Ready to get out of rabbits completely! ARGHHHHHHHHHH

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ajharris

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I am so frustrated! I have 10 breeding does. I have bred them all at least 2 times over the past 3 months. No babies. They were all great does last year. I am tired of feeding mouths if they aren't going to help pay for themselves. Any suggestions before I decide they all go to freezer camp?
 
I don't know Maggie. I am just frustrated. Almost a full year without babies except for the surprise litter that fire ants killed. I am ready to see little kits sticking their heads out of the nest box.
 
I'm frustrated too. Three litters this year and not a live kit to show for it. Kind of makes you want to not even bother. I've pretty much decided not to breed the rabbits again until I get them into a colony. After five years of raising rabbits in cages, I just don't think I want to do it this way any more. If they don't produce better in a colony, I may decide I need to make a clean sweep and get replacement stock. We're not talking a lot of rabbits here... Three does and two bucks.
 
I know this does not help after the fact but I was reading a journal article that said that some of the locals in a third world country would put the legs of the rabbit hutches in coffee cans and then fill them halfway full with oil to keep the fire ants away from the kits.
 
You might be able to do something like that using Tanglefoot. It's an extremely sticky goo used to keep crawling insects from climbing up fruit trees an destroying the fruit. I use it on my hutches because they get infested with earwigs. They tend to cluster at the tops of the hutch door frames and drop down in clumps when you open the doors. They wait just long enough for you to put your hand in or even worse, poke your head in and then a clump of them lands on you, eeeeew. Tanglefoot is messy but in my opinion it's worth the mess.
 
it's been a full year and no babies? I would have wanted to dump them after the first three months.... you are more patient than I am.

So query... what has changed? Something has to have changed to make productive does NON productive... especially all 10 of them. Feed? Housing? Predator threat? Water? New buck that is worthless? Something has to have changed somewhere somehow....unless all the does are the exact same age and have just reached their productivity limit???
 
You have ten Does and How many Bucks?
Before breeding did you check to make sure the Does were ready?
Slightly swollen and bright red to purple in color.
Is your Buck intact? Did you check each rabbit Doe or Buck
for any signs of possible disease or infection?
If all was/is in order than it may possibly be a feed or water problem.
I would bring each Doe to their Buck for up to four days in a row
within that time frame they will breed.
Watch the proceedings do not turn your head or blink,
you may miss it. DO NOT just leave the Doe with the Buck for any length of time,
doing so does not allow you to know if or when breeding has taken place.
Once you see the Buck fall off the Doe, allow him to service her two or three times.
After that, remove the Doe to her cage, write the date on a calender
28 days from that date give the Doe a nestbox.
NEVER QUIT!
Ottersatin.
 
My does are getting older. Most of them are 3 yr olds. I have a 4 yr old, 2 yr old and a pair of 8 month old californians. My bucks are fine. I have 4 of them. I have fought ear mites for a while now. I have no idea where they came from. I know they are getting up there in age, but I am trying to get some replacement does out of them. I don't breed the does in the summer because it is too hot here in Oklahoma. It gets hot here about the middle of May and doesn't cool off until the end of September. I am just hoping that I get some babies soon. If not they are all gone except for my daughters mini lops and the Californians since they are younger. I really don't want to get rid of the Standard Rex and New Zealands. The Rex are my favorite.
 
AJ, something you may want to try in dealing with ear mites is buy a spray can of horse hoof spray with neetsfoot oil in it. It worked wonders for me.
 
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