# Breeding Newbie



## anthonyjames (Feb 19, 2010)

Can anyone tell me if this is correct:

If I were to breed a rabbit tomorrow Saturday Feb. 20th it in theory would be ready to have the kits March 20th - 24th time frame.  
Babies would be weened from mother around April 23rd.

When would she be ready to be bred again?  Is it best to wait a full month?  So that means every 4 months you could breed them in my climate (South Eastern WI) since I keep them outdoors in my hoop house with my chickens they would only be able to breed 2 times per year if I am lucky?  Is that correct?

And what do the temps need to be like to start breeding them?

And one other question:  Right now I feed them a complete pellet with some apples, celery, Broccoli stalks or carrots on occasion.  Do I need to add hay as well?  And if so does it need to be timothy or can I purchase horse hay to feed or supplement?  I don't have timothy available in bulk around here and I refuse to pay $2 lb for the stuff to be shipped.

Right now I have 7 does and 1 male.  I was thinking about breeding them on weekly intervals but if that time line holds I would not get very many rabbits for the year.  I was looking not to have a mass in / mass out.  

Any recommendations?


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## JoieDeViveRabbitry (Feb 20, 2010)

Okay, what are you breeding for, pets, show, or meat?


 Different people feel different ways on the frequency of breeding a doe.
 Now, when I breed I count 31 days.. So, I bred one of my does on 1/25/10 and she is now due on 2/25/10. IF she kindles on day 31 she will then be with her kits for at least 5 weeks... Usually by that age they are weaned and I start taking away a few at a time...

 NOW, here we get into personal preference. 
 Some heavy meat breeders will rebreed that doe before her current litter is even weaned. Say when they are 2-3 weeks old. So that by the time you take the first litter from Mom she has like a 1-2 week period before she has litter number 2.
 Some people like to give their doe time off but don't let it be excessive and don't keep her on alot of feed when she is not bred or you are looking at a doe that will get fat and is then less likely to concieve for you. 

 Alot of show/pet people give their does 3 months between litters.

 I have a doe I just bred this past week who had a litter of seven 14 weeks ago. I would have had no problem breeding her sooner than that, but I just didn't need to. 

 There doesn't seem to be any right or wrong way to do this. It has to be okay for YOU. If breeding your doe alot makes you lose sleep at night because you feel it's wrong then by all means give the doe a break!

 It also depends on the breed. Meat breeds are fast maturing, and the does are made to crank out babies and have large litters and be excellent mothers. 

 If you are not planning to breed in the dead of winter then there IMO is nothing wrong with breeding a few litters back to back on that doe as she will have a rest in the winter.


 Now, RE: Hay....

 Again, depends upon your purpose for the animal... 

 Hay is a GREAT diet food for rabbits and provides good fiber for gut motility.

 That being said, if you are raising for meat, you probably don't want to feed hay as it will prevent your rabbits from gaining weight. 

 When I started in French Angoras I came off of a backround of having rabbits as pets... Now the pet rabbit keeping population tells you that rabbits NEED hay at all times or they will die, have teeth become overgrown, etc...

 This is not true in my opinion. 

 If you are feeding a QUALITY rabbit pellet, it contains everything that rabbit needs. Hay on top of that is a treat or an enrichment thing since they do enjoy having it.

 Back to when I started...
 I started with 13 French. I was bringing them to show and couldn't figure out why I was getting all these comments about them bring "rough" in condition, which means thin...

 I got home and started talking to a good friend of mine who also breeds French. We picked apart my husbandry to see what the problem and we immeadiately figured out that I was feeding WAY too much hay!
 Coming off that pet mentaility I was keeping hay in front of my buns 24/7, I was literally going through an entire bale a week on 13 French, over a flake and a half a day!!!
 I simply didn't know any better at that point. My breeder friend only gives her French hay once every 10 days!

 I had one particular buck who was very boney and thin. When I changed my feeding schedule to dramatically decrease the hay consumption, this one buck gained over 2 pounds in a single MONTH! It was truely astonishing. 

 Proceed with caution on hay unless you are looking to keep does from getting too fat or something.
 They really love hay, they will choose it over pellets! That entire time, my rabbits had FULL bowls of pellets at all times and yet all they ate was hay!

 Now, I provide orchard/meadow grass hay, 1rst cut (they prefer the rough texture to grassy soft 2nd cut), once per week and only a small handful unless they are does late in pregnancy or with newly nursing kits, then I give hay 24/7.

 Hope this helps some...


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## currycomb (Feb 21, 2010)

you can breed the doe 21 or 28 days after she kindles and she will be receptive. is it good for the doe? probably not, but if you need numbers, and the doe is not too thin from nursing the kits, it can be done once in awhile. our kits are weaned at 4 weeks. they are out eating with the doe, and she is usually looking for a place to get away from all those teeth!


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## anthonyjames (Feb 22, 2010)

joiedeviverabbitry,

Thank you for all the good info.  I am raising for meat.  My set up is the following:
http://gallery.me.com/anthonyjames420#100306&bgcolor=black&view=grid

They are above my chickens in their run.  So the chickens run below them and air-rate all the hay and poo.  The pee flow through and down the run/hill that the run is on.

I am alright breeding every 6 weeks.  Just seemed from reading a book they talked about every 16 weeks which seemed way to long and defeated what I was trying to do with getting more rabbits.

As for the hay:  I currently feed them a complete pellet that I mix 10lbs of cracked corn to their 50lbs of pellet.  I have been giving them a handful of Timothy hay from the store a day.  But I can't stomach paying $2.50+per lb for hay.  I will look for regular hay I guess to give them something to snack on.  

Does anyone give their rabbits toys or anything to cure boredom in the cage?


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## embkm (Feb 22, 2010)

I was told not to feed my rabbits corn, that they couldnt digest it right and could lead to bloating.


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## chinbunny1 (Feb 26, 2010)

You really got to be careful when using a strict breed back policy. Because you can easily overbreed, and overstress the doe. I breed for both meat and show. I wean my babies at 6 weeks. I do not rebreed the doe for at least another week. I don't wait three miontsh. 1-2 week clean break is good enough. It is not fair to the doe to make her carry a litter, while she is still nursing one at the same time. And it can be very stressful on them, and sometimes can burn them out, and esp if you plan on keeping her and want her to have a nice long productive life. Besides that, rabbits have a lot of babies, and breeding back to back litters can easily put you way over your limit.


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## chinbunny1 (Feb 26, 2010)

embkm said:
			
		

> I was told not to feed my rabbits corn, that they couldnt digest it right and could lead to bloating.


yes that is true. Corn can ferment and cause bloat. If you have to feed corn, balance it off by adding a pro bios like acid pak 4 way to the water. it will help prevent the gis issues that corn can sometimes cause. i think I may have told you that?


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## chinbunny1 (Feb 26, 2010)

Also i feed my rabbits a limited amount of hay about every day to every other day. they get a big handful of good quality grass hay/alfalfa mixed. never had a problem with them cleaning up their feed. i wouldn't self feed them pellets or hay either. Give them what they will clean up in a day and they will be fine.


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## miss_thenorth (Feb 27, 2010)

chinbunny1 said:
			
		

> You really got to be careful when using a strict breed back policy. Because you can easily overbreed, and overstress the doe. I breed for both meat and show. I wean my babies at 6 weeks. I do not rebreed the doe for at least another week. I don't wait three miontsh. 1-2 week clean break is good enough. It is not fair to the doe to make her carry a litter, while she is still nursing one at the same time. And it can be very stressful on them, and sometimes can burn them out, and esp if you plan on keeping her and want her to have a nice long productive life. Besides that, rabbits have a lot of babies, and breeding back to back litters can easily put you way over your limit.


What she said.  I usually wait  at least a week after pulling the kits to rebreed.  sometimes longer.

As for hay, I give a handful every now and again, and that helps with boredom.  i do have toys in some of the cages, and rotate them.

i also don't recommend corn for rabbits.  if you want to cut the cost of rabbit feed, give some greens from your salad fixings, such as teh brocolli stumps, cauliflower stumps, carrot and beet tops etc.  Just NEVER iceburg lettuce.  and that being said, go easy on extras, (other than hay), b/c any bold adjustment to their diet can upset their system.


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## chinbunny1 (Feb 27, 2010)

miss_thenorth said:
			
		

> chinbunny1 said:
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i have heard brocolli can cause problems too. You really got to watch when feeding greens. Its something thats not natural for them to eat, and not nutritionally neceassary. But they do make nice treats now and then.  I'd say stick with good quality pellets.


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