Starting over

[stonygarden]

Over the past several months my rabbits have either refused to breed, or when they did, no litters were produced. I tried everything (ACV in the water, rearranging does/bucks cages so they get each other's scent, I restrained the doe and forced her to lift, I even took a doe over to a friends to have his buck breed with her and she wouldn't let him).

So I culled over half of my stock. 5 does in all. I couldn't bring myself to cull my buck (who I think is infertile). He has a name and is very friendly.

So now I'm left with 3 young NZW's (2 does, 1 buck). They're about 9 months or so. I've been working with them to try to get them to breed but the buck is absolutely terrified of all does. He just flattens himself to the bottom of the cage and freezes.

I'm hoping to get some meat mutts from a friend soon. He has had great success with them. They come from a long line of fertile rabbits that produce medium-large litters and all are good mothers.

 

[jk47]

Good look with you new set of rabbit.i hope they are of good stock

 

[alsea1]

That is odd for a buck to act like that. Unless of course the doe was pretty mean to him. Ive seen that before.
Normally rabbits are pretty easy to get to duplicate though.
I have noted with mine if I let them go to long between litters it can be difficult to get em started up again

 

[Hens and Roos]

We have young bucks who are leery of the does the first time or two when starting out. We try to put in a new doe or a laid back doe in with them for the 1st couple of times to help build the bucks confidence.

Sorry to hear of your struggles, we are running into similar issues. We have 1 buck who will be culled- we are guessing he is infertile since both does that we tried mating him to never had litters. We mated those same 2 does to our other buck and both had litters- although 1 doe's litter didn't make it and she has had litters before-she will probably be culled as well as her last 3 breedings have not been successful.