Breeding Age? (update)

[SarahMelisse]

I'll be honest. Most people think I'm crazy, stupid, cruel, ignorant or any combination of those adjectives when I tell them how young I breed them. So most likely the breeder probably didn't breed so young.

Based on some solid advice from this board, I decided to try it and see. I took my Am Chin mix does and half of my NZ does and breed them starting around 16 weeks. The others, I waited. The ones that I waited on, half did okay. The other half had kits on the wire and didn't feed their babies. Every doe I bred early did excellent. My experience supported the advice I was given: the younger bred does tended to do better as first time mothers than the older does.

I recognize that this is NOT going to be everyone's experience. But it was mine and I'm okay with breeding so young. I am not pushing my does without regard for their health. I'm very careful with them, watch them throughout the pregnancies, post-partum and while nursing their kits. If they start to lose weight or look like they aren't do well, I back off the breeding schedule and give them time.

Bottom line, you need to be in tune with your rabbits and their health. My one doe just didn't want to breed. She was ready and should have lifted every time I bred her. But she wouldn't. So I wasn't going to push it. Unfortunately, that meant culling her.

So, watch your does. Don't be afraid to try what you want with your herd. Determine your goals and find a feeding/breeding/culling/butchering plan that works with your goals.

Thank you Ollitos for saying this! I recently got a lot of flack from another breeder for breeding my French Angora doe at 6 months old. I didn't want to breed her young and would have rather waited the 8 months I usually do, but my doe kept telling me she was ready. She was just about senior weight (I never expect her to be large because she was a runt anyhow), had a deep red vulva, and was exhibiting all the behaviors of being ready to breed. So I did. And you know what? She is my best mother so far and even delivered 7 healthy kits. I also have a 10 month old doe that is not interested at all... so I haven't pushed it.

So like Ollitos said, play it by ear. Your rabbits will let you know when they're ready.

 

[Demamma]

I breed my does at 5 months and they do very well. I also bred early yeas back as a teen and with my rabbits 8 years ago. I did not have problems. If your does are receptive to the buck I would go ahead and breed them. The timing is right for you. I noticed my does still got a little bigger after breeding. They are in no way stunted. I have New Zealand white's.

 

[Happy]

Keeping it from reaching its full potential is a form of harm.

Says who?
You are awfully quick to jump to a negative conclusion.
Animals growth is purposely stunted all the time, especially in breeding animals, to improve their fitness in the long term.

Then you are using an ambiguous term, "full potential", which covers many aspects, to describe something specific. If you mean something specific, be specific. In this instance, you seem to be meaning "the upper end of it's possible final weight". I'm not jumping to conclusions, I'm merely addressing what you wrote rather than what you were thinking. I personally would argue that you're helping it reach its full potential by keeping it from outgrowing that event.

 

[Dood]

If you had read my previous posts on this topic, rather than jumping in in the middle of a discussion, you would know that I had previouly cited my concerns about breeding a doe young and what I meant by the ambiguous term full potential in subsequent posts.

 

[GBov]

This has been a really interesting discussion. I have one doe living with her brother and they are now 4.5 months of age. Should I be seperating them or just waiting for the happy event :lol:

There were two bucks and one doe but had to take one buck out as he started to fight with the other two but these two seem very comfortable together.

All three are marked down for cookers rather than breeders but I dont mind waiting a few weeks on her. With six needing to be eaten, she can wait.

 

[MKirst]

If you have a colony situation with 5 does and 1 buck growing up together .. is it ideal to just let them get prego when ever they want to ?

 

[Duckcomando]

I got home today and my does are way larger than 5 weeks ago. I will weigh them tomorrow to see just how much larger they have gotten.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Welcome home!

 

[Duckcomando]

Well I have some bad news. After completing all my rabbitry maintenance I decided to check my does. one of my does turns out to be a buck! Man I was bummed. my other doe isnt ready at all plus shes light on weight. I called the breeder and he couldnt apologize enough. He is going to get me another doe. Problem is she will only be 8 weeks old when I get her. So now I have a extra pedigreed nzr buck!<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 27, 2013 10:38 pm __________<br /><br />What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

 

[3mina]

What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

A rainbow

 

[SarahMelisse]

What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

A rainbow

:rotfl:

 

[Miss M]

What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

Pink? :thinking:

Actually, 3mina's right! Albino hides all sorts of genes, so you could get all sorts of combinations in the nestbox!

 

[Dood]

What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

As others have stated you could get many different colours in the nest box but from my experience NZW are usually chestnut or black under their white coat and many have the steel gene, so those are the most likely colours your kits will be.

Of course they may both have hidden recessives and you could get other colours but these kits will all carry the non extension gene which makes your buck a red and not chestnut, so if you breed his chestnut daughters back to him you should get 50% red in the litter and if you breed his black daughters to him you'll get 50% tortoiseshell

 

[ollitos]

What should I expect if I breed my red buck to a white doe?

A rainbow

Yup, pretty much. My white buck and broken red does give me: black, white, broken black, orange agouti, broken agouti. Not a single red or fawn.

 

[Dood]

orange agouti

What do you mean by this colour?

Cream, fawn, orange, red are all non extension agouti's. If your orange kits lack a deep red colour you just need to work on adding the rufus factors and wideband gene that your red females passed on to their kits as well.

 

[ollitos]

Well, first of all, 90% of what you just said is Greek to me. I know zero about colors and genetics except for the questions I've asked and received answers here on Rabbit Talk.

I have kits from the NZW/NZ broken red combo that are agouti but the base color in it is orange. You can see it primarily at the base of the neck. Some of them are a darker orange than others.

With my AmChin doe crossed with the NZ/Champagne buck who is a fawn color, I get a lot of agouti that are brown based - again, the coloring at the base of the neck where the solid color shows the most is usually anywhere from a light tan to a medium brown.

I have no idea what the real name is for these colors. And I'm not really interested in breeding for colors.

 

[Dood]

Ok.

Most people call your orange agouti, chestnut our just plain old agouti. The ones who are more brown likely have a steel gene making them darker and called steel chestnut or steel agouti.

If you are keeping any sons from the red does as replacement bucks you will get some fawn, orange or red kits if he is bred to any red does or their daughters.

 

[ollitos]

We don't have room to keep any extras. There are quite a few I'd love to keep.

Here's video with the agouti bucks https://vimeo.com/56941483

 

[Duckcomando]

Well one thing is for sure. New Zealand Reds are in high demand where I live.

 

[Oceanrose]

We don't have room to keep any extras. There are quite a few I'd love to keep.

Here's video with the agouti bucks https://vimeo.com/56941483

In this video looks like you have 2 chestnut and 1 chocolate agouti at least from what I could see. I love your pens, every time I see them, I think that. Going to build some like it for the summer here .