Breeding challenges

[Mannbuns]

Great news that there is no crust or damage.

It sounds like you may be describing the scent glands on either side of the vent. They often have some amount of yellowish-to-dark reddish oil in them; an accumulation sometimes looks like little balls or seeds. It could be mistaken for poop or blood. I don't usually do anything about it - the amounts come and go but the rabbit seems to take care of it. If it bothers you or gets gross, you can gently clean them up with a Q-tip.

Here is where the ventral scent glands are (there is also a scent gland under the chin). This image is from wikivet.net with my mark-ups:
View attachment 33012

The urethra is inside the rabbit; urine and semen both come out the same tube (the penis).
View attachment 33013
I'm sorry I cannot credit the above diagram; it was on the internet without information about its origin.

Ok that makes me feel a lot better. I was afraid something was really wrong with him!

I agree with you about the snuffles. It does often look like thick white stuff from his nose, but I haven't wiped it off to see. We decided not to do the vet because of cost. I will try the vetRX and see if that makes any difference.

I appreciate all the time you've spent helping me! This has been very frustrating and I'm thankful for a source to find help.

 

[Br. Fidelis Ebeyer]

I agree with ladysown. For me, at least, foolproof breeding has been when I put a buck and doe in a larger area that neither can claim as their territory. 'Larger Area' meaning 30 square feet or more. I use a hallway in the rabbit building that I can close off. I provide food and water, and several places for the doe to hide; like a box or something in a corner that she can get behind. The doe usually is skittish and hides for a day or so. But eventually (sometimes 2-3 days later) I'll see the two of them lying side by side. I've left them together for as long as two weeks.

I keep reading that the doe can damage the buck, but I've never seen this sort of aggression. I think being in a larger area, a non-territorial area, and providing hiding spaces must be the difference between war and peace between the two rabbits.

I do something similar too!

A lot of sites say that you should NEVER leave the two rabbits unsupervised for breeding because of possible “fighting”. I've never had that problem. In fact most of my successful breeds were when we left the two by themselves for a few days. The one downside is that you don’t necessarily know what is going on when you’re gone. In your experience, when the two lay next to each other, is that a sign of successful mating? I’ve definitely seen this before in our herd. The difficulty with this method is that you don’t know how many fall offs you get.

 

[tambayo]

If a doe in the bucks cage picks a fight it is usually in the first 15 minutes max. I do leave does in longer sometimes, but only if they don't fight or race round the walls.
Breeding can be trickier this time of the year, although i bred a doe about 10 days ago because she was showing nesting behaviour (busy with a mouth full of bedding material). So clearly having kits in mind i put her in with an unproven buck. I am sure of one fall off, but that doe is like that anyway. We'll see if it took.

 

[Br. Fidelis Ebeyer]

If a doe in the bucks cage picks a fight it is usually in the first 15 minutes max. I do leave does in longer sometimes, but only if they don't fight or race round the walls.
Breeding can be trickier this time of the year, although i bred a doe about 10 days ago because she was showing nesting behaviour (busy with a mouth full of bedding material). So clearly having kits in mind i put her in with an unproven buck. I am sure of one fall off, but that doe is like that anyway. We'll see if it took.

Interesting,

Can hay stashing be a sign that the doe wants to be bred? We have a doe that hay stashes somewhat randomly but doesn’t really make a nest when I give her the box. I wondered what that meant.

 

[tambayo]

She is a proven doe and checking her vent showed her very much fertile, so from this example it seems so. Timing is a bit off for me, but i'll work around it if i have to. Learning what your rabbits try to tell you and working with them makes life easier overall.