Breeding Young Does and Bucks

[Animal Person]

Hey everyone,
So I have a male bunny who is about a year, I had bought him for breeding but he has no sex drive. So I think that he is castrated. So I am looking for a new buck and the one I am looking at is around 12 weeks old. I have a doe that is around 6 months old. She has a very large sex drive but I am not sure If she is old enough to breed yet. So how old does she have to be and how old does my buck have to be?

 

[promiseacres]

Depends on breeds of rabbit. Smaller rabbits mature younger, larger breeds take longer. In general around 6 months both bucks and does can breed.
Some bucks are more timid than others. I would assume that if your buck has testicles this is the case.

 

[Animal Person]

Depends on breeds of rabbit. Smaller rabbits mature younger, larger breeds take longer. In general around 6 months both bucks and does can breed.
Some bucks are more timid than others. I would assume that if your buck has testicles this is the case.

I couldn't tell if he had a testicle or not but thank you this has been helpful!

 

[Bunnylady]

Dumb question - how do you know you have a buck if you don't know if he has testicles? You assume that the lack of a sex drive in your older animal means that he has had his testicles removed; there's an easy way to find out - flip him over and look. A mature buck can draw his testicles back in his body if he is stressed enough, but they will be out the vast majority of the time (especially during hot weather). Testicles on rabbits are pretty large, so they should be easy to find.

Rabbits mount each other not only to mate, but also as a display of dominance. If your doe (are you sure she's a doe? You'd be surprised how many experienced rabbit people get the sex of a young rabbit wrong, only to find out later) is mounting the buck, it's possible that he is so intimidated by this aggressive, dominant animal, he doesn't dare try to breed her. A doe like that should only be put in with a mature, self-confident buck. If she is indeed a doe, if you try to breed this younger buck to her, you want to wait until he is at least 6 months old, maybe more, so he will have the confidence to deal with her.

 

[Crazybirdlady2]

When they are sitting in their cage just look underneath. That's what I did with the one in my avatar. He's relaxed and dropped... it'll look like he sat in bubble gum.