How long for doe in buck cage?

A quick question.....I have seen on youtube where owners drop of their gal with the buck and all business is done within 10 minutes. I have tried to breed one now several times. She squats and closes her eyes. I have people tell me if it does not happen in the first 10 minutes, it won't likely happen at all...try again tomorrow......But....those same individuals say the doe could severely injure the buck if left for too long of time.....

The guy where I got my rabbits from said to leave the doe in for say...3 hours to break her down....

Another couple would leave the doe 24 hours to several days.....

Both successful.....

Is 3 hours acceptable....what about 24 hours?

What works for you?

THANKS

I would fear injury from fighting if left together unattended... I usually just do a few minutes for them to do their business, then separate back into their own cages.

Most of the time 2 or 3 minutes is all they need. Sometimes the doe is so nervous she may need a few minutes to calm down. I wouldn't just leave and hope for the best I always step away several feet and watch to make sure there is 2 or 3 fall offs. Some does are just more aggressive then others and some bucks won't even try to breed if its to big of a hassle. Last year my buck used to give up pretty quick. But being a year older he seems to be more aggressive. If it takes more than 10 minutes try her the next day or get a better buck.

If the first five minutes doesn't get the job done when using an experienced buck you'll need to try later in the day or the next day. I wouldn't leave them unattended. Not only is it upsetting for the doe that you're trying to keep calm so she gets pregnant, but its extremely strenuous on the buck. An experienced buck knows his job and could easily exhaust himself, IMO.

I'm not sure your experience level... so as I am new to rabbits... I want to cover my lessons.

10 minutes is all it should take. 3 solid "fall offs" with another re-breeding in 8 hours or next day. (both if you need to be very sure)
Rabbits ovulate with breeding, but some times they are more receptive to being bread. (vulva is more reddish than pinkish)
Sometimes having the buck in a cage right next to the doe for a couple days before will help the doe be less nervous.

Put the doe in the buck's pen. (He will spend too much time sent marking and exploring instead of breeding)
Put the doe in the buck's pen. (Does are VERY territorial... She may attack him for invading her space)

If it's too hot, the buck might not be interested or he might be sterile... Rabbits are most active at dawn and dusk.
I have found early morning (7:30am) to be a great time... they all seem really frisky at that time.

DO NOT leave a buck you want to use again in a cage with a doe. If he gets on the wrong end (yes, he will try) she could get angry and bite him... this might result in him not being able to breed another doe ever again. (yes, she could bite it off)

Some new bucks might attack a doe. This might not happen right away, it could happen right after you leave the room, in an hour, the next morning... or never. Just don't leave them alone if you want to use the buck again.

I have housed a cull buck with a doe and it made me sad to separate them as they seemed to like each other's company. I'm sure that would have changed as MOMMY hormones started up.

Here is my experience with breeding.

I had my firstf fellow breeder tell me toput doe in bucks cage and step back and allow buck 3 fall offs (generally no more than 5 minutes) than remove doe and no néed to rebreed. I was having success with this, but I was having large liters for our breed (7-9 kits).

I got some brood animals from a second breeder and we got talking about breeding, and they only allowed one fall off. Then remove the doe and rebreed in 12 hours and only allow 1 fall of that time. This process allows for a smaller litter and gen really better quality kits. It also allows for both horns of the uterus (rabbits have two sections of the uterus like a pig, not a single rounder uterus like a human) to be used. If you breed 3 times consecutively it generally only fills one side of uterus and kits are more crowded.

In my experience I have had better luck with the single breeding 12 hours apart. My litters have been smaller, 4-6, the kits seem to thrive better.

Lilbit08":1mmokbyj said:

Then remove the doe and rebreed in 12 hours and only allow 1 fall of that time. This process allows for a smaller litter and gen really better quality kits. It also allows for both horns of the uterus (rabbits have two sections of the uterus like a pig, not a single rounder uterus like a human) to be used. If you breed 3 times consecutively it generally only fills one side of uterus and kits are more crowded.

Click to expand...

In my - non expert- opinion, I don't think it works that way, like the story about carrying 2 different litters of different age. One reason for more fall offs is imho that some bucks not always hit the spot, although if I may speculate, I deem it possible that maybe more egg cells get ovulated when beeing bred more often (no idea if that really is a possibility). Rebreeding after 12h just is a saveguard in case she missed the first time.
It so ruins my breeding schedule if a doe doesn't take and I have to try again a month later, since I'm feeding forage it quickly happens that I run out of greens in fall.

It is enough for the buck to hit the spot once, if there are 1 or 2 million sperm cells doesn't make any difference when compared to the number of eggs, and they survive quite some time.

For me the most significant difference in litter size is due to the condition of the doe (there were less when she just had a litter, even my fat young girl had 10...), but otherwise it's quite constant, even with only accidential less than 10 seconds interaction I get 8-10 kits (too much, I would like less too), except for one somewhat bigger doe wich always has 5-6, no matter what, how often or how long.

But if others share your experience (statistics are quite unreliable with small numbers of events - for how many breedings did this work for you now, with how many different does?) it would be worth a try, would so love to have small litters...

My experience, quite limited, is similar to Pretier's. When we started we did the second breeding about 12 hours later that we'd seen recommended but the does just growled and didn't cooperate and we always got litters from any remotely possible contact. AT least half the time there wasn't a fall-off. Litters have ranged from 6 to 13 but are mostly in the 7 to 9 range. That size works for us for our meat mutts. We've had a total of 21 litters, 5 in 2014 and 8 each last year and this year.

Preitler":1jol3rdk said:

Lilbit08":1jol3rdk said:

Then remove the doe and rebreed in 12 hours and only allow 1 fall of that time. This process allows for a smaller litter and gen really better quality kits. It also allows for both horns of the uterus (rabbits have two sections of the uterus like a pig, not a single rounder uterus like a human) to be used. If you breed 3 times consecutively it generally only fills one side of uterus and kits are more crowded.

Click to expand...

In my - non expert- opinion, I don't think it works that way, like the story about carrying 2 different litters of different age. One reason for more fall offs is imho that some bucks not always hit the spot, although if I may speculate, I deem it possible that maybe more egg cells get ovulated when beeing bred more often (no idea if that really is a possibility). Rebreeding after 12h just is a saveguard in case she missed the first time.
It so ruins my breeding schedule if a doe doesn't take and I have to try again a month later, since I'm feeding forage it quickly happens that I run out of greens in fall.

It is enough for the buck to hit the spot once, if there are 1 or 2 million sperm cells doesn't make any difference when compared to the number of eggs, and they survive quite some time.

For me the most significant difference in litter size is due to the condition of the doe (there were less when she just had a litter, even my fat young girl had 10...), but otherwise it's quite constant, even with only accidential less than 10 seconds interaction I get 8-10 kits (too much, I would like less too), except for one somewhat bigger doe wich always has 5-6, no matter what, how often or how long.

But if others share your experience (statistics are quite unreliable with small numbers of events - for how many breedings did this work for you now, with how many different does?) it would be worth a try, would so love to have small litters...

Click to expand...

The lady who advised me with the smaller litters breeds arounder 50 does twice a year. It may just breed her bloodlines, but the doe I first tested this type breeding on has always has 7-9 kits per litter for me. This past litter she had 3 and no stillborns or peanuts. So I'm gonna attempt this type of breeding this fall and see what type of results I have