Californian or New Zealand?

[Ebers]

I'm thinking of breeding during the summer, I have my buns outside & they're very well shaded I understand there's an issue with overheating in general but are there any problems with breeding or fertility as a result of the heat?

 

[mysunwolf]

I'm thinking of breeding during the summer, I have my buns outside & they're very well shaded I understand there's an issue with overheating in general but are there any problems with breeding or fertility as a result of the heat?

I've heard that the buck can get overheated and not be able to do his job, or not be quite as fertile (ie pregnancies do not "take" as easily as they normally would).

The pregnant does seen to get hot and stressed very easily, and I've noticed that lactating does are extremely susceptible to heat. I have never had rabbits die from this, but I have been keeping rabbits for less than a year. They don't seem to gain weight back as fast from pregnancy/lactation when they're heat stressed, so you might have to have longer intervals between breedings.

What kind of temperatures do you usually get? I think this makes a huge difference.

 

[Ebers]

Right now it's in the mid to upper 80's but it could easily reach 100 next wk

 

[mysunwolf]

I would definitely be concerned about temps in the 90s and around 100, but maybe I'm being too cautious. Even with frozen water bottles, mine seem to get pretty stressed in the 80s (about as hot as it ever gets here). If you do want to breed in temps much higher than that, I'd consider setting up a fan and/or misting system for the buns.

Hope others with experience will comment.

 

[Hens and Roos]

we don't breed in our summer months(May through August) so we don't stress the rabbits out and the bucks can have fertility problems when it is hotter out.

 

[Ebers]

I have an air conditioned room in my shop I can put the doe in but I'll have to rig up a way to catch droppings & urine. Would it hurt her to go from the outside heat into the air conditioned room?

 

[happy acres]

Don't know about that, but cooler would probably be better. Mine are through breeding for the summer, I'll start back again in September.

 

[P.O. in MO]

Going from outside to AC should not be a problem. I keep my rabbits in a well insulated shed and have AC for when the heat index is going to be above 95. On days it's supposed to be really hot I usually go out around 10:30 or 11 AM and shut the windows and turn it on low cool. Then go back out around 8 or 9 PM and turn it off and open everything back up and turn on a fan. I try to keep the temp around 80. I bred thru the summer last year and had no problems. I have 23 growing out right now, all around 6 weeks. Once they are all weaned I let it get a little warmer. I want to add that I will probably wait until mid to late august before breeding again. BECAUSE, there is a drawback to AC, especially when you have a lot of rabbits. When you close it up to cool it, you are shutting off your fresh air source to keep the ammonia smell down and have to clean and rinse pans more often.