weight at 4 weeks...

[VickieB]

I just read a blog from RRR on their meat rabbits. "The weight of a litter at three weeks of age helps the caretaker evaluate how well the doe is milking. Any doe whose kits do not consistently weigh at least one pound at three weeks of age should be culled. "

Is this about an average weight? I didn't weigh mine at 3 weeks, but did at 4. I have 2 litters that are now 5 weeks old (my first litters). The kits in one litter are obviously larger than the ones in the second litter (they were all born within 30 minutes of each other). The larger ones averaged 15.5 oz, and the smaller ones averaged about 14.1 oz. But this was at 4 weeks, which would make them at least 1 week behind. How many of you weigh your kits at these ages, and what do you find their average weight to be at?

 

[P.O. in MO]

What RRR posted does make a lot of sense. I am fairly new at this too and have only butchered one litter of 7 and have a 4 litter and 10 litter growing out now. Only one left in the freezer and it's going soon. At this stage I am just trying to keep myself supplied with rabbit meat. I don't weigh mine until they get close to butcher age but after reading this I probably should start so I know which does are producing the most cost effective offspring. I only have 2 breeding does now, so culling wouldn't be an option at this point anyway. I have 2 more does and 1 buck from totally different stock that will be ready to start breeding around the first of August so at that point I would be in a position to worry more about productivity and less about what's for dinner. Don't know if this helped much but maybe you are in the same situation at this point in your rabbit raising. It was a good question and am interested in what others have to add to this topic. PO

 

[VickieB]

Actually, P.O. you seem to further along in your rabbit ranching days than I am. I've had 4 litters so far, but my oldest is only 5 weeks old, so we still have some time before our first dispatch date. I have 4 does and 1 buck. I had heard that 2 to 3 does was good to start with, and it's just my husband, me and 2 sons (18 and 21), but I was going to be raising some for my daughter's family too, so I decided I'd start with 4 and then adjust if needed.

I'm wanting to make the best use of my rabbits too. We live in town and so it's important that I keep the number of breeders down to a minimum. You mentioned breeding in August... I'm down here in Oklahoma and it's way too hot to be breeding that time of year. I've shut down shop for the buck for the season, and we won't be able to start back up until October. Do you have yours under AC or do you just have cooler summers? I would love to be able to continue, but we've been hit with such a heat spell this week and I think it's going to stay warm now until fall.

Have you been collecting some good recipes? If so, make sure you post them!

 

[P.O. in MO]

I have an insulated shed with a dirt floor. I have a 14 inch ventilator fan in one end and a screen door (varmint proof) in the other. I also have a couple of box fans hanging from the ceiling over my cages just to make some breeze. I did put a small AC unit in it because it does get hot around here sometimes (like last summer). I have double stacked cages so I can keep all my rabbits at one end of the shed in a small area. I use a couple of old quilted bedspreads to block off the rest of the shed where I keep my feed, hay and all that other stuff you need along with some space for expansion if I want so I don't waste any electricity cooling that. So I am only cooling an area 15 feet long by 10 feet wide and 7 feet tall. It got up to about 94 a couple of days ago and went out around 2 PM and it was getting close to 85 degrees which I have read is starting to get dangerous. They were definitely just laying around panting. I turned it on high for a couple of hours and got it below 80 and then turned it down to low. I ran it til the sun went down and the watt meter I hooked up said I used 65 cents worth of electricity.

I may be looking at this wrong but it seems to me that when I get all 4 does of age and a buck that 's 5 rabbits eating 5 oz. each of feed a day for a total of 1.56 lbs. at around 31 cents a lb. That's 48 cents a day to feed these rabbits. If I turn on the AC it means I will be feeding pregnant or nursing rabbits so it is not a wasted 48 cents so some of that pays the electric bill. Like I said I am new at this but I have a litter due June 26 and then another about a week later. I will keep the temp from going over 80 and see what happens and what it costs.

I am sure I will eventually reach a point where I know how many I will eat in a month and can get ahead when it's cool and not need to breed in July and August. But then again if I don't have any problems I could cut down on does and just breed straight thru the summer. I have some friends that are wanting some too so that's part of what I am doing.

Anyway, good luck with your litters. PO

 

[P.O. in MO]

Wanted to add one more thought to this post. When using AC you lose the ventilation required to keep the ammonia smell down. When I use the AC I need to clean dropping pans daily including a good rinsing. I turn off AC in evening when it's cooling off and open up the shed and turn on the fan but if it gets hot enough to use it again the next afternoon I clean pans before closing up and cooling. PO

 

[VickieB]

You're not getting any sympathy from me, P.O.! My rabbits are sitting on my back porch. They have plenty of ventilation, but they do start to stinking soon, and attracting flies. I wash down my pans daily, or it would be unbearable. The one mystery I have to solve is: Why is it that rabbit poo can smell so bad while in a tray under the rabbit, but go throw it in your shade garden and the smell instantly dissipates? I have 3 months of rabbit poo in my garden and if you walk by it you would never know. 1 day of rabbit poo in a drop pan, and you can't sit on the back porch!

 

[P.O. in MO]

I know what you mean. Before I got into raising rabbits I bought 4 butchered fryers from a breeder just to make sure I liked them. He had at least 50 rabbits in his barn. There was poop 16 inches deep under his cages with a dirt floor and it really didn't smell bad. I have a dirt floor in my shed but decided to go with the pans cause I want all the poop for my garden too. Great stuff. I clean my pans into a 5 gal. bucket then dump that into another 5 gal. bucket with a hole in the bottom and drain all the urine and water they spill into a jug. Kind of a urine and manure tea. I mix this with water so its about the color of tea and have been using it on some of any of my plants that I can put it on without getting it on what I am going to eat. I call it GO JUICE! Been doing it once a week. I have a couple of tomato plants I can sacrifice and have been increasing the dosage just to see how much they can take. Everything looks real healthy and green. The weather this spring was so cool tomatoes didn't get in til mid may but i may still have some by 4th of July I hope. I save up the manure in a 55 gal drum and when it's full I run it thru a shredder and mix it with horse manure compost and add to my raised beds. I can really tell the difference from last year when I just had the horse manure compost. Rabbit manure was another reason I chose rabbits for meat. I raise chickens for eggs but the first time I cleaned the coop and put everything in a compost bin next to my garden within 2 days I couldn't stand to work in the garden. The smell was terrible. I had to move the pile downwind a couple hundred feet. Much prefer working with rabbit manure, not nearly as nasty. The chicken manure and composted chicken manure just gets spread on my regular dirt garden in the fall and tilled in to mellow out over the winter.

 

[Citylife]

I have been raising rabbits for a bit over 4 years now. I do not weigh them until they are butchered and in a freezer bag. My average 10 week old runs at butcher weight around 2-2 1/2 lbs. @ 12 weeks around 3-3 1/2 lbs. I do NOT know what their live weight is. I have a buck on hold who comes from NZ lines who will give you a 5 lb live weight at 5 weeks of age. I am looking forward to seeing if that is true! As I am a bit skeptical to say the least. My problem is.......... my pure NZW does are on the small side (8 lbs or so) so I do not know if they will handle the milk load. What I do know, is they are great mothers and tend to have 10-12 kits and raise them. I am looking forward to seeing if there is a difference. If so, I will most likely be buying more stock from this lady.
I do not expect my American Blues to produce like that as they have not been bred for commercial production like the NZ's and CA's.

I am in KC,MO and we have some really hot temperatures so my rabbitry has a small a/c unit in the summer time. I do breed all year round so the rabbits need a bit extra care.
I occasionally butcher at 8 weeks and have a 1 1/2 lb rabbit most of the time. I am happy with that for my family as there is just two of us. It will feed us two meals.
I to use the manure in my gardens.......... it is wonderful stuff.

 

[VickieB]

CityLife, how many rabbits do you have? I have my 4 does and 1 buck, BUT the babies are really beginning to grow and to be honest, I'm getting a little nervous. I have 17 babies that are out of their nests, and they are getting nice size, along with 19 in the nest boxes that will be coming out within the week. I know that is what I wanted, but now that I'm here I have developed this fear that the city is going to find out and y'all will see my face posted on the 6 o'clock news as the crazy rabbit lady, and the city dragging my dinners away...

You'll have to let us know how the new buck does! 5 lbs at 5 weeks would be amazing!

 

[nawma]

Im in the desert of West Texas. We have 95 to 100 degree days from mid May till mid to late Sept. My rabbits are in a 14x14 ft cinderblock well house. We put a big evaporative cooler in because the room was up around 90 degree days when I got my rabbits last Sept. I started with 8 does and 3 bucks. We produced 82 buns this last fall and winter. I still have 15 in two grow out cages and we have been harvesting 4 or 5 every weekend for awhile now. Im not breeding this time of year as I have more than enough for our needs till late fall. I too catch my poop and feed my garden as well as pecan and fruit trees with it. Am using the urine in compost bin and it has really starting the composting to excellerate. So everything gets used but the hides. Havent the courage yet to try to tan a hide. I hope this next fall to keep better records of bun weights and feed costs so I can make good decisions about breeders. Helps to know you guys are on the learning curve too. Have learned so much here on this forum.