New To Rabbits

Are these very young rabbits? How much do they weigh? They seem small for meat rabbits, but if they are young that might be why. It is hard to tell what breed they are. If you got them from a pet store, they might be cross breds. The main thing is how large they will be when grown. The ideal meat breeds average around 12 lbs (more or less) as adults with the females weighing a little more than males. Like I said, if these are just for meat production, breed is not a big consideration, as long as the adult breeding stock averages around 11 to 12 lbs. Any rabbit is edible and we started with cross bred rabbits from a commercial barn. My husband switched to New Zealand Whites after about a year because he liked the consistency. If you are just starting out, these will give you a chance to learn about breeding and kindling without a large initial outlay on purebred rabbits. Rabbits are the one species that do not have to be born from registered parents to be registered. If the breed is a recognizable purebred one, and the rabbit's ancestry can be traced by the breeder for 3 generations, the rabbit can be registered. Many breeders do not register all their rabbits, preferring to save money by only registering their champions after they have won the required number of "legs". Registration is required to receive the championship certificate from ARBA. Since your rabbits are not necessarily purebred and you are only interested in breeding meat at this time, just make sure they reach the right weight. If they mature to an adult weight of less than 10-12 lbs, I would replace them with purebred stock. The slightly smaller rabbits will eat as much and give you less meat in proportion to what it costs you to keep the parents and litters than a New Zealand or California. There are other good meat breeds too, I mention these because they are 2 of the most common.

Has the sick rabbit recovered? If so, you can plan to breed your meat rabbits when the does reach 6 to 7 months. make sure to note the date of breeding since gestation is only 30 days. Put the nest box in the cage several days before the due date with shavings in the bottom and straw on top. The mother will keep busy building a nest. Be sure not to place the box on top of the area where her poop gathers under the cage. Rabbits establish a particular area where they like to poop and will poop in the nest box if it is put in that spot. It the mother poops in the box, just move the box to the opposite corner of the cage. Once the babies are born (you can check by sticking a finger into the clump of fur in the box - if it is warm there are bunnies. Make sure to remove the box from the cage to check for dead babies since they will decompose and it will kill the litter. The mother will not care that you remove the nest box and replace it.

Good luck and enjoy!

I don't know the age of any of them. I bought them from the farm store.

The sick one is young. They told me about 8 weeks & she was about the same size as the ones that was supposed to be NZW the same age. I haven't weighed any of them but to compare size the little one is about the size of an adult wild cotto Cotton Tail where I live. The bigger ones are three to for times that size. Out of my first trio the buck got killed so we cooked him & it feed my 5 person family.

I do believe the sick one had recovered. It has quite the apatite now & poop is back to balls. It still has 3 more weeks on the Sulmet treatment.

Thanks for all the great information.

Glad to hear that your bunny is better!

In fairness to the person they came from, it may be that they aren't having problems in their rabbitry, and thus are not aware that there may be something going on. Rabbits don't take stress well, and the move from their home rabbitry, to the store, to your place, with different feeds and everything else, may have stressed them enough to allow a latent problem to grow to the level of actual illness. (Of course, it's also possible that the breeder is fully aware of the problem, and is just crossing their fingers that the bunnies don't die before they are old enough to sell.)

The breed standard for the Californian calls for a mature weight of 8 to 10 1/2 lbs; there are several other commercial breeds that run about that size. The New Zealand is slightly larger; its standard calls for a weight between 9 and 12 lbs, with the ideal weight of 10 lbs for bucks and 11 lbs for does. There is a strictly commercial breed, the Altex, that runs a good bit larger than that (up to 20 lbs), but generally, the best meat producers are of moderate size; really large rabbits tend to produce a carcass with a bit less meat and more waste (bone and offal). Of course, if you are just putting meat on your own table, a few percentage points one way or the other won't make a significant difference. If you get right down to it, you can eat any rabbit; I once knew a guy who showed Netherland Dwarfs that ate his culls (single serving size?), but the most efficient at converting feed to food for you are in the 8 to 12 lb. range.

I'm guessing the latter. All the rabbits at the store were sick also in every cage.

One died while I was trying to convince the lady at the store they were all sick.

Best of luck in getting your buns to feeling better. Coccidia is a nasty thing, and I've just seen it in dogs and chickens. Don't feel bad, I am newer to rabbits as well and we are having some trouble with our doe this morning.

Keep us posted, and again, I hope they all feel better.

HomesteaderWife said:

Best of luck in getting your buns to feeling better. Coccidia is a nasty thing, and I've just seen it in dogs and chickens. Don't feel bad, I am newer to rabbits as well and we are having some trouble with our doe this morning.

Keep us posted, and again, I hope they all feel better.

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Thanks. What is going on with yours?

If you need a buck, check with some 4-H or FFA clubs. If there is a rabbit program it is usually run by someone who knows rabbits. They could give you a lot of help and will know where to get a good healthy buck. I always like to encourage checking our the youth organizations since they don't always have the access to selling their animals outside the annual fair.

King said:

Thanks. What is going on with yours?

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Well, we got a female that was supposedly bred. I didn't notice her getting any bigger or teats swelling up. But she gave birth to a single baby at some time early this morning- just one. It didn't survive. So... =/

She may have reabsorbed part of the litter due to the stress of relocating. Hopefully you have a buck, so immediately breed her. Rabbits are most fertile in the first 3 days after they kindle. Since she only had one kit and it died, it will not stress her to be bred immediately. She will be very receptive to the buck at this time too. You will not notice many outward signs of pregnancy with rabbits. Sometimes the does will get a little cranky, more often they get cranky if they are not bred! Some does will prepare their nest box very industriously - very cute to see them carrying around pieces of straw which they will arrange and rearrange over and over. Others completely ignore the box until one morning you have a beautiful nest full of healthy kits! Breeding rabbits is a lot of fun.

Rebreed your doe and in 30 days you should have a great litter of kits. Can't wait to hear about your first litter.

Well the Bunny that was sick is still doing well. She is eating & drinking like crazy.

Well not knowing where to go to look for rabbits I have l limited choices. I ended up buying a buck of breeding age that is now quarantine for 30 days. And I am getting 7 more that are 2 months and 3 months old that will be going into quarantine by their self for 30 days. So looks like I'm still 30 days from getting started.

Now the dilemma. Who gets taken care of first. Recovered bunny that I knew was sick but not showing symptoms now. Or the buck that I know nothing about but looks healthy. Or the 7 that I am getting from the mother in law of the state official that is in charge of controlling animal disease in our state & his wife has the same job but working for the federal government.