Doe not receptive

R Buns · Aug 17, 2024

Hello all!
I have a Tamuk doe who is absolutely not receptive to a buck. Her barn name is Witchy. I'm just trying to get a few litters out of her to pay for her purchase cost then she will be culled. I do not like her attitude at all. She's been with two bucks now and just huddles in the corner with her bum and head tucked as far as it can be. The other doe of the trio was bred just fine by the current buck. 3 fall offs followed by another 3 12 hours later. Any suggestions? I really need to get her bred close to the other doe if at all possible.
Thanks in advance!

tambayo · Aug 18, 2024

Is she fertile now? Turn her over and check vulva for color and anything amiss. Otherwise she might just be scared since she is hiding herself. How old is she? Too young can give this reaction also, even more with a young inexperienced and eager buck.
You could switch cages with the friendliest buck you have overnight and put the buck back in with her in that cage in the morning.

R Buns · Aug 18, 2024

tambayo said:
Is she fertile now? Turn her over and check vulva for color and anything amiss. Otherwise she might just be scared since she is hiding herself. How old is she? Too young can give this reaction also, even more with a young inexperienced and eager buck.
You could switch cages with the friendliest buck you have overnight and put the buck back in with her in that cage in the morning.

She's 7 1/2- 8 month old now I believe. There is color and all looks good. She acts scared. She's not a very friendly rabbit. I moved her to a pen next to him this afternoon so she can get used to his scent. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

dlynn · Aug 18, 2024

R Buns said:
Hello all!
I have a Tamuk doe who is absolutely not receptive to a buck. Her barn name is Witchy. I'm just trying to get a few litters out of her to pay for her purchase cost then she will be culled. I do not like her yattitude at all. She's been with two bucks now and just huddles in the corner with her bum and head tucked as far as it can be. The other doe of the trio was bred just fine by the current buck. 3 fall offs followed by another 3 12 hours later. Any suggestions? I really need to get her bred close to the other doe if at all possible.
Thanks in advance!

Your situation is different, I raise in colonies not separate cages. I had one doe (Coco Loco) wanted nothing to do with the buck living with her group, even standing up and boxing him when he didn't stop chasing. She seemed to bond with a male in adjacent yard. They'd lay next to each other with fence between. One day I watched her climb a 4' fence, leap to a brush pile to gain access to his yard. When he was gone, she seemed to mourn, running the fence looking for him for weeks. I was sorry I hadn't put them together, but I was stubborn, had made my choice and wanted to stick with it. It took awhile but eventually she accepted the chosen buck. Often they lounged together in yard, kits crawling over them. She became one of my best mothers, gave me many large litters. Maybe give her a chance, or another buck, or time?

R Buns · Aug 18, 2024

dlynn said:
Your situation is different, I raise in colonies not separate cages. I had one doe (Coco Loco) wanted nothing to do with the buck living with her group, even standing up and boxing him when he didn't stop chasing. She seemed to bond with a male in adjacent yard. They'd lay next to each other with fence between. One day I watched her climb a 4' fence, leap to a brush pile to gain access to his yard. When he was gone, she seemed to mourn, running the fence looking for him for weeks. I was sorry I hadn't put them together, but I was stubborn, had made my choice and wanted to stick with it. It took awhile but eventually she accepted the chosen buck. Often they lounged together in yard, kits crawling over them. She became one of my best mothers, gave me many large litters. Maybe give her a chance, or another buck, or time?

I would love to learn more about colonies. We have so many wild cotton tails around our ranch that I worry about diseases transmission. Interesting you had that experience but it does make sense. That's kind of a sad story for her but I am glad she worked out. Can't imagine watching a rabbit climb like that.
Per recommendations above by @tambayo we had success this afternoon. She lifted right up for him. Ears were up and she wasn't all huddled like she was scared. I personally saw 3 successful fall offs then went and did some chores so I'm assuming there was more before I put her back in her cage. I'll put them together again in 12 hours for another round if possible. I've been told two sets of breedings is best. Hopefully the buck is fertile. The breeder said he may not be because of the heat. We've been in the 80's now for a couple weeks so I am hopeful he's fertile. I am trying not to rush this but we are months "behind" at this point due to a very aggressive first buck that had to go. The buck we have now is younger so we had to wait longer and then had some crazy heat waves. Hopefully only being bred 3 days apart the two does will deliver close to the same time so if there is any issues we have another doe who can help.
Thanks @tambayo for the advice! Really appreciate it!

R Buns · Aug 19, 2024

Todays update: Hopefully yesterdays breeding/fall offs was enough. She's back to being as small a ball of rabbit as possible. Talked to the buck a little but not receptive to breeding.

dlynn · Aug 20, 2024

R Buns said:
I would love to learn more about colonies. We have so many wild cotton tails around our ranch that I worry about diseases transmission. Interesting you had that experience but it does make sense. That's kind of a sad story for her but I am glad she worked out. Can't imagine watching a rabbit climb like that.
Per recommendations above by @tambayo we had success this afternoon. She lifted right up for him. Ears were up and she wasn't all huddled like she was scared. I personally saw 3 successful fall offs then went and did some chores so I'm assuming there was more before I put her back in her cage. I'll put them together again in 12 hours for another round if possible. I've been told two sets of breedings is best. Hopefully the buck is fertile. The breeder said he may not be because of the heat. We've been in the 80's now for a couple weeks so I am hopeful he's fertile. I am trying not to rush this but we are months "behind" at this point due to a very aggressive first buck that had to go. The buck we have now is younger so we had to wait longer and then had some crazy heat waves. Hopefully only being bred 3 days apart the two does will deliver close to the same time so if there is any issues we have another doe who can help.
Thanks @tambayo for the advice! Really appreciate it!

Yes I was sad for her. One of my tough lessons in learning to let rabbits be rabbits. We enjoy the family groups and watching them interact and letting them have some control. Still evolving. Mine are not totally free range but have freedom of movement within their fenced yards and group shelters. They choose when to mate, groom each other, lounge together. Sit and tell stories( little bubbly noises) one buck cuddles up and sings a little love song when he wants some action.There are lots on here that have colonies in lots of different forms. I have found them all very helpful in finding what works for us.

R Buns · Aug 20, 2024

dlynn said:
Yes I was sad for her. One of my tough lessons in learning to let rabbits be rabbits. We enjoy the family groups and watching them interact and letting them have some control. Still evolving. Mine are not totally free range but have freedom of movement within their fenced yards and group shelters. They choose when to mate, groom each other, lounge together. Sit and tell stories( little bubbly noises) one buck cuddles up and sings a little love song when he wants some action.There are lots on here that have colonies in lots of different forms. I have found them all very helpful in finding what works for us.

I will surely be looking into this. That sounds exactly like what we are wanting.

R Buns · Aug 21, 2024

Looking for some support/advice again.
The doe that got bred successfully on the 16th and 17th has decided she wants me no where near her or her cage as of tonight. She usually greets me for her food. Allows some pets. Tonight at feeding she's making grumpy rabbit noises at me when I got her bowls for feeding/watering. She acted like she was thinking hard about getting me. She did charge at me slightly when I reached for her bowls. I'm thinking maybe pregnancy hormones but I don't recall having so many issues when I was raising meat rabbits as a kid. Awfully short bred if she is to be this hormonal I would think. The first buck became so aggressive with me that he needed to leave. He full on attacked. Bit me good which is making me a bit jumpy when they act up. Then being set back a few more months because the swap out buck was months younger. Much better temperament at least. Then the minor breeding issues with the other doe who is the normally the grumpy doe. Now the good natured doe all this time is being grumpy. I'm about done with this whole rabbit raising already. I thought Tamuk's were supposed to be docile. I am really regretting my decision in getting back into rabbits after all these years. I've invested a fair amount of money in the rabbits and setup to have basically nothing to show for it. I paid a lot of money (in my opinion) for these rabbits. More than I would be happy with butchering with no babies to show for it. If both does become aggressive I am done. Is this normal for rabbits or am I just the lucky one who got the aggressive rabbits? At least the buck is still nice. Sadly for him if the does go so does he.
Any advice would be appreciated. Pretty frustrated at the moment.

RabbitsOfTheCreek · Aug 22, 2024

My Does get more angry when they're closer to kindling, usually they calm down sometime after

R Buns · Aug 22, 2024

RabbitsOfTheCreek said:
My Does get more angry when they're closer to kindling, usually they calm down sometime after

Thanks. Good to know. She's coming on a week bred so I was surprised so soon. This will be her first litter though.

Alaska Satin · Aug 22, 2024

R Buns said:
Looking for some support/advice again.
The doe that got bred successfully on the 16th and 17th has decided she wants me no where near her or her cage as of tonight. She usually greets me for her food. Allows some pets. Tonight at feeding she's making grumpy rabbit noises at me when I got her bowls for feeding/watering. She acted like she was thinking hard about getting me. She did charge at me slightly when I reached for her bowls. I'm thinking maybe pregnancy hormones but I don't recall having so many issues when I was raising meat rabbits as a kid. Awfully short bred if she is to be this hormonal I would think. The first buck became so aggressive with me that he needed to leave. He full on attacked. Bit me good which is making me a bit jumpy when they act up. Then being set back a few more months because the swap out buck was months younger. Much better temperament at least. Then the minor breeding issues with the other doe who is the normally the grumpy doe. Now the good natured doe all this time is being grumpy. I'm about done with this whole rabbit raising already. I thought Tamuk's were supposed to be docile. I am really regretting my decision in getting back into rabbits after all these years. I've invested a fair amount of money in the rabbits and setup to have basically nothing to show for it. I paid a lot of money (in my opinion) for these rabbits. More than I would be happy with butchering with no babies to show for it. If both does become aggressive I am done. Is this normal for rabbits or am I just the lucky one who got the aggressive rabbits? At least the buck is still nice. Sadly for him if the does go so does he.
Any advice would be appreciated. Pretty frustrated at the moment.

Rabbit's hormones can work in either direction. We've had uppity does become sweetness itself once bred; others were psycho until they have the babies, then they pushed the babies aside for attention from us. Other does are puppy dogs until bred, then you need to tread carefully around them. And yes, it can turn in a matter of days. Some of the does we've had like that went back to sweet after their first litter and never had another problem. Others had such predictable hormonal behavior when bred, that we could use it as a reliable indication of whether they took or not.

I'd give your formerly sweet doe a pass and see if she comes around later in pregnancy or after kindling. If your Tamuks are the New Zealand white strain, they might be less tractable just because the parent breed, NZ, has been heavily selected for meat and mothering, not temperament. Just keep an eye out for better, more predictable temperaments in the kits to keep for replacement breeders. Behavior definitely will respond to selective breeding. Problems with temperament in our barn are very rare in the breeds we've had more than a few generations (Satins and Holland Lops).

tambayo · Aug 22, 2024

My bucks are more cuddly then my does, but agression if any is either done with the kits (and not directed at me) or hangry and wanting pellets NOW. I have dwarf rex though and mostly from hobby breeders that handle their animals plenty.
You could very well be dealing with hormone fluctuations due to being bred, some human women are just as bad actually. I'd say dig up a lot more patience, think about how to feed safely for now and evaluate again 6-12 months from now about stopping with this breed of rabbit or rabbits entirely.
I needed to put down 2 ewes (vet, fortunately) my first year of breeding that i didn't expect to be bred, lost both lamb and ewes. Had some soso results years after for various reasons, but only reason i don't have them now is no land, not quitting at first painfull hickup.
And yes old memories paint things friendlier then current experiences may be. Although pet rabbits will be selected and conditioned more to being friendly with people then a pure meat animal would be. Also don't be surprised that you don't get the best animals when you buy, those a breeder will keep unless quitting. Some breeders will cull the bad ones, some will sell them first and some will sell them last when they have accepted the need to stop completly.

R Buns · Aug 22, 2024

Alaska Satin said:
Rabbit's hormones can work in either direction. We've had uppity does become sweetness itself once bred; others were psycho until they have the babies, then they pushed the babies aside for attention from us. Other does are puppy dogs until bred, then you need to tread carefully around them. And yes, it can turn in a matter of days. Some of the does we've had like that went back to sweet after their first litter and never had another problem. Others had such predictable hormonal behavior when bred, that we could use it as a reliable indication of whether they took or not.

I'd give your formerly sweet doe a pass and see if she comes around later in pregnancy or after kindling. If your Tamuks are the New Zealand white strain, they might be less tractable just because the parent breed, NZ, has been heavily selected for meat and mothering, not temperament. Just keep an eye out for better, more predictable temperaments in the kits to keep for replacement breeders. Behavior definitely will respond to selective breeding. Problems with temperament in our barn are very rare in the breeds we've had more than a few generations (Satins and Holland Lops).

Thank you. I'll give her a pass for now. Good observation to determine pregnancy I guess. I was thinking maybe it's something with me causing these issues. Didn't either remember or didn't have those issues in whatever crossbred breeds I had back in the day. This doe is the one I was hoping to keep some replacements out of because she was so sweet and the buck is sweet. Guess we'll see how she does. I really have no interest in being on guard every time it's feeding/watering time.
Thanks for the support and advice. Much appreciated

R Buns · Aug 22, 2024

tambayo said:
My bucks are more cuddly then my does, but agression if any is either done with the kits (and not directed at me) or hangry and wanting pellets NOW. I have dwarf rex though and mostly from hobby breeders that handle their animals plenty.
You could very well be dealing with hormone fluctuations due to being bred, some human women are just as bad actually. I'd say dig up a lot more patience, think about how to feed safely for now and evaluate again 6-12 months from now about stopping with this breed of rabbit or rabbits entirely.
I needed to put down 2 ewes (vet, fortunately) my first year of breeding that i didn't expect to be bred, lost both lamb and ewes. Had some soso results years after for various reasons, but only reason i don't have them now is no land, not quitting at first painfull hickup.
And yes old memories paint things friendlier then current experiences may be. Although pet rabbits will be selected and conditioned more to being friendly with people then a pure meat animal would be. Also don't be surprised that you don't get the best animals when you buy, those a breeder will keep unless quitting. Some breeders will cull the bad ones, some will sell them first and some will sell them last when they have accepted the need to stop completly.

I was actually looking at other breeds that have better temperament last night after this post. I think a huge part of my frustration is a previous purchase of another type of livestock that was touted to be so great and after huge expenses and travel to a well known breeder (who's lost their way we found out) turned out to be a joke. Now this. I think it's not fair to pile on the entire frustration on these rabbits. I'll work on that patience. I don't have much patience these days for bad temperaments when there's so many out there with good temperaments. We cull hard on our ranch for temperament. Was my plan for the replacements we raise from this stock. Thank you for the pep talk. I truly appreciate it. You are right.

R Buns · Sep 15, 2024

I suspect at this point this doe didn't conceive. I gave her the nesting box yesterday and all she's done is use it as a litter box. I removed it for now. I'll try giving it to her again tomorrow maybe. She's not acting any different so far either. I may give her one more try then she will be a very expensive meal for the dog. Hopefully the other doe is bred. She's had her nest box for a few days and while I don't see her making an actual nest yet she's not using it as a letterbox and her temperament is still different from pre breeding. Really was trying to have two does kindle around the same time in case we need a foster.

R Buns · Sep 18, 2024

Day 31 and 33 on the two does. Neither are building a nest. I added the boxes back and they are both once again using them as a litter box. I'm starting to think the buck was heat sterile and they aren't pregnant. How long would y'all wait till you remove the boxes try breeding again?

RabbitsOfTheCreek · Sep 18, 2024

R Buns said:
Day 31 and 33 on the two does. Neither are building a nest. I added the boxes back and they are both once again using them as a litter box. I'm starting to think the buck was heat sterile and they aren't pregnant. How long would y'all wait till you remove the boxes try breeding again?

At least 4 days but giving them another week isn't a bad idea

R Buns · Sep 18, 2024

RabbitsOfTheCreek said:
At least 4 days but giving them another week isn't a bad idea

Thank you. Should I leave the nest boxes in even thought they are using them at a litter box?
I was able to lightly palpate them tonight. Haven't done that before on rabbits. One doe feels pretty solid while the other doesn't feel solid at all. I suspect my ear mite doe who wasn't receptive is open. I'd like to get her treated asap so I'll plan on next weekend for her treatment.
Thanks!

RabbitsOfTheCreek · Sep 18, 2024

R Buns said:
Thank you. Should I leave the nest boxes in even thought they are using them at a litter box?

You could try moving them to a different corner after cleaning them out

Doe not receptive

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member

Well-known member

Netherland Dwarf Breeder & Well-known Member

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!