5 week weights

[Brus]

I am raising them all for meat.

I am expecting them to hit 5 lbs by around 10-11 wks, hopefully

If my previous data is correct they are about to hit a big growth spurt at 9-10 wks, my breeding pair both put on more then a pound in one week at that age.

The funny thing is, i am such a nerd i get almost as excited to see my growth curve acquire new points as i am to see my bunnies every day.

WOW Mama Sheepdog!!!!!

That is incredible growth!!!

I am loving this thread, such valuable information to see where everyone is and to establish a baseline for myself!!!

 

[MewsicLovr]

Bumping this thread since it is relevant to my interests...

We've had a few rounds of litters now and the best we got was an average litter weight of just under 4 pounds at 12 weeks. That particular litter ate a TON of pellets, we couldn't keep their feeder full. Right now we feed 100% pellets to all our buns, however we are now experimenting with giving some oats + hay. They LOVE the oats, so much so that they dug out their feed to get at the oats when we mixed them together!

It would be nice to get something closer to 5lbs@8, but what kind of diet should we feed them to get there?

 

[Zass]

Bumping this thread since it is relevant to my interests...

We've had a few rounds of litters now and the best we got was an average litter weight of just under 4 pounds at 12 weeks. That particular litter ate a TON of pellets, we couldn't keep their feeder full. Right now we feed 100% pellets to all our buns, however we are now experimenting with giving some oats + hay. They LOVE the oats, so much so that they dug out their feed to get at the oats when we mixed them together!

It would be nice to get something closer to 5lbs@8, but what kind of diet should we feed them to get there?

I think it may be your stock, and not their diet that is causing the slower growth.

What breed(s) are you raising? Individual lines seem to matter more than breed, but I was curious.

The next factor that comes to mind would be potential parasites. I've personally seen where pinworms can cause a problem with growth. I'm sure there are others.

 

[Dood]

Hepatic coccidia severely slows growth

 

[MewsicLovr]

Bumping this thread since it is relevant to my interests...

We've had a few rounds of litters now and the best we got was an average litter weight of just under 4 pounds at 12 weeks. That particular litter ate a TON of pellets, we couldn't keep their feeder full. Right now we feed 100% pellets to all our buns, however we are now experimenting with giving some oats + hay. They LOVE the oats, so much so that they dug out their feed to get at the oats when we mixed them together!

It would be nice to get something closer to 5lbs@8, but what kind of diet should we feed them to get there?

I think it may be your stock, and not their diet that is causing the slower growth.

What breed(s) are you raising? Individual lines seem to matter more than breed, but I was curious.

The next factor that comes to mind would be potential parasites. I've personally seen where pinworms can cause a problem with growth. I'm sure there are others.

It's likely its the stock. We tried to buy good stock, but either we suck at searching or no one seems to have them.

I suppose they are mutts but they are primarily new zealands - that's what they look like. Our first breeding pair was sold as simply new zealands. They are clearly a mix of some kind based on what they put out. Our second pair of does was listed as a new zealand/californian cross. I haven't seen any californian markings from their litters.

All seem to have good maternal instincts, so that's good, just the weight gain leaves a little to be desired. We lose a few babies here and there but it doesn't seem like anything out of the ordinary.

 

[Marinea]

My first NZ litter hit five weeks a few days ago.

Litter of eleven- five week weights vary from 15 to 21 ounces. They are on pellets, oats, hay, and greens. They had a big jump in weight from four weeks to five, and I hope for a bigger jump this next week.

My other doe had a litter of nine last night- I shall be monitoring their weight as well.

 

[Zass]

Another mix breed litter turned 5 weeks old yesterday. 1/2 v-lop 1/4 Sf 1/2 Lilac.

A smaller litter, only 6. One had diahrea due to me feeding something that may have had a small amount of mold toxins.

Thankfully, only one kit ate enough to cause a side effect. The adult rabbits that consumed it showed no reaction. I attribute this to weanlings being hyper sensitive to mild toxins.

These ones are fed entirely on 16% pellets, plenty of timothy hay, and alfalfa cubes. The mother gets more different foods (like boss, pumpkin seeds, and greens), but even a small mistake in feed costs me too much growth with the kits. You will be able to tell which kit was the one who had diahrea just once at three weeks old by looking at the weights.

5 week weights:

Bkn Blk - - 2 lbs. 4.8 oz
Black #1 - - 2 , 8.3
Black #2 - - 2 , 9.2
Bkn Blu - - 2 , .5
Blue #1 - - 2 , 8.3
Blue #2 - - 1 , 4.5


The 1/2 velveteen lops have better weights than my meat rabbits? :shock: I'm going to chalk this one up to hybrid vigor. :lol:

 

[MaggieJ]

I've never systematically weighed kits - just eye-balled them for readiness at the appropriate age, but those sound like good weights. I assume the one that weighed least was the one that had the bad reaction to the toxins... or was it a runt? In any case, it may be a breeding worth repeating.

I hope you will update this at about 8-10 weeks and again at butchering time.

 

[Zass]

I've never systematically weighed kits - just eye-balled them for readiness at the appropriate age, but those sound like good weights. I assume the one that weighed least was the one that had the bad reaction to the toxins... or was it a runt? In any case, it may be a breeding worth repeating.

I hope you will update this at about 8-10 weeks and again at butchering time.

Yeah, I will. But it will likely be the same day.
I'm averaging 5 lbs by 9 weeks pretty consistently this year. Unfortunately, I'm still feeding a lot of pellets to the growers.
I have cut back my pellet consumption about 50% with the juniors, dry does and bucks. The pellets I'm currently feeding are simply too fatty to be the main component of their diets.

That little kit was probably one of the larger kits before it's diahrea episode. I thought is was a gonner for a long time. I would have euthanized it had it gritted it's teeth in pain just once, but it never did. Weird though, it still spends most of it's time laying down, and it prefers timothy hay or even the alfalfa cubes to pellets. I don't think it's costing me too much in feed to keep around.

 

[JessiL]

Ooh, ooh - I'll play too!

Ok, these are Americans from my heavy milkers line. However, they had a very unfair advantage in that there was only 2 in the litter - the infertility fairy had struck, and the other two does bred at the same time missed completely. I was happy to get anything, even if it was only 2.

They were 4 weeks and 3 days old today.
So, white American doeling, 2.40 pounds.
Blue American doeling, 2.68 pounds.

These were cage-raised (many of mine are pastured), on 17% protein pellets, alfalfa hay, and frequent treats of willow, sunflower plants, and apple.

They are unusually large! More typically, my Americans reach 5 pounds by 10-11 weeks, though one or two in each litter get there by 8 weeks. I find that from 6 weeks or so of age they will gain a half pound a week.

 

[Zass]

I never weighed that last litter I posted again, since all but the one kit who had gotten sick were in the 5 lb range by 8 weeks, they went strait to freezer camp instead.

I'd like to see how the little harlequin doe with 9 kits compares to my meat mutts..

 

[bikegurl]

( I do realize this is an old-ish thread, so I hope I don't get in trouble for this... )
5week, 5 day old litter out of SF by (non) AmChin.
REW 2#
REW 2#
REW 1.15# (the decimal is just a marker for oz, not for tenths, sorry!)
Chestnut 2.5#
Chestnut 2.2#
Chestnut 2.4#
Black 1.15#

It seems these babies are growing well! They eat mainly 16% pellets, with some grazing on grass.