Comet007
Well-known member
I haven't been on RT much at all for several months now, due to a myriad of health issues that really got out of hand this year. I've missed keeping up with everyone!
Despite all that fun stuff, we have been able to keep to our breeding schedule that I mapped out before we even brought home our breeding trio! I know many cautioned that we shouldn't expect our buns to cooperate with my plans, but I think we have been blessed with a whole lot of beginners luck!
Some may recall that we started with a NZR broken buck (Shaggy) and two NZB broken does (Daphne & Velma), and our does were the runts of their litter - so we were NOT expecting to be able to hit 8 weeks for processing time! We brought them home on March 1st when the girls were just 3 months old, and Shaggy was 7 months old, so we were all complete nubes at the time.
So far we have had four sets of litters born, and are due to breed three does again next week to start round five. We've been following a 25 day breed back plan, moving the kits to the grow out cages at 5 weeks, with the goal of processing the kits at 9 weeks.
The first three times we bred the does, they both took, and to my surprise I was able to palpate and feel embryos at about 12 days along! All three litters, Daphne delivered at 31 days and Velma at 32. So in round four, we added Dusty (a NZR broken we held back from round 1), and bred Velma a day early in the hope that she would deliver on the same day as the others. All three does had healthy litters, but Velma was obstinate and had hers on day 31 this time, so a day earlier than Daphne and Dusty's litters.
The first two rounds, we had a total of 22 live kits (each time) and about 75% made it to processing time. We have seemed to lose a few each round to injuries, and it appears that Velma is the one who tends to be more careless somehow. Although a good mother otherwise, for this reason she will be the first doe we replace.
In the weeks just prior to breeding rounds 3 & 4 we had highly unusual (for our area) hot weather, getting up to the mid 80's, so even though we put ice blocks in the cages we had smaller litter sizes. In round 3 one doe had 9 kits and the other had 7 and the kits were smaller than in round 2, and we had a higher loss rate, losing 5 kits, though two of those were due to injury while still in the nest box. I'm not sure if the does were just more careless when nursing, or what else could have happened.
In round 4 all three does had eight kits! They will be three weeks old tomorrow and Saturday, and so far we've only lost one kit, and that one died at two days old. We were really surprised that Dusty at five months old was already bigger than Daphne and Velma, who are fully grown now! We figured out that they had been runts, but since Dusty was from a first litter and those kits were smaller, we just figured that she would end up a smaller rabbit! A happy surprise, for sure.
As for processing, the first litters were smaller, so we waited until they were 11 weeks old. The second round were in the perfect range at 9 weeks. The third would have been just slightly small at 9 weeks, but they got a one week reprieve because I had an emergency surgery that week and wasn't up to a weekend of cooking school!
I think I'll do a separate post later about how our processing went, since this one's a bit long already!
Despite all that fun stuff, we have been able to keep to our breeding schedule that I mapped out before we even brought home our breeding trio! I know many cautioned that we shouldn't expect our buns to cooperate with my plans, but I think we have been blessed with a whole lot of beginners luck!
Some may recall that we started with a NZR broken buck (Shaggy) and two NZB broken does (Daphne & Velma), and our does were the runts of their litter - so we were NOT expecting to be able to hit 8 weeks for processing time! We brought them home on March 1st when the girls were just 3 months old, and Shaggy was 7 months old, so we were all complete nubes at the time.
So far we have had four sets of litters born, and are due to breed three does again next week to start round five. We've been following a 25 day breed back plan, moving the kits to the grow out cages at 5 weeks, with the goal of processing the kits at 9 weeks.
The first three times we bred the does, they both took, and to my surprise I was able to palpate and feel embryos at about 12 days along! All three litters, Daphne delivered at 31 days and Velma at 32. So in round four, we added Dusty (a NZR broken we held back from round 1), and bred Velma a day early in the hope that she would deliver on the same day as the others. All three does had healthy litters, but Velma was obstinate and had hers on day 31 this time, so a day earlier than Daphne and Dusty's litters.
The first two rounds, we had a total of 22 live kits (each time) and about 75% made it to processing time. We have seemed to lose a few each round to injuries, and it appears that Velma is the one who tends to be more careless somehow. Although a good mother otherwise, for this reason she will be the first doe we replace.
In the weeks just prior to breeding rounds 3 & 4 we had highly unusual (for our area) hot weather, getting up to the mid 80's, so even though we put ice blocks in the cages we had smaller litter sizes. In round 3 one doe had 9 kits and the other had 7 and the kits were smaller than in round 2, and we had a higher loss rate, losing 5 kits, though two of those were due to injury while still in the nest box. I'm not sure if the does were just more careless when nursing, or what else could have happened.
In round 4 all three does had eight kits! They will be three weeks old tomorrow and Saturday, and so far we've only lost one kit, and that one died at two days old. We were really surprised that Dusty at five months old was already bigger than Daphne and Velma, who are fully grown now! We figured out that they had been runts, but since Dusty was from a first litter and those kits were smaller, we just figured that she would end up a smaller rabbit! A happy surprise, for sure.
As for processing, the first litters were smaller, so we waited until they were 11 weeks old. The second round were in the perfect range at 9 weeks. The third would have been just slightly small at 9 weeks, but they got a one week reprieve because I had an emergency surgery that week and wasn't up to a weekend of cooking school!
I think I'll do a separate post later about how our processing went, since this one's a bit long already!
