Just cut toenails and weighed our adults prior to breeding after a break. Was surprised to find that the doe that will be 2 years old next week was up to 8 pounds--she'd been between 7 and 7.5 for the past year and she doesn't seem overweight now. Our other doe is a full sister but a couple months younger. She's been just over 9 pounds for the past year. They both consistently have litters of 7 to 9 kits and are pretty evenly matched on the grow-oout time for the kits. The buck is just a year old and just hit 8 pounds. So I think those are small for adult meat rabbits (all mutts, NZWxSF) and wonder if I should be keep new breeding stock out of the heavier doe, since otherwise their performance is equal.
I don't feel very clear about when rabbits would be expected to stop growing. We're not feeding pellets or alfalfa so have slower growth than others report. I notice that when anyone asks about time to butcher the advice often is that growth slows significantly after 8 to 10 weeks so that any weight gain after that takes more feed than it's worth. But I've been keeping better records each year and our kits average a little over 2.5 pounds at 8 weeks and 4.5 at 12 weeks. I also read a lot about protein % in feed, but with our forage, hay & grain and/or roots diet, it often seems that calories are at least as important as protein. I think this because they do well in the fall when they get more roots and less grain, even though the roots are quite low in protein compared to the wheat or oats.
That was sort of meandering. My questions are 1) Should we be keeping youngsters to breed from the heavier doe? 2) Would you expect the growth curve to peak later on the diet we feed? 3) Is there something I'm missing about the importance of protein--or is forage we gather high enough in protein to make up for the low protein roots?
I don't feel very clear about when rabbits would be expected to stop growing. We're not feeding pellets or alfalfa so have slower growth than others report. I notice that when anyone asks about time to butcher the advice often is that growth slows significantly after 8 to 10 weeks so that any weight gain after that takes more feed than it's worth. But I've been keeping better records each year and our kits average a little over 2.5 pounds at 8 weeks and 4.5 at 12 weeks. I also read a lot about protein % in feed, but with our forage, hay & grain and/or roots diet, it often seems that calories are at least as important as protein. I think this because they do well in the fall when they get more roots and less grain, even though the roots are quite low in protein compared to the wheat or oats.
That was sort of meandering. My questions are 1) Should we be keeping youngsters to breed from the heavier doe? 2) Would you expect the growth curve to peak later on the diet we feed? 3) Is there something I'm missing about the importance of protein--or is forage we gather high enough in protein to make up for the low protein roots?