Traveling buck not working so well

Let me see if I can explain without getting too complicated...lol

Fred and Morgan had a litter which included black, blue and red does. I processed Morgan and kept the three does as the next generation of breeders.

In the left side of the colony was the blue doe, her 12 week old litter of seven and her four week old litter of five (The frozen five) who Fred is also the father. He stayed with her for three weeks without incident, then I swapped him over with the others with no problem.

In the right side of the colony was Fred, the red doe, her 10 week old litter of seven and the black doe.

We enjoyed harmony and peace in the colony...

Two weekends ago, I swapped Fred over to the side with the blue doe. The bucks in her older litter basically set upon Fred and rode him steady for about ten minutes until I decided it wasn't a good situation and put him back with the others.

This past weekend, I process the blue doe's older litter, cleaned out the colony, put fresh straw and swapped Fred over with the blue doe. She basically attacked him and chased him around until he dove into the nestbox with the now five week old litter. No harm done to the litter but he wouldn't come out. Each time I took him out she would chase him around until he fled to the nestbox again. The were running so fast they were banging off the walls and she was trying to bite his behind.

After about three days of him being practically confined to the nestbox I put him back in the right side with the other does last night. Peace and harmony, right? Not quite...

Black doe just had a litter of eight this past weekend and was in a protective mood about her nest. Much chasing around ensued. After a while, they all seemed to go to their corners and, as I didn't have any other options, I came inside and let them sort it out.

When I went outside to do chores this morning all was quiet. Fred and the red doe were eating out of a feeder side by side and everyone else was just lying around.

I guess my dilemma is that if the blue doe isn't going to accept Fred then my plan of swapping him over every three weeks isn't going to work. He's no stranger to her as they can see each other through the cage wire in the divider and they have had a litter together. When Fred was with Morgan full time they got along very well and she produced a litter every four or five weeks which I thought was a bit much but everything was peaceful. Maybe I"ll process the blue doe and just open up the colony fully and let Fred, Black doe and Red doe do what comes naturally. The full colony is five feet wide and 18 feet long so there is lots of room.

Make plans then life happens...lol! Sorry about the convoluted story...

a general rule in rabbits is you always take the doe to the buck or...well...territory issues will happen. With my colony I have separate cages for the bucks and the does make up my colony, when I want them to bred I take a doe and put her in the cage with the buck that way there is no territory issues.

the young bucks in the litter are ether for keeping or eating in my case and I sale what I don't want.

Having had a divided colony much like yours, Truckinguy, I didn't find your post convoluted. I wish I could help, but I did not encounter that particular problem in mine.

I divided the colony initially because the over-eager buck was trying to breed does while they gave birth and it was resulting in scattered and trampled kits. Later on, with a more gentlemanly buck, I was able to take down the partition.

Culling the blue doe and combining the colony sounds to me like your best solution. You may need a grow-out pen for older kits, if they continue to be aggressive to the buck...but my guess is that when they are born into the situation and grow up with him there all the time, that they will not challenge him.

Good luck... and do let us know if it works.

a general rule in rabbits is you always take the doe to the buck

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Yes, when I had my rabbits in cages I always took the doe to the buck but I love this colony setting so much I just can't put the buck in a cage again. In my limited experience with colonies it seems that most rabbits that are raised together and have enough room to spread out get along fine. Fred is an awesome buck, very even tempered and lets the kits crawl all over him without seeming the least bit bothered about it and comes to me for a back scratch whenever I'm out there.

I divided the colony initially because the over-eager buck was trying to breed does while they gave birth

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My initial plan to move Fred back and forth every three weeks was mostly for this very reason. I didn't have the problem of the scattered and trampled kits but it seemed obvious that a very amorous buck just seemed to make it difficult for the doe to give birth. Also, it seemed a bit much for a doe to pop out a litter every four and a half weeks or so which I think wore out Morgan before her time.

I do need a growout pen and I have an area that I can build one in the same style as my existing colony but it will have to wait until spring now. Oh boy, just what I need, another project to add to the list...lol! <br /><br /> __________ Thu Dec 18, 2014 9:08 am __________ <br /><br /> I went out to do the chores this morning and found the five day old litter of eight cold in the nestbox. The doe didn't put enough straw in there and they were all uncovered. There was slight movement from a couple of them so the whole litter is now on a heating pad in the kitchen to see which ones come back. Some of them are chewed a bit, ones missing it's ears, a couple have legs and feet missing. They were all fat and happy last night and they all appear to be fed recently.

Not a good morning on the homestead...

So sorry to hear this. Not a good morning at all, Truckinguy. Hope you can save at least some of them.

It strikes me as very odd that they have those injuries at five days old. Usually the "overgrooming" thing happens to newborns. I have to wonder if you perhaps have a rat problem.

Another thought: do you use open nest boxes or ones that are more like a burrow? I used next tunnels in my colony and I liked them a lot. They do give more shelter from the elements too.

I use the same nest boxes I used in the cages. They are plywood and measure 12x12x24" and have half the top covered. I've had many litters in those nest boxes in the colony in the last two years so I don't think it's a nest box problem.

It could be rats but the colony is very tight, the 1x1" cage wire as the only access to the inside. I"ll have to check out the walls and see if there are any holes chewed in it. I am wondering if the doe started chewing on them when they got cold as a way to clean up the nest.

Four kits woke up, one is missing it's ears, one is missing it's ears and one front leg, one is missing one back leg and one is whole, and fat, looks like it just had a huge feeding. Will the ones missing parts survive or should I just put them down? I"m beginning to think it would have been best if I had just let the whole litter go, it would have been more humane for them and me. Very upset right now...

I don't blame you for being upset! It must be very hard to look at those poor chewed up babies.

Perhaps you are right that the doe, thinking them dead, was trying to clean up the nest. It would account for it. From what other people have said, kits can survive without ears quite well. I think feet would be more of a problem, but if they are not bleeding a lot and not infected, they probably would survive.

It's hard to say whether to put them down or not. I am assuming these are rabbits intended for the freezer, not to be kept as breeders. I'd likely wait...there is the one intact kit to consider. Lonely onlies bring their own set of problems. I don't think there is one right decision in this situation.

Adult rats cannot usually get through 1"x1" wire, so unless you find a hole it is likely not that. Be glad! Once you have rats it is hard to get rid of them entirely.

I had a kit that one day i realized was missing almost entirely a back leg. It had the meaty upper part but it didnt stick out from the torso at all. Never could figure what happened. I butchered that litter early because they were lanky cross and that one's butt was getting to be messy. It seemed as soon as it got old enough to really put on weight that it couldnt balance to walk.

I had a minirex doe i was given and she was fine. She seemed to have a hearing problem though. She would be fine to see you approach but if she was turned around and you opened the cage she would be startled alot more than any others.

I'm missing how many of what gender and age are in each colony? You cannot put 1 dominant doe with 1 breeding age buck and no secondary targets for either one. You need several ready to breed does. They will provide a reprieve from each doe being harassed by the buck and each doe harassing the buck. Adding laid back sibling or father/son bucks also helps in the same way but I would not stress too few does with too many bucks. They will grow aggressive as they get annoyed and eventually injure someone. The goal is to irritate each individual doe as little as possible while not letting them define territory that is only theirs. They can claim space around them and their nest box but not permanent territory. The only way to do that is to have several does and in a large enough colony you could also do several bucks that will interfere with their territory. You also want the area broken up as much as possible. Just throw random crap in there. Buckets, boxes, multiple nesting containers of different types, flipped over cat litter pans and rubber livestock feeders.... Just fill the space with obstacles. Keep in mind anything light will migrate toward the center as they run around the edges. You can also put in hiding places so the nestboxes don't get used that way. We made plywood 2' cubes with 1/2 of a side missing a panel and 2x1'h rectangles with the front open. Sometimes nesting did happen in those containers which is why a lip (bricks work) and a removable lid is useful.

Long story short, four of the kits came back to life but the heating pad I put them on ended up being covered in blood from them moving around so I put them all down. I was kind of freaked out over the situation. If it had been summer I might have tried to keep the only whole kit but I just figured it was most humane to send them back to Mother Nature with thanks and we'll try again with the next litter.

Akane, you have some great suggestions. I have only one adult buck, Fred, who has been with me for almost six years now and has fathered countless litters with many does. I have three of his daughters as my breeder does now, all of them have had litters by him. There is one doe on one side of the colony and two on the other. On the left side of the colony is the blue doe with 5-five week old kits and on the right side of the colony is Fred, black doe, red doe and seven 11 week old kits who are going in the freezer this weekend. All is quiet in the colony at the moment, everyone is getting along.

I will add some objects to the colony to break up the space and give some entertainment. What I'll likely end up doing is opening up the colony so they all have the run of it and probably sending the blue doe to camp as she seems to have staked out the left side of the colony as her territory.

I had Fred and Morgan together in there for a long time, just the two of them and she popped out a litter on a regular basis and all was peaceful. I always come out to feed them and found them lying together in the straw like an old married couple.