Biggest size of successful litter

[Captaincatholic]

Hi!
I am just wondering what your favorite biggest litter size? I just had a doe kindle 12 kits and she will be great. Her litters of 8 have been fat and fast growing. I had a different doe have 15 and she lost a few and we fostered a few. Those kits that were fostered are still much smaller than their fostermates despite being fed fat each day. There were 6 in the litter we fostered more into.

I guess I am asking what is the best biggest litter number? And can we select genetically for that?

I do not want litters of 6 per se. I have a big family so if this doe can su cessfully raise 12 within a week or two of getting to weight as a litter of 6, I will be happy. She is black and I hope to replace her with a nonblack daughter or 2 because I live in a hot place and want rabbits that do better in the heat. I will be giving her to my sister so am so happy that she can have a productive good mother.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Four Kits, one still-born though

 

[eco2pia]

I have had successful litters of up to 10-11. If they have more than that they seem to lose one or two. Honestly I am happier with 8-9, because those kits will make weight faster with less feed from me.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Hi!
I am just wondering what your favorite biggest litter size? I just had a doe kindle 12 kits and she will be great. Her litters of 8 have been fat and fast growing. I had a different doe have 15 and she lost a few and we fostered a few. Those kits that were fostered are still much smaller than their fostermates despite being fed fat each day. There were 6 in the litter we fostered more into.

I guess I am asking what is the best biggest litter number? And can we select genetically for that?

I do not want litters of 6 per se. I have a big family so if this doe can su cessfully raise 12 within a week or two of getting to weight as a litter of 6, I will be happy. She is black and I hope to replace her with a nonblack daughter or 2 because I live in a hot place and want rabbits that do better in the heat. I will be giving her to my sister so am so happy that she can have a productive good mother.

I have had successful litters of up to 10-11. If they have more than that they seem to lose one or two. Honestly I am happier with 8-9, because those kits will make weight faster with less feed from me.

Same as @eco2pia, my biggest successful litters are 10-11. Many of my does routinely have more than that during their first year, but anything over 8-10 I try to foster out.

I agree with @eco2pia, 8 is about the ideal size for healthy, fast-growing bunnies. Kits from bigger litters start out smaller and grow a little slower, although I haven't noticed a huge difference in butchering age unless they're from a really small litter (like 3-4). Once they get out and eating pellets, the smaller bunnies from big litters seem to catch up to those from smaller litters. But I do select for fast-growing kits, and have seen that change dramatically over the years (4.5 -5.5lbs at 8-9 weeks instead of 12).

I did have a doe successfully raise 15 out of a litter of 16, but since I did not have a foster doe to take the excess (a lot of excess!) I split the litter into two boxes and took one box out in the morning and the other out in the evening.

Yes, you can select for bigger or smaller litters, but probably not for a specific number. My Satins usually had 6-8 when I started but as you can probably guess, I kept the unusual does that had more than that, and in a few years saw a large increase in the average number of kits per litter for my herd.

And as I mentioned, it can change over the life of the doe: mine now have 10-14 per litter in their first year, typically around 8 their second year, and 4-6 during their third year. It works out well since the older does have small enough litters that they can take 2-4 fosters - they seem to be able to raise 8-10 bunnies even after they've stopped gestating that many. I have had a few 3-4-year-old Super Does that are still having 8 per litter, but I usually retire the doe by the end of her third season.

 

[tambayo]

3-5, but small (one person) household and raising rex dwarf for meat. 3 is minimum for enough warmth, 5 is pretty much max on what fits otherwise. Now i do expect a litter from a doe that has given 7 the last 2 kindles and my 5 kits doe gave 6 on the 3rd kindle. All in all i had all sizes from 2 (fail, not enough nest heat) to 8 (when one crawled out at 7-8 days and died of cold, my fault, front part nestbox to full so kit just fell out pretty much). For me and possible straight from hutch to pot (small freezer + how secure even here is the grid) about 4 is best, grow quickly enough, put boys in the pot before they get ideas about mom (10+ weeks) and leave girls with mom (although not all does are happy about that) up to 16 weeks or so.

 

[Therese]

My does produce an average of 8 kits in a litter. Some regularly produce 12-13, and once a doe produced 17(!). My does rarely lose kits, but she did lose two out of the 17.

Generally, the more kits, the smaller they are. But, they do catch up pretty quickly after they are weaned and have unlimited access to feed.

I had a litter of three once that were all prodigiously larger for their age than usual (about twice the size). It was different than if the dam had had a larger litter and then lost a few. We were wondering if they got more nutrition even before they were born because there were so few. If we could reproduce that scenario and get some breeders out of it, we would! Our experience is that the recommended culling of large litters down to the ideal number of 8 kits doesn't do the same thing as in that exceptional litter of large kits.

God bless you!

 

[dlynn]

Hi!
I am just wondering what your favorite biggest litter size? I just had a doe kindle 12 kits and she will be great. Her litters of 8 have been fat and fast growing. I had a different doe have 15 and she lost a few and we fostered a few. Those kits that were fostered are still much smaller than their fostermates despite being fed fat each day. There were 6 in the litter we fostered more into.

I guess I am asking what is the best biggest litter number? And can we select genetically for that?

I do not want litters of 6 per se. I have a big family so if this doe can su cessfully raise 12 within a week or two of getting to weight as a litter of 6, I will be happy. She is black and I hope to replace her with a nonblack daughter or 2 because I live in a hot place and want rabbits that do better in the heat. I will be giving her to my sister so am so happy that she can have a productive good mother.

My does have been kindling 9 and 12 but seem to raise 9 of those

Hi!
I am just wondering what your favorite biggest litter size? I just had a doe kindle 12 kits and she will be great. Her litters of 8 have been fat and fast growing. I had a different doe have 15 and she lost a few and we fostered a few. Those kits that were fostered are still much smaller than their fostermates despite being fed fat each day. There were 6 in the litter we fostered more into.

I guess I am asking what is the best biggest litter number? And can we select genetically for that?

I do not want litters of 6 per se. I have a big family so if this doe can su cessfully raise 12 within a week or two of getting to weight as a litter of 6, I will be happy. She is black and I hope to replace her with a nonblack daughter or 2 because I live in a hot place and want rabbits that do better in the heat. I will be giving her to my sister so am so happy that she can have a productive good mother.

Of the 4 litters so far my does kindled 9, 11,12,10...but always raised 8 of those each time. One doe died with 12 kits in here( not one of the 4 I'm counting) I read they have 8 nipples so 8 all get fed..

 

[ladysown]

Biggest successful litter I have had? 21. I divided them into two groups of 10 and 11. As they grew I put all the biggies in one group and all the smallies in a second group. Biggies were weaned at four weeks and smallies stayed with mom til 7 weeks or so. then divided girls and boys (most of the boys were culled for dog food I think I kept four of the best back for a bit). They all did fine.

 

[Alaska Satin]

Biggest successful litter I have had? 21. I divided them into two groups of 10 and 11. As they grew I put all the biggies in one group and all the smallies in a second group. Biggies were weaned at four weeks and smallies stayed with mom til 7 weeks or so. then divided girls and boys (most of the boys were culled for dog food I think I kept four of the best back for a bit). They all did fine.

Wow, that's impressive. What breed of rabbit was that?

 

[ladysown]

a harlequin

 

[hotzcatz]

English angoras here, the biggest litter has been twelve and she kept them all. She was fed a lot and higher nutrition stuff such as grain was added to her diet so she could care for them all.