BuffBrahmaBantam
Well-known member
I have a funny rabbit story to share. I hope this makes others chuckle too. It was an impulsive decision of mine that ended up working out great. I'd love to hear other funny rabbit stories.
We have two breeding rabbits housed in separate small sheds (inspired and adapted from MaggieJ’s system that we read about on RabbitTalk) about 30 yards apart in our backyard. They have free run of the sheds which have stall mat floors. It is a modified colony set up, but with breeders kept separate. We have been letting the rabbits graze daily in small fenced enclosures that we move around in the grass. We have a Rex buck, and a beautiful American Chinchilla doe - purchased from Eco2pia here on RabbitTalk.
We wanted to breed our doe, but I hate picking up rabbits. They squirm and kick and I'm terrible at picking them up. So I got the crazy idea - what if I kept the buck inside his shed and let the doe out of her grazing enclosure. If she wants to breed, presumably she will go visit the buck and save me the trouble of picking her up, etc.
Sure enough, I opened the doe's fence gate. She hopped out, paused a minute, and then calmly hopped across the yard to the buck in his shed. They sniffed through the shed door, then I held him back and opened the door so the doe could hop into the buck's shed. They mated a few times, I got some fall offs, and then the doe came over to the door, I let her out (gently held the buck back so he couldn't follow), and she hopped straight back home. No stress, no picking up, and no squirming or scratching. It was all so calm.
I also have to say that I like American chinchillas better than Rex for our system. The Rex are more energetic and therefore more troublesome in a system like ours. I'm not saying I don't like Rex, I'm just saying they don't fit into our system. I would never would have dared let our Rex doe out of her enclosure because she would likely have run off for a few hours. We are going to butcher our Rex and keep only American chinchillas.
We have two breeding rabbits housed in separate small sheds (inspired and adapted from MaggieJ’s system that we read about on RabbitTalk) about 30 yards apart in our backyard. They have free run of the sheds which have stall mat floors. It is a modified colony set up, but with breeders kept separate. We have been letting the rabbits graze daily in small fenced enclosures that we move around in the grass. We have a Rex buck, and a beautiful American Chinchilla doe - purchased from Eco2pia here on RabbitTalk.
We wanted to breed our doe, but I hate picking up rabbits. They squirm and kick and I'm terrible at picking them up. So I got the crazy idea - what if I kept the buck inside his shed and let the doe out of her grazing enclosure. If she wants to breed, presumably she will go visit the buck and save me the trouble of picking her up, etc.
Sure enough, I opened the doe's fence gate. She hopped out, paused a minute, and then calmly hopped across the yard to the buck in his shed. They sniffed through the shed door, then I held him back and opened the door so the doe could hop into the buck's shed. They mated a few times, I got some fall offs, and then the doe came over to the door, I let her out (gently held the buck back so he couldn't follow), and she hopped straight back home. No stress, no picking up, and no squirming or scratching. It was all so calm.
I also have to say that I like American chinchillas better than Rex for our system. The Rex are more energetic and therefore more troublesome in a system like ours. I'm not saying I don't like Rex, I'm just saying they don't fit into our system. I would never would have dared let our Rex doe out of her enclosure because she would likely have run off for a few hours. We are going to butcher our Rex and keep only American chinchillas.
