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I really appreciate your details and depth of experience. Thank you! We will start with a heaping cup per day and adjust following your recommendations.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing. We don't plan to breed any doe for 5-6 months. We have so much rabbit meat we need to eat. So we are probably going to average just 2 breedings per year - our does will have more time off than yours.

What quantity of pellets do you feed your large-breed does while they are not pregnant or lactating? Do you give more pellets in winter? Does anyone have recommendations for how to balance pellet quantity with supplements of oats because we use oats to entice our rabbits inside their shed in...

How did you determine your doe had mastitis?

I’ve read in older books about rat dogs and it sounds like a neat idea. In one of James Herriot’s books he mentions rat dogs being really effective in his hen house. I think the breed was some kind of terrier in that book. I would think that breeding matters a lot and unfortunately most dogs are...

Wow! Thanks for sharing! That sounds delicious 😍

Rex did not work because we let out rabbits out to graze and Rex dig and escape more. Our chinchilla doe never escaped and only dug once before each litter. The Rex both buck and doe would dig little holes in our yard a lot. If there was a gap in a fence, the Rex would work at it until they got...

Hey Rabbit Warren Man, that is a 7 year old post you are replying to. Just so you know… the original poster hopefully already figured out their question.:)

Here is a photo of our rabbit house with the nest box buried in hay in the right corner. This was taken when the kits were a lot older, obviously. I don’t know if this would have worked down to -15, like the temperasures you had at kindling, but it did work down to zero. We have a lot more snow...

Welcome! Nova Scotia is such a lovely place. I would love to live there! Our American chinchillas are gentle, docile, hardy, and we have been very happy with them. We started with Rex and Chinchillas this spring, and found the Rex didn’t suit our system, so now we just have chinchillas. They...

I’m not sure I visualize your setup so this advice may not help but I’ll tell you our experience anyway. For us, we gave our doe a wood nest box about 16 inches by 16 inches by 16 inches with a tunnel for an opening, stuffed to the roof with hay, and then piled hay all around the outside of the...

That is super helpful. Thank you everyone. Rabbitsofthecreek, when do you separate? What age?

Welcome! It sounds like you haven’t bought rabbits yet so you don’t know how many you will have. Is that correct? The dimensions sound ok based on standard hutch sizes but I’m asking because you don’t say whether the animals are intact or fixed. (Are they breeding stock, or neutered?) Breeding...

I’d like to know from experienced breeders what is the youngest age you’ve had successful breeding? (For meat breeds.) I’d like to know from personal experience - not from something you’ve heard or read. I’ve read that meat breeds take 5-6 months and yet our 9 week old Rex-chinchilla crosses...

I think you will likely need more space to prevent fights. 10 does and 1 buck in a 10 by 20 ft area seems risky. But maybe you are thinking in different units. Are you thinking 10 by 20 yards, or something else? It depends on the rabbits temperament but my sense that is not at all enough...

Happy new year Cosima!

I know what you are going through. Hang in there and have comfort that your animals had a great life up until the last instant. You will get better and don’t give up! What you are doing is far better than what happens to animals in the industrial agricultural system. We are new to rabbit...

I think that depends on a lot of factors but my first thought is that you would have A LOT of rabbits. That is a lot of does! How big of an area do you have for the colony? I’d be concerned about overcrowding and does fighting unless you have a huge area for the colony.

Do you mean a weasel? We’ve caught weasels in Sherman traps and tomahawk traps. We have a few of each trap set up 24-7-365 outside on our property. We are very rural and would be overwhelmed by critters if we didn‘t trap regularly. Anyway, it is best to put traps alongside natural runways, like...

We like chinchillas too. We don’t plan on raising anything else at this point….though I guess you never know what will happen in the long run. Our chinchilla’s calm temperament fits well with our semi-outdoor-pasture-based set-up, and the kits are so cute! (all kits are cute, but the young...