15 babies!!

[michaels4gardens]

I am very curious , Zinnia, --what are your average 8 week kit weights [for a litter of 9 or 10] ?- it seems to me that your rabbits could / would [or are already ] a excellent dual purpose breed. If the dam is around 9 lbs , that is a good size for meat production rabbits also.

Most are around 2.5# from big litters. But, I get up to 3.5# in smaller litters (8 kits) by 8 weeks. I don't know if that's good or bad....

those numbers are about average for backyard [non commercial ] meat rabbit producers, -- so much depends on what is being fed, and energy / protein/ vitamin/mineral levels of that feed, [it is not all about genetics]-- if I am feeding weeds, kale, and hay as my feed, about 3.5 lbs at 8 weeks is good, [for a doe with 8 to 9 kits]-- if I am feeding pellets , sugar beet, or cooked potato, I get 4 lbs or a little more at 8 weeks, -- sounds like you have some very nice rabbit genetics -- congrats..

 

[Zinnia]

Update.

Next morning we lost the tiniest one. It was far smaller than the rest, so I rather expected it.

14 left... We left Elderberry with 12 and gave a new mom 1 and another new mom 1. But, Elderberry's kits are filling out very well, so I have a feeling she's be able to take back the other two. I may wait a few days and give it a try. I'm rather impressed by how fat and healthy hers are in such a big litter. She must have plenty of milk. I took a few pictures, but I need to get them out of the camera...

If she can really feed this many so well, I'll be keeping some of the offspring. There are a couple Blue, some Black and just over half are Chestnut. A few weeks more should reveal any Steels (but I really don't suspect this doe too much).