To young to breed?

Hey folks!

I've got a doe I'm raising up for breeding, and for the past few days at least she's been showing very obvious and strong signs of readiness (dark purple and very swollen, grunting and lifting her tail when petted, etc). But she's only one week short of four months old. Though she was the only kit of her litter and grew very quickly. I've read that most wait until 5 or6 months before breeding, but the author of the related web page on AZ Rabbits makes what seemed to me a logical argument in favor of breeding most doelings at 4 or 4 1/2.

So, what do folks think? Is it too soon ti breed, and why or why not? Pros and cons?

Thanks for the advice, and forgive any weird typos and stuff--I'm forced to type all this in a hurry on an ancient iPhone.

Cheers,

RR

First off, please state the breed of rabbit.
Smaller breeds mature quicker than larger breeds.
I probably would wait another month.

If you are breeding meat rabbits, I would wait half a month to a month. If she's not, I would go ahead and breed her as long as she seems big enough. If you breed her now, she probably won't grow much larger than she normally would if you wanted another month or so. I think it would be fine to breed her, depending on her breed.

Most do not find breeding young has any long term detriment to their health so long as you feed them right. Breeding them before they are quite finished growing may even help fertility. If you wait 6+ or 8+ months (depending on size and rate of maturity) a doe may become difficult to breed the first time and end up wasting more months of their life trying to get them bred. I breed mine pretty much when they start showing the effects of hormones and are willing to breed. Right now I only have netherland dwarf but I've had a variety of meat breeds and mini rex.

I believe that the time to breed is a personal judgement call.
Only the owner/breeder could know or make the decision of when or when not to Breed.
I like to wait for any Rabbit which I might like to show, to reach as close to senior weight
as I possibly can. Fact is that I am thinking of breeding a Doe [5 1/2 pounds]
tomorrow. I am still planning on assessing the situation in the morning.
It is NEVER too early and NEVER too late to breed a Doe as long as she
is in good flesh condition. As always, JMPO.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

Thanks all. I should have been more specific about breed and purpose--oversight due to the distractions of trying to post using a slow old phone while hurrying. My bad... I know how annoying it is when people ask for advice without giving enough context. A couple of years ago, I waited until a doe was 5 or so before I bred her, without questioning it, but now that it's come up again, I'm wondering--particularly because she seems so receptive and ready to go right now.

She's 3/4 NZ White, one quarter Champagne. And we're breeding for meat, home use. We feed a diet of local forages and garden plants, supplemented by oats, sunflower seeds, and small amounts of alfalfa pellets (as mentioned in some of my earlier posts, though I haven't been on in a while). So, it seems so far like pros to breeding now may be better fertility (arguably), and not having to wait. Cons are that they won't reach full adult size.

So assuming I don't much care if she reaches "full size," does a doe not reaching full size have any effect on her ability to carry litters, or on the size of the litters in the future? Is the size of the kits themselves compromized? Furthermore, if the answer to those first two questions is "no"--as it's starting to seem--I'm wondering, is smaller size even maybe a GOOD thing (eating less, being more comfortable in a hutch/nestbox of the same size, perhaps?) Maybe I'm off, but I'm just going to throw that out there.

Also, if size is more important than age, how big would be big enough? 60% of adult weight? 75%? I've heard different numbers different places. I'm thinking I might go ahead soon, but I'm going to weigh her first because I haven't in a while.

Thanks for the link, Zass. Thank you all for your attempts to help despite my cryptic post.

assuming I don't much care if she reaches "full size," does a doe not reaching full size have any effect on her ability to carry litters, or on the size of the litters in the future?

Click to expand...

Not in my experience and most of my does had their first litters when younger than 7 months old

Is the size of the kits themselves compromized?

Click to expand...

The kits are born smaller but by 4 weeks old they have caught up to the kits born to 12 pound does

Furthermore, if the answer to those first two questions is "no"--as it's starting to seem--I'm wondering, is smaller size even maybe a GOOD thing (eating less, being more comfortable in a hutch/nestbox of the same size, perhaps?)

Click to expand...

I certainly think so

My 12 pound girls look crowded in their 30x36 cages while my 7-8 pounders seem to have plenty of space so I tend to keep their kits with them longer.

I no longer get giant "Poop Pancakes" in the corners of the cage since their pellets don't get stuck between the floor wires

Of course they eat less and are much easier to handle for routine care like checking vents, nail trimming and general health inspections

Since my sales of purebred AmChins are few and far between and I prefer the smaller rabbits I now only have 2 does and a buck of this breed and the other 10 are mutts - 8 of which are 1/4 to 1/8 Mini Lop and in the 7 to 9 pound range

Check out this little meat brick :mrgreen:

ottersatin":ribloopb said:

I believe that the time to breed is a personal judgement call.
Only the owner/breeder could know or make the decision of when or when not to Breed.
I like to wait for any Rabbit which I might like to show, to reach as close to senior weight
as I possibly can. Fact is that I am thinking of breeding a Doe [5 1/2 pounds]
tomorrow. I am still planning on assessing the situation in the morning.
It is NEVER too early and NEVER too late to breed a Doe as long as she
is in good flesh condition. As always, JMPO.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

Click to expand...

I agree with this post ,
I have not had any major trouble from early breeding of does, except a little bit higher incidence of "mothering ability failures" , slightly slower grow-out from smaller does, and smaller initial kit size . I still believe that 90% of the time ,a doe that fails on the first try is not a "keeper" I usually give them one or two more chances , but not always. [the does that savage their young are just "gone" ]
I breed when it is good for me, if a replacement doe is too young to breed by October, or early November, it won't be bred until early march when I start breeding again.[I don't breed in the winter when I have no cheap green feed] -- so in some cases a doe could be 10 months at first breeding.

ramblingrabbit":1fy6so7b said:

So, it seems so far like pros to breeding now may be better fertility (arguably), and not having to wait. Cons are that they won't reach full adult size.

So assuming I don't much care if she reaches "full size," does a doe not reaching full size have any effect on her ability to carry litters, or on the size of the litters in the future? Is the size of the kits themselves compromized? Furthermore, if the answer to those first two questions is "no"--as it's starting to seem--I'm wondering, is smaller size even maybe a GOOD thing (eating less, being more comfortable in a hutch/nestbox of the same size, perhaps?) Maybe I'm off, but I'm just going to throw that out there.

Also, if size is more important than age, how big would be big enough? 60% of adult weight? 75%? I've heard different numbers different places. I'm thinking I might go ahead soon, but I'm going to weigh her first because I haven't in a while.

Click to expand...

Thanks, ramblingrabbit, for asking these questions--the same I've had about the does I kept from last season to breed this year. And thanks to all who take time to share their experience with those of us who have only a little. Partly I'm unsure of what is "big enough" since I don't know what size my meat mutts will be at maturity since we ate most of them at about five pounds and these are the first we've kept for breeding. I've wondered if smaller doe means smaller kits at birth or less milk? So much to learn in the coming season.

I've bred a few does at 4.5-5 months old.
Not enough to be an authority on the subject.
But, if they are 8 lbs and receptive, I've been getting them bred. The line tops out at 10 lbs, so I guess you could say 80% of max adult weight for me. I haven't seen any consequence for mothering, kit size, or senior doe weight actually. Does from that line usually get everything perfect on their first go, and have a great milk supply. They are still getting larger than I'd like them to be. (filling out closer to 10 lbs, when I'd prefer 8.5 to 9 lbs.)

I can usually expect to see 5 lbs in the 9 week range, if that helps. My litter sizes have reduced to a tidy 8 kit average, which I think, has more to do with genetics then of breeding age, as I introduced a line that was known to produce less kits. (I was getting 10 kits as an average before, which was a little hard on my smaller girls)

I'm scared to wait too long to breed them now, as I worry they will get fatty on the pellets I'm using, and not be able to produce so well.

Hey, thanks guys for sharing your experiences and insights. I forgot how much I like this forum...

I weighed Sola--well over 8 pounds. We decided to go ahead and breed her. It went well--she lifted properly and everything, and was covered twice almost immediately. Now marking the calendar and crossing our fingers that she does as good a job as her dam and sister. We'll see!

Cheers!

:good-luck: Good luck!