I am running out of ideas here. I just cannot, whatsoever, get my rabbits pregnant. I don't understand. I'm trying to breed Silver Fox rabbits.
I've tried several females and males over time. It's been about a year now. We take the does individually to the buck's cage. The buck does his grunt-and-flip routine after he mounts and goes at it for a while, and we try to get him several successes with each female. We do this for about a week, then we let the females chill in their hutches. They have plenty of water, all the hay they can eat, and we give them greens from the garden as well as vegetable scraps. And yet, month after month, no babies. After each gestation window has fully passed, we try to breed them again.
It's summer now. There are no excuses due to long nights or cold weather. The rabbits aren't obese. We have painstakingly charted how they were maintained each day, and when we mated them. The does seem receptive enough, though some days they just don't bother, but we've had plenty of successful matings. The rabbits are all of appropriate age.
What the heck is going on? I feel like after a year, we should have seen something. This last round, two of the does repeatedly made nests near the end of their gestation window and then tore them down, then never gave birth at all. The third, we were told was proven from the breeder when we got her, but she has never acted pregnant. I'm about ready to give up entirely.
We culled one of our 4 females because she would refuse to have sex whatsoever, like she wouldn't let the buck mount ever, and we had to force breed her. That was a pain, so into the pot she went. While butchering, we noticed a two-pronged organ with lots of little "marbles" along it -- presumably the uterus? -- and so maybe she was pregnant then? But we have never managed any births.
Please, go ahead and ask questions. I have no idea what to do anymore. You'd think rabbits would actually want to create more of themselves.
I've tried several females and males over time. It's been about a year now. We take the does individually to the buck's cage. The buck does his grunt-and-flip routine after he mounts and goes at it for a while, and we try to get him several successes with each female. We do this for about a week, then we let the females chill in their hutches. They have plenty of water, all the hay they can eat, and we give them greens from the garden as well as vegetable scraps. And yet, month after month, no babies. After each gestation window has fully passed, we try to breed them again.
It's summer now. There are no excuses due to long nights or cold weather. The rabbits aren't obese. We have painstakingly charted how they were maintained each day, and when we mated them. The does seem receptive enough, though some days they just don't bother, but we've had plenty of successful matings. The rabbits are all of appropriate age.
What the heck is going on? I feel like after a year, we should have seen something. This last round, two of the does repeatedly made nests near the end of their gestation window and then tore them down, then never gave birth at all. The third, we were told was proven from the breeder when we got her, but she has never acted pregnant. I'm about ready to give up entirely.
We culled one of our 4 females because she would refuse to have sex whatsoever, like she wouldn't let the buck mount ever, and we had to force breed her. That was a pain, so into the pot she went. While butchering, we noticed a two-pronged organ with lots of little "marbles" along it -- presumably the uterus? -- and so maybe she was pregnant then? But we have never managed any births.
Please, go ahead and ask questions. I have no idea what to do anymore. You'd think rabbits would actually want to create more of themselves.