HornyToadAcres
Overrun with beasties
I have raised Tamuk composite rabbits since 2020. I was careful to buy from breeders that could trace their lines back to the program at Texas A&M. That has gotten more difficult to do since Dr. Lukefahr retired and the program closed.
I do love my Tamuks as they have great temperaments and breed easily and mature fast. I have only been bitten once and that was by a newly kindled doe. My litters average 8-10 kits and they get to 5 lbs by 8-10 weeks depending on ratio of forage to pellets. They will gladly eat willow and mulberry branches and do as well. I have 3-4 bucks and 10-12 does at any given time and I breed half of my does every month. I sell breeding trios and most of my customers are young families and these are their first meat rabbits. While the colors have nothing to do with meat production, they are fun. I have a pair of pedigreed Rex and have had New Zealands and American Blues in my barn. The Tamuk will heat stress at 10 degrees higher than either of those. I do use cooling apparatus as I have no trees and it is extremely dry and hot in west Texas. I turn on the fans at 105 and the evaporative cooler at 108 or thereabouts - lower if I am in the barn myself as I am less heat tolerant than the rabbits! These rabbits do fine in cold weather as well. They tend to be good moms from their very first, or sometimes second, litters. I hope that good lines can be kept going though it is difficult with a SOP (standard of perfection) and there are variations in coats, head shapes and ears even among proven full Tamuk rabbits.
I do love my Tamuks as they have great temperaments and breed easily and mature fast. I have only been bitten once and that was by a newly kindled doe. My litters average 8-10 kits and they get to 5 lbs by 8-10 weeks depending on ratio of forage to pellets. They will gladly eat willow and mulberry branches and do as well. I have 3-4 bucks and 10-12 does at any given time and I breed half of my does every month. I sell breeding trios and most of my customers are young families and these are their first meat rabbits. While the colors have nothing to do with meat production, they are fun. I have a pair of pedigreed Rex and have had New Zealands and American Blues in my barn. The Tamuk will heat stress at 10 degrees higher than either of those. I do use cooling apparatus as I have no trees and it is extremely dry and hot in west Texas. I turn on the fans at 105 and the evaporative cooler at 108 or thereabouts - lower if I am in the barn myself as I am less heat tolerant than the rabbits! These rabbits do fine in cold weather as well. They tend to be good moms from their very first, or sometimes second, litters. I hope that good lines can be kept going though it is difficult with a SOP (standard of perfection) and there are variations in coats, head shapes and ears even among proven full Tamuk rabbits.
