Random thoughts on father rabbits and kits.

:lilbunny: So last year my American Chin doe was looking really stressed out with her 11 babies. She was constantly running from them, hoping in the nest box,hoping out as they chased her. Well I wanted to move them away during the day, but also wanted to keep them close to her so she and they didn't panic. She was in a corner cage of a four door hutch. The cage next to her housed the Chin buck, the kits father. I didn't really want to move him, but I wanted to put the kits in that cage during the day. So I shrugged my shoulders and put them in their with him. (At this point they where about four weeks old.) So he checked them out a bit,and they sniffed at him and explored the cage. And they all settled down nicely. I housed them with the buck every day and put them with their mother at night. This went on until they where weaned, and seemed to reduce weaning stress. The buck, who has always been laid back, never bit them or even pulled out hair. He seemed to enjoy them and got more active. Im not certain this would work with a more aggressive buck, or with a buck that was not house next to the doe and her litter, and got to know them through the wire.I found this little experiment to have interesting results and decided to share it as food for thought. Will definitely do it this next year as well.

I let the growouts roam the garden with the buck, he is always very friendly with them, and imho enjoys the company.

I just have to stop this before the bucklings hit puberty, don't remember the exact age - the buck still didn't mind, but I had young hotheads trying to attack him.

Some bucks are great babysitters! Actually, there have been bucks who will even help with nesting.

I put a shelf in all my doe cages -so the mom can jump up and rest on it, to get a break from her kits.

The poor doe needs someplace to get away from the kits, especially if it is a large litter.

In my colony, the kits often hung out with the bucks. Even when one buck was housed in a dog crate within the colony (jailed for scattering litters in his haste to rebreed the doe) the kits would squeeze through the bars and visit Dad. Many rabbits enjoy the interaction with other rabbits, but only if they can also get away from them if the socializing gets too much for them when somebunny gets in their space.

We have a few bucks that are great with babies. One is the "babysitter." He cleans them, protects them, feeds them (he brings hay to them, things like that), he's just all-around wonderful. He's very motherly to people, too. Every buck is so different with the babies... unfortunately, we have a couple that are very sweet but uh... get a little TOO sweet .___.

My bucks have always been great with the kits. Old Fred was a pretty laid back guy, one day I went out to do chores and Fred was lying in front of the feeder with his chin on the floor and two small kits standing on his head eating out of the feeder. He didn't even budge and didn't really seem to care.

I don't think I have had an incident that I recall of bucks harming the kits. They actually seem to enjoy them and are pretty tolerant.

Interesting! I have a few bucks who may actually get along with their babies... But I also had a buck who bit a baby doe's nose off when placed in a cage next to her for 5 minutes while I moved his. :x