Age of male when breeding

[VickieB]

I have seen numerous times that you should wait for the male to be at least 6 months before breeding him. I was wondering why that was. (I've noticed the females only had to be 5 months) Can anyone tell me why that is the age to start breeding the males?

 

[brentr]

For many breeds, six mos. is the age when males will be sexually mature. Some larger breeds the males take longer. It's like puberty - not everyone hits it at exactly the same time. The buck's genitalia needs to be developed enough to be able to get the job done. For most, this means the testes have dropped out of the body and into the sacs, and the penis is visible when pulling back the skin at the vent.

I had a NZ buck that wasn't ready until 9 months. I tried breeding him to a very receptive doe at 6, 7, 8 mos. - nothing. Equipment-wise he seemed ready to go. He wasn't even really interested. At nine months, it all clicked for him and he successfully bred his first doe.

 

[VickieB]

So it means that the buck is generally not physically ready to breed?

I must have bought in to an amazing line of rabbits. I really need to get some pictures of these guys and show you. This is my first experience and had no idea what to expect. I bought 4 does and 1 buck. Two of the does were 5 months and they bred them with one of their bucks before we left. This would be these does first litter. The other 2 does and buck were 3 months old. They told me to wait a couple of months on them. When the older does kindled we had 10 and 11 babies. We eventually lost 2 kits from each litter. The surviving kits are 5 weeks old now and doing great.

When the first litters were born I got excited and decided to try the younger does and buck to see if they would be ready. As soon as I put the doe in the bucks cage it was evident they were plenty ready. I was concerned that he might not have been able to get them pregnant, since he was only 4 months old, but this Monday showed I didn't have anything to worry about. Both does kindled, one on Monday and one on Tuesday, 10 and 9 babies respectively. So far they are all doing well (keeping my fingers crossed) and we haven't lost any yet. Both mothers made beautiful nests (actually they did a better job than the older does did on theirs).

I was told my rabbits were "Production White", which was a combination of the New Zealand White and Altex. The concern I have now is one I mentioned in a different post, and that is: what should be the average weight of a kit at 4 weeks?

 

[Bunnylady]

Particularly in smaller breeds, the buck may be "ready to go" as early as 12 - 14 weeks, which is why we usually separate the bucks and does at about 10 weeks. Some bucks don't have a clue until much later, on the other hand, I've had Jersey Wooly bucks that were mounting everything in sight at 8 weeks.

One of the reasons to wait is to let the animals mature mentally. A cranky doe can really do a number on an over-eager but still immature buck.

Sorry, I don't know what the target weight at 4 weeks is. Does don't produce quite as much milk when nursing their first litters as they will with subsequent litters, so expect the kits of first-time mothers to grow a bit slower than those of more experienced does. Also, there have been studies that have shown that the litter as a whole gains about the same amount of weight, however many kits there are in the litter. In a litter where there are only a few kits, the kits generally grow much faster than those in a large litter. Once the kits start getting serious with solid food, the weight gain should be about the same regardless of litter size.

 

[VickieB]

Thanks for the responses! Bunnylady, that makes a lot of sense on the litter growth.