2 young does in 1 cage- 1 dominant

[foresthomemama]

I chose to keep 2 does from my first litter for breeders- I'm not sure why, though, because from 1/2 flemish and 1/2 nz parents, they both came out nz whites, but I want 3 does. I also kept a buck because he has great temperament and I like his shape, etc.

The two does are in a hutch together for now, due to lack of cages, though I am planning on making more hutches in about 6 weeks. They seemed to be getting along very well, grooming each other, etc. Now, however, "Strawberry" has decided to be mean/dominant doe over Beatrice (who happens to be my favorite). They have started fighting the last 2 days.

I feel I have 2 choices:
1. Send Strawberry to freezer camp (though she is slightly bigger than Beatrice, so I don't know if that means she would make a better breeder doe)
2. Put one of them in with one of the 2 bucks (one is completely inexperienced, the other buck is sweet and has successfully produced 2 litters this summer)

If #2, then I would hope to keep her there until kits come, in which case I would move the other doe in with one of the bucks and put the pregnant mom back in her original cage. By then I would have the new cages started. I'm not sure that I want to keep both does since they are so similar.

 

[MaggieJ]

A third option, depending on the design of your hutch, would be to put in a temporary divider to prevent fighting. This would allow you to take your time deciding which one to keep.

How old are the does? I wouldn't put one in with the buck unsupervised in any case. Does can get very annoyed with a buck's attentions unless they have room to get away from each other (as in a colony) and she may do him serious harm. More than one breeder has had a buck castrated or even killed by an angry doe.

 

[foresthomemama]

The third option will work as soon as I can find something to put in the middle of the hutch.

Just out of curiosity, can a doe and buck ever live together in a hutch? I had two live together quite happily, but they were brother and sister and young. They were the first rabbits I had ever had (I'm new- that was this spring! :rabbit-hop1: and the woman who sold them to me said they were does... you know the story! Now, I have seen every youtube video and picture on the internet on sexing rabbits and I am pretty good with it now. As most "rabbiters" (is that a word?), I am strangely familiar with rabbit genitalia :lol:

 

[MaggieJ]

Now and again you will find a buck and doe that can live together peacefully in a hutch. The problem is that if the relations between them deteriorate, it can happen so fast that the buck will seriously injured before you even know things aren't working out.

In a colony, it is different. Because one rabbit can always get away from the other, differences usually only result in a short chase. "Furniture" and hiding places help -- out of sight is out of mind.

 

[Zass]

It's always a struggle to keep the amount of rabbits proportionate to the amount of cages.

Younger animals of both sexes definitely get along better than fully mature ones.

I will admit, I have allowed bucks and does to cohabit for a few weeks here and there, if they were the laid back types. A mellow buck who will not aggressively mount a doe too often helps with that.

It's not something I tend to recommend to others. The size of the cage and temperament of the individual rabbits are probably the main determining factors towards the sucess or failure of it, along with how well a breeder can read their buns body language.

The problem, as Maggie J mentioned, is that failure can mean a brutally maimed or castrated buck, and to most, it will seem as if it happened out of nowhere.

I chose to keep 2 does from my first litter for breeders- I'm not sure why, though, because from 1/2 flemish and 1/2 nz parents, they both came out nz whites,

NZ white isn't exactly the name of a color, or a breed. It's a specific color variety of a specific breed.

If talking about mutts, or colors in general, breeders tend to refer to the color generically as REW, which stands for ruby eyed white.

BEW is blue eyes white, and frosty or ermine is a chinchilla based white, which tends to have smut, and eyes that may be dark brown, darker blue than a BEW, or mottled.

Both flemish giants and NZ may carry the genes to produce REW kits, and the color is recognized by ARBA, and thus showable in both breeds
Both breeds call it simply "white," because the other whites are not recognized showable colors in those breeds.

You will notice the body shapes(type), heads and ears are different between the two breeds.

Flemish Giants have to be much larger, heavy boned, mandolin shaped, and have massive ears.
Whereas people prefer their NZ to be finer boned for maximum meat production, smaller than flemish to stay within maximum show weights, commercial shaped, and have more reasonably sized ears.

The resulting mixes would have traits that were considered undesirable in either breed, not because any trait is bad, but mostly because they are selected for such different things.

The crosses do tend to make fantastic meat mutts (IMO anyway.) Things like type and ear length do not matter in the slightest when it comes to table fare.

 

[foresthomemama]

Our buns are for meat purposes 1st and pets second, so breed traits/desireability issues don't bother me in the least. I do, however, feel like a mad scientist when considering who to breed. I love colors, so my whites are pretty, but not my favorite color ( though my three whites are extremely sweet). I have 2 bew and 1 rew.

For now I've got fun mutts, quickly learning, and becoming obsessed with these fuzzy creatures. I like the head shape that my nz/Flemish buns have and their nice rounded backs. I find them, strangely enough, very pretty. I find the head shape of my whites to be prettier, longer, and thicker than a lot of pics of NZWs