Judging a Doe's Readiness and Breeding Tips

My NZW doe is about 28 weeks and has NO interest in being bred. She isn't aggressive towards our buck (same age) but she has never lifted and I've never seen her vulva coloration darken. Is it possible she is a "late bloomer" by rabbit standards and just isn't sexually mature yet? I've tried to breed her about once a week for the last several weeks to no avail. She just puts her nose in the corner of the buck's cage and plants her tail firmly on the cage bottom.

What do you think of this guys? I put her in with the buck, do you think they might have got it right this time?

Her color looks good, but she is not as swollen as she could be. It may be because you aren't pressing quite firmly enough to make her vulva "pop out" though.

Did she lift for him? Did he fall off or just gracefully dismount?

etcetrah":1uo0b94k said:

My NZW doe is about 28 weeks and has NO interest in being bred. She isn't aggressive towards our buck (same age) but she has never lifted and I've never seen her vulva coloration darken. Is it possible she is a "late bloomer" by rabbit standards and just isn't sexually mature yet? I've tried to breed her about once a week for the last several weeks to no avail. She just puts her nose in the corner of the buck's cage and plants her tail firmly on the cage bottom.

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Don't worry, most of mine aren't interested in breeding until they are 6-8 mos old. I have a 16 mos old doe I am still trying to get a litter out of. As far as I can tell, she has never changed color. I have a line of late bloomers and slow growers. I am noticing, that as the speed of growth increases, the age of readiness lowers. Fertility is a function of maturity, growth and body weight.<br /><br />__________ Mon Oct 28, 2013 12:54 pm __________<br /><br />

MamaSheepdog":1uo0b94k said:

Did he fall off or just gracefully dismount?

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:lol:

Well she had 4-2 were DOA I think, one died immediately I couldn't get it warm quick enough and the last one died this morning from her stepping on it and it being uncovered. When would I breed her back?

I have a doe who I could tell, was not ready to be bred. She was very pale and I wanted her to gain a little bit of weight too before I bred her but, my sneaky buck figured out how to push open the porch door when all my does were playing in the yard and he mounted her (and did the fall off thing). Will she have any issues if she got pregnant, and if so is there anyway I could help her?

mountainrabbits":2yetb974 said:

Well she had 4-2 were DOA I think, one died immediately I couldn't get it warm quick enough and the last one died this morning from her stepping on it and it being uncovered. When would I breed her back?

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right away

__________ Sun Dec 01, 2013 4:52 pm __________

HHRR":2yetb974 said:

I have a doe who I could tell, was not ready to be bred. She was very pale and I wanted her to gain a little bit of weight too before I bred her but, my sneaky buck figured out how to push open the porch door when all my does were playing in the yard and he mounted her (and did the fall off thing). Will she have any issues if she got pregnant, and if so is there anyway I could help her?

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she shouldn't have issues but her milk production might not be terrific. It will be difficult for her to gain weight in the last half of her pregnancy and nearly impossible once she starts nursing so free feeding her an 18% protein pellet and giving her BOSS and oats will help her gain and maintain weight.

What type of rabbits do you raise? And or suggest raising? :bunnyhop:

I always put my doe by a buck for a week before I breed (as I was encouraged by the breeder who sold us our first rabbits to do) so far if I do that the doe conceives, but if not the breeding has always been a wash. This past time though, when I bred two of my does to the same buck, (a week or two apart) they both had trouble. One was an older doe, the other was her first time being bred and both times the buck tried and tried but never really fell off, just "dismounted gracefully". What happened? I never had trouble with the buck before. Did I just catch the does wrong?

this post helped me alot, i couldn't figure out why my doe wouldn't lift but now that i have seen her look like those photos i will never again try to breed her on days when it looks like the first photo. thank you, from a first time breeder it helped alot

I see the purple coloration (2nd photo) on my doe who was born in January. When a Doe make that fearful whining or "yipping" sounds, does that mean they aren't in the mood or they aren't ready to be bred yet?
Both of the rabbits are NZW and the buck has fallen off the doe once.

Almost forgot to mention that while I had the rabbits set free on the run, my older rex buck mounted and fell off a week before.
That's when I found out that my buck became a doe! The breeder was also baffled by the sudden sex change..thought it was strange to have a buck mount a buck and then fall off!

Oh my gosh! What great information! I have had 2 does and a male I bought off a lady who didn't want to breed anymore and haven't had any luck since. Its been a year, the 2 original does Ruby and Snowflake) had 2 litters, all died they didn't take care of them??? Then i bread them both again, Snowflake had a litter, which all died and Ruby didn't get pregnant. I butchered Snowflake since she killed her 3rd litter. I figured 3 strikes. Sigh! I got these to help feed my family, I'm a single full time working mother. The information here has been amazing! Since the spring I have replaced Snowflake with 2 younger ones, (Chubby(5mo)and Snow (6mo) I just checked Snow and she is still pink. My original doe (Ruby) is ornery and i have to have my kids help me with her. And the youngest (Chubby) is also shy like the 6moth old (Snow). I put Snow in with my buck yesterday, I didn't know I should watch, figured Id give them privacy Haha, so I don't know if he fell off or dismounted gracefully. How can I get these girls to get in the mood and produce for me? I'm so frustrated. I think the color coding will be a great help, like a post I read I was told they can breed all the time so I have just randomly put them in with the male. It worked with the 2 original does but I never got a live litter. Why wouldn't they care for the kits? What can I do to encourage them to care for them, anything? Should I butcher the other older doe (Ruby) that doesn't care for her babies and they die or give it another shot? Ugh! HELP!!! LOL, I don't wanna give up but they are costing me a lot of money with no return!

hi,Cinsprit, Welcome to rabbit talk... there is a lot of information on your questions if you go to the home page and check the different topics when you get into an area use the search function and put in a few key words to highlight on.
Rabbits don't really care for their babies like other animals, they are food for everything so they mostly leave them in the nest until feeding time usually at dawn and dusk. If mom has made a nest in the nest box, pulled fur and feeds the little ones(they will have round full tummies)..Then she is being a good mom.
To get does in the mood....soft music and candle light? just kidding!
Really though Apple cider vinegar two tablespoons per gallon of water, works well for overall health. Some have had success with raspberry. tea I like to start giving about a couple of tablespoons of Black Oil sunflower seeds as soon as they start to go from light pink to darker pink..Just a theory,but I think the extra fat tricks the body into believing food is plentiful,so extra food=OK to have kits......
Seems like you have figured out that contrary to popular myth ...Rabbits don't always breed like rabbits...Stay in there,You will get the hang of it..Read everything you can and post questions the people here are great!!!! And if you post on a new thread you will get more responses... <br /><br /> -- Fri Dec 19, 2014 7:11 pm -- <br /><br /> Bump

Awesome post! Going straight to my reference list <br /><br /> -- Wed Jan 28, 2015 5:59 pm -- <br /><br /> It's just about time to breed my buck and doe, he's 8months and she is "6 months", according to the birthday the woman I got her from gave me.. She seems to be quite smaller than the buck, about 2/3 his size and she's not showing any sign of being receptive. Her vent is practically white. She's a New Zealand (but I think she's part Cali due to her tan lines) lol. One local breeder told me to just put them together once a day for a couple of days, other breeders tell me to keep them far apart, pet her daily, or swap their cages, etc. Is there something I'm missing? Do y'all think that she might actually be younger than the woman told me? Or should I show her more attention? She doesn't seem to be as docile as the male. The male seems to not be bothered by my presence, where as she runs to her hole when I come around. When I reach in to pet her in hopes of relaxing her, she plays dead lol any ideas?

Gearmpr":1fsmo87w said:

Awesome post! Going straight to my reference list

-- Wed Jan 28, 2015 5:59 pm --

It's just about time to breed my buck and doe, he's 8months and she is "6 months", according to the birthday the woman I got her from gave me.. She seems to be quite smaller than the buck, about 2/3 his size and she's not showing any sign of being receptive. Her vent is practically white. She's a New Zealand (but I think she's part Cali due to her tan lines) lol. One local breeder told me to just put them together once a day for a couple of days, other breeders tell me to keep them far apart, pet her daily, or swap their cages, etc. Is there something I'm missing? Do y'all think that she might actually be younger than the woman told me? Or should I show her more attention? She doesn't seem to be as docile as the male. The male seems to not be bothered by my presence, where as she runs to her hole when I come around. When I reach in to pet her in hopes of relaxing her, she plays dead lol any ideas?

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It's possible that she's younger than advertised. Happened recently to a rabbit breeder near here. He stopped by with his two new bucks. I took one look at them and thought... 5, maybe 6 weeks tops. They were sold to him as "8 weeks", but he was thinking maybe not. He was picking up two does from me that were a little over 8 weeks old, and they were twice the size of those little boys.

Yes, you can put them together every day for a bit and watch, until you see him breed her successfully.
You can trade cages for a day or two.
You can add apple cider vinegar at 2 Tablespoons/Gallon.
You can give a little BOSS every day.
You can give Raspberry Zinger tea.

Even if she is younger than 6 months, members on here have had good results with breeding a doe younger than that.

Ok that makes me feel better, thanks I will try all those methods. But what is "BOSS"?

Black oil sunflower seed (I asked the same question in November)

Sorry about that!

Lol it's ok, I need to learn this stuff anyway

Newbie alert! We are just getting started in this game. We had our buck & doe have their fun a few days in a row. How do we know if she is preggers? She does not seem as receptive as she was at first.