How long to free feed?

I have ..... ummm..... nine rabbits, well, okay, 13, but I am getting rid of four of those. The ones I am keeping are

One pet sized adult working doe age undetermined, Maybe a few years?
One Californian buck, five months
One pet sized doe, four months
Six meat (NZ nd Cali's) young does, aprox 10 weeks

How long do you free feed pellets? and when they are done being free fed, how many pellets do you give them a day? When do you go from 18% to 16%, or ddo you have to?

Assume free fed hay and samll amount of weeds. Oh, and obviously constant water supply.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Since most people are butchering their fryers when they reach about 5 pounds, they free feed them until then. I don't think it matters whether it is 16% or 18% for that. Older rabbits are another story. Some you can trust not to overeat... Others are little piggies. If the hay is grass hay, feed it free choice to all ages... Helps keep the GI tract healthy and also gives them something to nibble. Rabbits are nibblers... and many will nibble pellets all day long if no hay is available, which is a bad habit.

After 5 pounds should I stop? These are all babies that I am growing to be breeders, on a three month scheduele.

The hay is free fed, and continues to be, and I have found that even with SOME greens, my rabbits do better. for instance, the buck seems to have problems pooping well, unless I give him a handful of greens. I don't know if it's because they are slightly laxative (dandelions), or what, but it helps him.

Yes, dandelions are mildly laxative. Keep an eye on that buck. He sounds like a candidate for GI problems. You might want to feed him more hay and greens and less pellets and see if that helps.

If you are growing these fryers on to be breeders, you will free feed longer. How much longer, I am not sure... been so long since I fed pellets. I'm sure someone else will be able to help with information.

if the buck has 'pooping' issues you might consider replacing him at some point with a buck (from him) that doesn't have that issue. Your goal should be to breed rabbits that can handle what you throw at him (for instance...what if you ran out of hay/grass at some point -- would his digestive system handle that?)

Good idea, I really like the bucks build and size, he is a little too spooky for my liking, but that may remedy. I am thinking of switching pellets at some point, to see if that helps, I know the ones I feed have corn in them. But he routinly get greens and hay. I do hope to be paellet free at some point, but I expanded too quick to keep up. Keeping a baby of his is a good idea.

I raise meat rabbits (small rabbit might be different)and I feed pellets with a bit of hay and sometimes greens. I feed them free choice until they are at least 3 month old. After that, it is basically a factor of when an animal reaches reasonable breeding age I might free feed them longer if they are a breed such as Flemish that matures later. I keep an eye on them to make sure they don't start getting fat. In many cases, if I breed the doe fairly young, I never stop free feeding except in between litters.

I have found that, in general, rabbits bred to be meat rabbits such as NZWs and Cals, will tend to over eat and rabbits such as Brazilians and San Juans won't.

For Bucks and Non lactating does, I feed 3/4 cup of (16 OR 17%) pellets per day, in the evening. I will increase that during cold snaps in the winter, and decrease if it I notice any tendency of the rabbit to get overweight. During hot spells in the summer, rabbits will ten to eat less, or prefer hay to pellets. At those times I will decrease the feed if there is any left over on a day to day basis. For an easy measure, one can use a heaping Vienna sausage can, or a barely level tuna fish can. (I guess I should check the size of the cans in case the standard is different in Maple-leaf land ).

Don't confuse the "ounce" measure on a measuring cup with "ounces of feed". Fluid ounces(measuring cup) is figured on the density of water, and while it works with most liquids, it doesn't work with the other products. 4 ounces of pellet's may read "6" ounces or so in a measuring cup.