Exercise

[SoylentRed]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. Would just like to say this forum is fantastic and there's so much knowledge stored away here!

We've just moved house and the rabbits have gone from garden to garage. I was just wondering on the importance of exercise: do any of you get by without exercising them or do you find that it impacts breeding and health?

Our rabbits have a 5ft cage each, but we've been having trouble with breeding over the last few months. I've tried apple cider vinegar in the water.. we've got two natural light (SAD) bulbs on 16 hours a day. So I'm wondering whether lack of exercise is the missing link.

Just to note that our two top does have kept producing all this time - it's mainly the newer generation that haven't and won't.

Thanks in advance!

 

[PSFAngoras]

Welcome!

I can't say much for breeding, my does are pretty ready year round luckily, but I do notice that if one of my rabbits gets wool block (I breed the big lovable balls of fuzz known as French Angoras! ) the absolute best remedy I've found so far is to let them run. I can take their pellets, feed them only hay, give them cat hairball remedy, and none of it really comes together until they get a day out in the yard.

Even just as a general statement, my rabbits are much happier on the days they get out of he cage (at least an hour per animal per week, usually quite a bit more) and so am I. I love sitting in the yard and watching them kick up their heels, the antics always put a smile on my face.

( just a note; if you happen to have Frenchies, groom them BEFORE you put them out! My guys will easily clean all the dead leaves, twigs, and grass out of their coat overnight and be sparkly clean by the morning. I, on the otherhand, will take hours to groom all of that out of their coat!)

 

[skysthelimit]

Hmm. I really don't know.

I have big dogs. They make pretty much every spot except my gardens unsuitable for bunny traffic. I also have quite a few bunnies, a bit of an undertaking to make sure they get free time. It doesn't seem to affect my breeding, but seasonal changes do even with extra lighting.

 

[Homer]

Welcome to the site SoylentRed. Good that you joined.

I too have big hutches 3'x8' being the largest. Still I try to get everyone out at least once a week for a few hours. Like Sky we have a dog that doesn't eat much (Saint Bernard) that tends to make "most" of the yard unusable for rabbits but...The garden is fenced off so this time of year it gets used for bunny play. In the Summer I use a 3'x8' portable pen I put out in the front yard for exercise time. They seem to enjoy the change and it gives me plenty of time to do a serious hutch cleaning.

How old is the "newer generation" that isn't producing?

 

[SoylentRed]

Thanks for all the replies so far everyone.

Sky I think we have a similar lack of free time - myself and my partner both work full time and find it difficult to get them outside into a supervised area to exercise (we have a lot of cats in the neighbourhood so they would need to be watched).

We've had trouble with bad fights between does and we also worry about infections getting transmitted so we would need to do them one at a time. Homer, do you tend to exercise yours all together?

We have two does that are fantastic and just keep producing (we leave 7 weeks after kindling for recovery) - these are now about 1 1/2 years old. We've had mixed results from our other rabbits and the new generation is one that we've recently bred to replace a bunch that we sold who just weren't producing - they're all between 6 and 8 months old. There is actually another of our first generation (1 1/2 years old) who seems to have lost interest in lifting since August last year.

I'm not entirely sure it's related to the move actually, as we've had very little breeding activity since August last year. March '13 to June '13 was fantastic and we had a good little cycle going so we're a bit dismayed that it's all tailed off. Just trying to work out every possibility for what could be stopping them breeding.

The bucks are rearing to go by the way, so it's entirely a doe problem.

 

[chewy352]

A couple people have said that they have dogs so the back yard is unusable for rabbits. Is this because the dogs are outside dogs only or due to dog waste in the yard?

 

[Homer]

A couple people have said that they have dogs so the back yard is unusable for rabbits. Is this because the dogs are outside dogs only or due to dog waste in the yard?

180 lbs. of young Saint Bernard is like having a hairy calf in the backyard. He gets way to excited around other animals and just wants to play but...that and the dog waste is a big no-no to our buns, <read he pees on everything around>. Yes he is an outside only dog. With all his fur he can't stand being in the house.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I was just wondering on the importance of exercise: do any of you get by without exercising them or do you find that it impacts breeding and health?

When I had a fairly small number of rabbits I did have a run out pen for them that I would rotate them into when I was doing rabbitry chores. I really enjoyed seeing them play and generally act like rabbits, but the downside was the possibility of cross contamination from one rabbit to another.

I have 50 holes, so don't have time to let my rabbits out for exercise now. Most of them do have plant pots suspended from the tops of their cages so they have an area to get off of the wire, and they have to jump up into those. But beyond that they are in standard all wire cages.

I would guess that the majority of people that have more than a dozen or so holes do not take their rabbits out for exercise. Most show and meat rabbits probably spend all of their time in their cages unless they are going to a show, getting bred, or going to meet their maker.

I do provide toys for my bunnehs and they enjoy playing with them, so they do exercise their muscles while tossing toys around or pulling them under their body. Despite being caged I think they are happy and fulfilled.

 

[skysthelimit]

A couple people have said that they have dogs so the back yard is unusable for rabbits. Is this because the dogs are outside dogs only or due to dog waste in the yard?

Mostly because they pretty much go to bathroom on every usable space, and run the rest of the ground to mud, so nothing really grows in the clay Ohio soil. Things like giardia, survive in the soil, and I am worried about worms. I had 4 (now 3) German Shepherds, and 3 were in tact spraying males. I don't use any of the space they go to bathroom in to garden. And all my garden space is fenced in. These guys are outside dogs, but they don't tend to bother the rabbits in the grow out pen.

The majority of buns are either woolers, or fur breeds for show, I don't really want them soiled either.

when I had pet rabbits, I treated them like small dogs

 

[SoylentRed]

Thanks everyone for your help - our rabbit breeding problems must be related to something other than exercise then.. the investigation continues :?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

This thread has lots of tricks to get unwilling rabbits bred:

judging-a-doe-s-readiness-and-breeding-tips-t9869-15.html

 

[MaggieJ]

Welcome to RabbitTalk, SoylentRed. :welcome:

Diet can be a big factor in willingness and success in breeding. If you are feeding pellets, they are considered a "complete" diet at point of manufacture, but some vitamins, particularly A and E, can be lost during prolonged or improper storage.

Try supplementing the rabbits' diet with small amounts of dark leafy greens (dandelions, parsley etc.) for Vitamin A and BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) or wheat germ for Vitamin E. Phase them in slowly if your rabbits are not accustomed to fresh foods and keep the quantities small in the case of the E-rich foods. The greens can be slowly increased according to availability.

This approach only works, of course, if the problem is nutritional... but it is worth a try.