Lesson Learned

[CDC]

Posted this yesterday under cattle instead of rabbits and couldn't figure out how to move it...



So I learned a good lesson today. About a month ago I tried breeding my second female. She was very unresponsive to the buck. He was pretty excited but she just wasn't having much to do with him. I took her out of the cage, gave her about 5 hours and tried again. Same thing. She would hunker down in the corner and not let the buck do his thing. He was making every effort but never did the characteristic "fall over" that you get when successful breeding has occurred. I tried again the following weekend with the same results so I thought I would just give her a month to see if she would be more receptive.

Well, this morning I went out to water the rabbits and she is running around the cage with a mouth full of fur. I had a nest box ready so I put it in with some straw...sure enough when I got home from work there were 10 healthy kits. She pulled all the straw out of the nest box and had them on the cage floor but it wasn't cold out or anything so all survived.

The lesson I learned is to always respect the first breeding date even if you don't think it was successful.

 

[Petty]

That is typical of rabbits. Most time, they won't accept the male when pragnant.

 

[GD91]

Its hard to tell.

I had my 2 does both reject the buck consistently, built nests after a month & produced nothing.

3rdtime lucky & we finally have kits. I also tried putting the does back believing they weren't pregnant & they rejected him.

So they will reject him if they are pregnant or if they just think they are pregnant.

Rabbits!

 

[Prairie Farm Woman]

We always "try again" a few days after the first breeding. And usually the females will refuse them.
And we always have nest boxes made up and ready to go.