Part 4: Getting Started in Rabbits – Breeding

Breeding can be one of the most rewarding things about raising rabbits, second to showing, of course.  This activity helps you get to know your lines and really understand the breed you are raising.  Before putting the pair together, you must understand not only the process of breeding and raising litters, but also how to pair rabbits properly so you achieve superior quality in the offspring.  

Get to know your breeding stock.  I cannot stress this enough.  You have to know what each individual rabbit excels in and lacks at the same time.  Reviewing your breed’s standard will help you understand the breed more.  If you have a rabbit with lower shoulders, for example, you should try to pair it with a rabbit with good shoulders so you can work towards having offspring that have better shoulders.  If you have a doe that is amazing in all ways except you would like to see more density, pair her with a superior buck.  Work your way towards better offspring.  When retaining kits, be strict about what you will be keeping.  Do any of the offspring have superior type or wool quality than the parents?   How was the overall vigor of the kits?  Did they make good gains on their feed?  These and many more factors must be considered when keeping babies for your breeding program.  

Once you have picked out your pair, you must calculate when to breed.  A rabbit on average has a 31 day gestation period.  After the doe kindles, the kits are raised on her for approximately 6 weeks, then grown until 8 weeks of age before allowing them to leave the rabbitry.  While not all rabbitries wait until 8 weeks of age to sell kits, many do.  Waiting the extra two weeks post weaning will allow you to re-evaluate the overall quality of the animal.  You would be surprised how differently some will mature with the extra few weeks.  This extra time also allows the babies to get a better, healthier start in life, without the stress of being removed from their mothers and then sent off to reside elsewhere.  

If you have a specific time in mind for the kits to be mature, you can use that day and count backwards.  For example, if you want to aim for 12 week old kits for showing end of September/beginning of October, you can mark that day on your calendar and begin counting backwards.  Because there are about 4 weeks in a month, you can estimate that the kits will be born beginning of July, so you must breed beginning of June to meet this deadline.  

Once you have calculated the birth day and approximate sales/showing point, you can proceed to breed.  The doe should be taken to the buck’s cage for him to breed her.  This is because does especially are notorious for being cage territorial and often will not allow the buck to breed her if he is in her cage.  If you have a trouble doe who won’t allow a buck to be bred, there are a few things you can do.  One is to put the buck in a cage beside the doe’s.  Another trick breeders will do is switch cages – put the doe in the buck’s home and the buck in the doe’s.  The reasoning behind both of these methods is that the scent of the other rabbit will become more familiar to the pair, in which case they will accept each other and breed.  You will know that the buck truly bred her if he falls off all of the sudden. 

 

Age of mature bucks and does is dependent not only on the breed you raise but also the individual rabbit.  The smaller breeds generally will mature earlier than the larger.  It is not uncommon for a dwarf or Lionhead to become mature at 4-6 months of age, both bucks and does.  Just because the rabbit is sexually mature does not mean it is always a good option to breed.  The rabbits will get larger if allowed to mature before breeding.  It almost seems that breeding a rabbit before it reaches it senior weight slows its growth and delays it as it is putting its energy towards feeding its young and not getting bigger.  

After the doe is bred she can return to her cage.  I always aim for at least two breedings in one day, but you can do more especially if you are unsure if he bred her.  Some breeders even breed two days, several times a day.  Once the breeding period is over, mark down what day you bred her, and count 31 days later.  This is her estimated kindle period.  Because a rabbit can have a gestation period of 28-32 or so days, she receives a nestbox on the 28^th day on the chance she kindles early.  The nesting box should be of decent size according to breed.  It can be filled with a variety of substrates, with hay and straw being common materials. 

On the day of kindling, the doe will pluck her fur from her chest and belly and line it in her box.  It is especially important to maintain a silent atmosphere on the day she is due as rabbits get nervous and stressed easily and may kill their litter if there is too much chaos going on.  While many breeders advise not to go in and handle babies or view them, I have never had an issue with this.  I make an effort to handle my rabbits all the time so that they not only are easier to handle, but they also maintain your trust.  Check the nestbox to make sure the little ones look healthy and have full bellies, and remove any uneaten placenta and dead kits.   Be sure to wait a half hour to hour or so after kindling to make sure the doe has finished cleaning and feeding the kits as well as gave birth to all of them.  

Now all you have to do is monitor the growing family!  Check the kits periodically over the course of their growth in the nestbox and make sure they are all eating well and maturing nicely.  Feed the mother a high quality food and always provide her with an unlimited supply of fresh water.  The doe may need more food than she normally gets as she is nursing her litter.  The babies’ eyes will open at 10 days and they may begin exploring.  Be sure to occasionally change out their bedding to make sure they stay in good health.   

Once the kits reach 3-4 weeks of age they will begin hopping out of the nestbox and exploring.   When all the kits are spending most of their time outside of their nesting box, you can remove it from the cage.  Have a dish low enough for the babies to nibble on pellets, and be sure to train them on a water bottle or dish if they are not beginning to sample water.  

Continue watching them grow.  Keep records of their growth rates, vitality, the mother’s mothering abilities, etc.  If there is anything you find unusual about the litter, be sure to note that too.  

At 6 weeks it is usually easier to check the sex of the kits.  If you were planning on advertising having kits for sale, you may want to get the word out at this point, but wait the extra two weeks before letting them go to their new homes.  There are plenty of free advertising sites online you can use.  Advertising on the bulletin board in feed stores is also a good way to find new customers.  Continue evaluating their potential according to breed standards.  

At 8 weeks you can begin letting them go to new homes; however, if you wanted to wait longer, there is no harm in that.  Hopefully by this time you would have been able to observe and evaluate the offspring enough to know what you may like to retain for your program.  Be sure to have plenty of free cage space at this point to hold growing litters and retained babies.  Sometimes it takes a while to move the litters out so you want to be sure to have ample space for them if it takes a while. 

Next week will be our last post of this series!  I will give a brief overview of the show world and showing your rabbits.  Even if you were not planning on showing your rabbits, this post should help give you an idea of what is involved in showing your stock and the rewards of showing.