whole litter bucks?

[mandie80]

I am new to rabbits and have my first two litters now. One litter had 8 and the other 7. The litter of 8 is all bucks! The litter of 7 had only one doe. Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen? And if so, is it likely to happen that way every time I breed the same rabbits together? Any advice would be helpful. Also, does anyone know if the size of the kits (not litter size) comes more from the buck or the doe? These are meat rabbits, New Zealand Whites, so I am trying to get rabbits that are 5 pounds by 8 weeks. Thanks in advance for any info

 

[mysunwolf]

As far as I have heard, it's the buck that dictates the sex, so as long as you continue to use your same buck, you will continue to get mostly males.

I'm not sure about the kits. But I do know that most people are aiming for 5lbs by 10 weeks, not 8 weeks. Some does produce 5lb kits by 12 weeks. Weigh them and see what I mean...

 

[mandie80]

Thanks for the info. I will probably use the buck once or twice more and see what happens.
5 pounds by 10 weeks seems like a much better goal. I have weighed these litters every week since they were 4 weeks old. They are growing well but seem to have slowed a bit in the last week.
Anyway, thanks again for the info

 

[SA Farm]

I agree that you should give him another few chances to find out if the gender ratio will continue to favor the males or if it starts to even out.
I've found that the doe has more to do with the growth and size of the kits than the male based on milk production, but the kits can only develop what they get from the parents, so having a good herd sire is very important as well

 

[Bunnylady]

Due to the way the gametes are formed, a buck should have equal quantities of sperm for offspring of each gender. There are a variety of factors, including the female's body chemistry, which can influence whether sperm of one gender might be more likely to be successful than the other.

I don't know about 8 of a kind, but I can remember one litter of Jersey Woolies that were all bucks, and there were 5 of them. I don't remember having any lack of daughters from that buck. It's kind of like tossing a coin, and getting "heads" 8 times in a row . . . . it can happen.

The size of the kits at birth depends largely on the size of the litter. The more kits there are in the litter, the smaller they will be at birth. There have been studies that have shown that the litter as a whole seems to gain about the same amount of weight, regardless of how many kits are in the litter. Kits from numerically smaller litters are larger at birth, and gain weight faster, than kits from large litters, up to the point that they start on solid food. It seems that the doe produces only so much milk, and the number of mouths it goes into is the greatest influence on the rate at which the kits grow.

 

[Citylife]

I have had that happen twice in 7 years. Then next liters were more equal. Are you selling or just for meat production?
As far as kit size at 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 10 or 12 it depends on litter size, genetics and how good of a mother the Doe is.
I have had rabbits that are great mothers and after 5 or so litters, get aggressive with us. To the point, if there is a baby on the wire between me and her, she would stomp them into the wire. I had a doe kill 3/4 of a litter that way in 2 days. She ended up being one hell of a good meal. Bad mothers in my rabbitry get culled pretty quickly.

 

[Citylife]

I have had that happen twice in 7 years. I wouldn't be to concerned about the next litters. I know it sucks if your trying to sell pairs or trio's. But bucks taste good to...

 

[secuono]

"Random" in nature means anything from all bucks, all does, even split or patterns. What we call "random" is actually all carefully calculated to look more even and messy, but not to repeat or concentrate on one spot, like true randomness can be.