About to give up on rabbits

[dipence71]

I have not had any real luck with any of them. My DD Holland Lopps wont breed. We got one litter last year after many tries and several peanuts. The one male baby did awesome and got Grand Champion buck at the county fair and we were happy.. well somehow and I really dont know how but both he and his brother ripped up their ears this winter so they cant be shown now. Tried rebreeding and have had 2 no goes in a row. Our California had a "false"prgegnancy then found her dead this morning and she was due to have a litter any day. she was swollen and one side was extremely hard so I opened her up and she had a huge hard "ball" of mummified kits.
I have had a very hard time getting the rabbits bred. Trust me the do the deed and I have even left them together overnight and several times in a few days in a row.
Do I give up and just start over or just give up.
If you have rabbits that you cant get to stop breeding bring them to me they will stop!!!!I must be rabbit birth control.

 

[Bunnylady]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

Perhaps you understand why I say that anybody who believes in the saying, "breeds like rabbits" has never tried it.

 

[dipence71]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

Perhaps you understand why I say that anybody who believes in the saying, "breeds like rabbits" has never tried it.

Believe me I have had so much trouble getting litters I think I am cursed. Everyone else thinks I am nuts because most have too many......

 

[xa.logan]

It may just be that you have a 'bad batch' of rabbits. If that makes sense. Sometimes they have trouble breeding, sometimes they have trouble giving birth. Other times, they can't raise their babies. Almost all of these things are genetic. From what I've seen, most of the domestic breeding lines have been so inbred that you end up with either really healthy bunnie or really sick and messed up bunnies. If I were you, and this is just me, I'd start over. Cull the rabbits that have problems reproducing or that have attitude problems, and keep the good ones. This is an interesting statistic but with koi, over 95% of bred koi are culled and less than 1% make it to shows and breed again. I have a friend who showed rats, and he had to do something similar. The point of me saying that, is that most people have a tough time culling an animal that needs to be culled (it doesnt have to be killed, it just can't be bred), and you may have ended up with simply a 'bad batch'

 

[BHOBCFarms]

have you tried using a different buck? Sometimes that can solve the problem, or let you know if its the does or the buck that has the problem. If I were you I would get a new buck and if that didn't work, I would get new stock (start over with a proven trio).

 

[20kidsonhill]

we had a similar problem, we ditched them all and started over. Now we have had 3 litters of 9 from one doe this winter and a litter of 9 from a new doe that is 6 1/2 months old and the other doe we have that was just 6 1/2months old did not take her first breeding,and is due tomorrow so she will be 7 1/2 months old. So we are having way more luck with these new rabbits. Same set up. We raise meat rabbits, so for us our plan is to pretty much keep breeding them and not give the does a chance to get over weight. \
we have silver foxes and my son plan on showing a couple of the kits at the county fair.

 

[BYJR1434]

restart get the best quality rabbits you can, have an experienced breeder breed a doe for you so u get her and her litter, and you know theyll breed, i hade about a 5 month period where my NZ red does would not breed at all! then i did some reading on like weather and that during a full moon is a good time or something weird so i tryed it and they bred no problem, it was really weird before they would just whine and run away, theyre due on the first. Get new breed stock.
good luck