get it situated to her liking. On the day of delivery she will begin to pluck chunks of fur from various parts of her body and mix it with the bedding material. She may pluck fur before the delivery day, but usually it will be the day she delivers. She will situate the bedding to form a cup, similar to a bird nest shape. The kits will be born between day 28-34. Usually the kits are born about day 31 and usually at night. The average number of kits varies depending on the breed. With the medium breeds the average is about 7. You do not need to be present for the birth. Your doe will take care of everything. The delivery is actually very quick. The entire process takes about 2 hrs with the delivery taking only a few minutes. The kits are not in a sack when they are born like puppies. They are actually very mobile, able to wiggle around until they find their mother to nurse. The doe will clean the kits and work them into the nest. The kits are born naked and with their eyes closed. The doe will care for the kits very well usually. She will keep them well covered with fur to keep them warm but will remove the fur when it begins to get too warm. She will nurse the kits two or more times per day but usually not when you are around. You will need to keep an eye on the kits daily but do not handle them unless you have to. You can get something like a wooden skewer to move the hair out of the way so that you can see the kits. You should check to make sure there are no dead kits every day. Place your hand close to the kits to see if they seem warm enough because until they are about 3 days old they can not maintain their own body temperature. Look at their bellies to see if they appear full. They should be very warm and should wiggle when you touch their mouth gently with the blunt end of the skewer. If all looks well cover them back up and let doe and kits get their rest. In about 10 days the kits will begin to open their eyes,(sooner for smaller breeds). When the eyes begin to open you can start to handle the kits some. You need to check their eyes to see if there is any build up that may keep the eye from opening. If so use a cotton ball that is soaked in warm water and gently wipe the eye clean. Do not force the eye open. If it is clean it will open in due time. About day 15 the kits will begin to venture out of the nest box and within a few days they will begin to nibble on hay and maybe pellets and drink from the water bottle. By 4 weeks old all the kits should be eating pellets and drinking from the water bottle, but may also be nursing. By eight weeks they should be completely weaned and ready to be sold or whatever you choose. The kits do not have to stay with the doe for the entire 8 weeks. They should be able to be removed by 4 to 6 weeks if you want to give the doe a break. But do not remove all the kits at once. Watch to see which ones are eating pellets and drinking from the water bottle the best and remove those first, 2-3 at first. Then you can remove one every other day or so ( as long as you know it is eating pellets and drinking water) until the entire litter is removed. You may want to use a marker to mark the ears of the kits as you see them eat or drink. We use red for eating and blue for drinking out of the water bottle. The litter can be housed in one cage until they are 8 weeks old or even up to about 10 weeks but then I would separate the bucks into their own individual cages. The does will be ok together for an extended period of time, in some cases indefinatly, just keep an eye out for any signs of aggression. . | |
|