Unwilling for tips?

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Chubbybunnies

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Well, the headline says it all I suppose....

Any ideas to make them more willing?

What’s everyone’s thoughts on forced breeding? Holding the doe in place?
 
Lighting is everything. If you can leave lights on for an extended period of time, do. I’m talking 24-48 hours or until every doe you own wants to get it.
Cut her feed back, if she’s even a little on the chunky side you’ll have issues.
You can try holding her in place, but I’ve never had this work.
 
If you have a little enclosed grassy place outdoors, to let "them" run for a few minutes it often works.
When rabbits escape their cage, and a doe can get with a buck, breeding usually happens right away, .. many people have surprise litters this way, as they think "they were only loose for a couple of minutes"...
 
Does can be very picky about weather, mine are never in a good mood on overcast days.
They also prefer early morning, or evening(dusk).

Sometimes breeding in a neutral area instead of the buck's can helps.

Try supplementing the doe's diet with spinach. A lack of vitamin A(and one other vitamin I just can't remember :lol: ) can cause unwillingness to breed.

Forced breeding rarely leads to pregnancy in my experience.
 
LittleFluffyBunnies":3jdyybkg said:
Try supplementing the doe's diet with spinach. A lack of vitamin A(and one other vitamin I just can't remember :lol: ) can cause unwillingness to breed
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Vitamin E, which isn't shelf-stable in pellet form, but is in BOSS. Along with spinach you can also treat her with kale or parsley. Just don't go overboard or you'll end up giving her diarrhea.
:bunnyhop:
 
Thank you all for the responses.

I will try the BOSS. She is not the friendliest doe. She growls, thumps, and runs away and lays flat, but she’s a great mom. Not really the temperature I want, she is kind of standoffish, but I will sacrifice that for now for a good mom starting up.

Also, I tried to breed a new buck I got today, and noticed after he mounted the doe, there was a small amount of blood on the female. He mounted both sides and both sides had blood, that’s what tells me it is the buck.

Any ideas? I may make it another post that way more people see it.
 
ladysown":jnx1odc8 said:
i have never found that light makes a difference.

health and season is what matters I find.
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They are outside rabbits, so I don’t think the light is an issue.

She has not been the friendliest bunny ever since we got her (maybe the reason someone was getting rid of her lol) but when she has kits, she takes extremely good care of them. At the stage I am right now, that will have to outweigh temperament for the time being.
 
I had about 50/50 success with a bit of feed bag string tied to the does tail and run up past her shoulders. As I held her facing me in the bucks cage and the buck mounted, I would pull the string gently forward which would lift the tail for him to have access.

It takes a VERY confident buck and a doe you can at least position and hold and even then, only about 6 of the 12 times I tried it did it work.

AND does learn the trick fast and press harder down to prevent him breeding. :lol:

I have also put my hand under her belly with a finger on either side of her tail and lifted some that way but usually, if they are not lifting, they are just not in the mood.

Much more successful for me is to have a really big cage and the buck can live with the doe. That way he is right there when she is in the mood.

It is not without its risks and frustrations as well but then, that rabbits for you, ups and downs all the time. :roll:
 
GBov":2wrrxoqn said:
I had about 50/50 success with a bit of feed bag string tied to the does tail and run up past her shoulders. As I held her facing me in the bucks cage and the buck mounted, I would pull the string gently forward which would lift the tail for him to have access.

It takes a VERY confident buck and a doe you can at least position and hold and even then, only about 6 of the 12 times I tried it did it work.

AND does learn the trick fast and press harder down to prevent him breeding. :lol:

I have also put my hand under her belly with a finger on either side of her tail and lifted some that way but usually, if they are not lifting, they are just not in the mood.

Much more successful for me is to have a really big cage and the buck can live with the doe. That way he is right there when she is in the mood.

It is not without its risks and frustrations as well but then, that rabbits for you, ups and downs all the time. :roll:
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I tried the hand under the belly truck. It seemed to work for this particular doe. The buck is very confident, the does just seem a little bit stand offish! Both of the does that I have producing right now have the biggest temperament issues! :roll:

None of them are mean, they just don’t want to be messed with, and will make a growling noise. They don’t like to be touched, let alone picking them up to take them to the buck, that’s always fun. Somehow, both of them came to me prebred, unbeknownst to me, but it works out!
 
Welding gloves/gauntlets with the fingers cut off are your friends! I gave mine away and I miss them soooooooo badly. The buns really do not wish to hurt me but both my hands are tor up from moving the five youngsters yesterday. Each one managed to scratch a different part of my hands. :roll:

Glad you have a good buck and managed to get one doe bred at least.
 
GBov":5uovjk61 said:
Welding gloves/gauntlets with the fingers cut off are your friends! I gave mine away and I miss them soooooooo badly. The buns really do not wish to hurt me but both my hands are tor up from moving the five youngsters yesterday. Each one managed to scratch a different part of my hands. :roll:

Glad you have a good buck and managed to get one doe bred at least.
Click to expand...

They’re not really mean, they just don’t want to be touch. They don’t really kick, scratch, or bite. They just run from being pet and touched.

If they drew blood, they’d be in a pie! Sorry.

I have a doe that it’s pulling a ton of fur and making a wonderful next, but shouldn’t be due until May 6th. Any ideas? :need-comments:
 
Chubbybunnies":3kjq9re4 said:
GBov":3kjq9re4 said:
Welding gloves/gauntlets with the fingers cut off are your friends! I gave mine away and I miss them soooooooo badly. The buns really do not wish to hurt me but both my hands are tor up from moving the five youngsters yesterday. Each one managed to scratch a different part of my hands. :roll:

Glad you have a good buck and managed to get one doe bred at least.
Click to expand...

They’re not really mean, they just don’t want to be touch. They don’t really kick, scratch, or bite. They just run from being pet and touched.

If they drew blood, they’d be in a pie! Sorry.

I have a doe that it’s pulling a ton of fur and making a wonderful next, but shouldn’t be due until May 6th. Any ideas? :need-comments:
Click to expand...

Give her a nest box and cross your fingers? That is what I do. :lol:

None of my rabbits are mean (other than grumpy doe) and are, in fact, in your face friendly BUT as I do not pick them up very often they almost always struggle. It is natural for them to do it and usually there is no blood drawn because I put a long sleeved shirt on. The kits though were only 5 weeks old so when they struggled they got my hands, too small for a football hold.

All my cage doors open twards the ground so I have to brace the door against my belly to prevent them falling out as they charge forward to be petted. NEVER have I had such friendly rabbits. :shock:
 
This is totally weird! I rebred her 2 weeks after giving birth to her first litter. It was about three weeks ago. She was in an iso hutch with her other 3 kits, so there is no way she could have rebred herself. She gave birth last night to 4 happy healthy huge kits!
 
Chubbybunnies":11rd9htu said:
This is totally weird! I rebred her 2 weeks after giving birth to her first litter. It was about three weeks ago. She was in an iso hutch with her other 3 kits, so there is no way she could have rebred herself. She gave birth last night to 4 happy healthy huge kits!
Click to expand...

I gave up long ago trying to figure out how some does manage to get preggers with no help from me, I just call them gifts from the rabbit gods and move on. :lol:
 
GBov":15axuwq6 said:
Chubbybunnies":15axuwq6 said:
This is totally weird! I rebred her 2 weeks after giving birth to her first litter. It was about three weeks ago. She was in an iso hutch with her other 3 kits, so there is no way she could have rebred herself. She gave birth last night to 4 happy healthy huge kits!
Click to expand...

I gave up long ago trying to figure out how some does manage to get preggers with no help from me, I just call them gifts from the rabbit gods and move on. :lol:
Click to expand...

I am just rolling with it. I can’t think of a possible scenario on how it happened lol

All I know is I have 2 does with 7 kits (I only have small litters, but my bucks only fall off once, can I improve that with more consecutive fall offs?) and 2 more grow outs from her litter of 3 previously.
 
Chubbybunnies":1lwjsi6h said:
GBov":1lwjsi6h said:
Chubbybunnies":1lwjsi6h said:
This is totally weird! I rebred her 2 weeks after giving birth to her first litter. It was about three weeks ago. She was in an iso hutch with her other 3 kits, so there is no way she could have rebred herself. She gave birth last night to 4 happy healthy huge kits!
Click to expand...

I gave up long ago trying to figure out how some does manage to get preggers with no help from me, I just call them gifts from the rabbit gods and move on. :lol:
Click to expand...

I am just rolling with it. I can’t think of a possible scenario on how it happened lol

All I know is I have 2 does with 7 kits (I only have small litters, but my bucks only fall off once, can I improve that with more consecutive fall offs?) and 2 more grow outs from her litter of 3 previously.
Click to expand...

My litter sizes go up a bit with frequent breeding and with bringing on does that have bigger litters BUT my favorite litter size is 6 so many people would consider my litters small as well.
 
I’m not sure of their breeding past. I got all of the rabbits I have currently from a small animal auction, so the price is right to learn on, but you don’t get any of the history. She was 8 dollars and has produced 7 kits in the last 7 weeks from 2 litters. She builds great nest and seems to be a really good mom. I have another doe that had 3 and her kits weight as much as this does newborns. I’m thinking about fostering them over, I’m not 100 percent sure the other doe is taking care of them. That would bump her total to 7 newborns. Not a massive litter by any means, I just want to make sure everyone is getting something.

Unfortunately, I think I’m about to be done breeding. It’s already getting into the 80s here on a regular basis, so I may cut down on some of my does that I have so as to not carry a high feed bill through the summer with 9 grow outs to potentially turn into breeders in the fall.
 
You are in South Florida, yes?

Speaking as a Florida rabbit keeper, if you want to breed, breed.

It is a risk BUT if you keep the best you breed and produce in the heat, then you work on a line that is able to take the heat.

And take every reasonable precaution to ensure the does do well, lots of shade and water.

Brick built bunkers for the rabbits to get "underground" is one of my dreams but *sigh* not yet, not yet. :roll:
 
Yea I am in South Florida.

I would be worried the underground bunker would 1) get flooded out and 2) would just be full of rabbit poop! I could see the benefits to it though!

I have them in pretty nice shelters in low roofs so they always have sun. I’m just worried about the buck going heat sterile. I’ll continue to try until he is no longer producing, then wait till fall. I’m trying to figure out between a few growouts, and all the new kits, along with some unfavorable doe, who’s all going to stay. I want to limit them so I can bring in some larger stock more along the lines of what I’m looking for now that I have some experience under my belt. Albeit on about 2 months, it feels like I’ve been drinking from a fire hose the last 2 months.
 

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