Buck for Stud?

[macksmom98]

I am looking into possible ways to increase our rabbit revenue, while maintaining a quality and responsible operation I am curious what your experience has been with studding out a Buck rabbit? How has it worked? Did you have good luck? What did you charge or what is the market norm? Did you send him to her or bring the Doe to him like we would at home? I have no idea if there will be any interest in my area but figured it was worth a shot.......

 

[Dood]

Personally I would not chance my buck bringing home some disease I even quit showing for fear of disease

Treponema/vent disease is undetectable in the early stages not to mention the respiratory (pasturella, bordatella) and skin infections (staph, ring worm, mites, etc..) the does might carry :shrug:

 

[Ramjet]

I'm with Dood. I wouldn't risk the health of a quality buck coming in contact with someone else's rabbits. Just too much that can go wrong ..... too many things he can catch and spread to your herd.

If you did do it , you'd pretty much have to leave that animal in permanent quarantine never to come in contact with your own herd .... and I really question the demand as others are likely to have the same notion ..... There are enough things that can go wrong without introducing trouble from the outside.

 

[FourRingCircus]

I agree with the others. If it were a larger animal, with potential for a larger profit... maybe. But rabbits are relatively cheap and easy to come by. And the diseases that can be lingering are so easy to transfer, I just wouldn't risk it. I bought a rabbit from a guy that had poor quarantine practices that ended up spreading illness to a number of my rabbits - including my son's favorite pedigreed rabbit. I have never shown before, but am hesitant to even do that because of how easily things can spread.

 

[macksmom98]

I wondered about that myself. We are relatively new to rabbits and have not experienced any health problems, so that's not really on my radar unless pointed out by others. I also really wondered if there would even be a demand since Bucks are relatively cheap to purchase. Thanks for the responses anyway, ill look into some other options

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Thanks for the responses anyway, ill look into some other options

Sell young bucks instead!

 

[macksmom98]

I have done that with one and need to do it with a other. I just can't pick which one. And the rabbits are all my daughters so I like to include her in the decisions too. We have 1 more rabbit than we have cages for right now, and she has an acct that holds all of her rabbit profit (we are trying to have them pay for themselves, if possible). There is enough in there to feed everyone for about 4 more months, but not enough for anither cage and by then we should have more babies to sell. But because of the space issue we tried to ask her to think about how to make everyone more comfortable and get rid of one. Poor thing couldn't handle the stess and started crying! She had no issues with selling babies, but I think the situation with the adults is more complicated and she couldn't handle the pressure. We asked her to keep think about it and see, and she's gt to learn about making these types of decisions. This as well as managing finances and the biology lessons that come from owning animals are all the reasons we helped her start this little business. Here is the situation with the Bucks. Buck#1 is almost 5, a proven Buck, not as pretty of a color in our opinion, not a great personality, and is the messiest to clean up after. His cage is always awful. Buck #2 is less than a yr old, not proven, sweet personality, good color, and much neater. We tossed it around for several hours and basically decided to keep them both, but for sure not to get rid of the proven one until we can see what the other one can do. Deciding which female to sell is the same thing, but I only have one that has had a litter before, the other 3 are virgin Does. So we have a lot to think about.......what would ya all do? We grew too fast! People gave us a rabbit they didn't want anymore then we bought 2 that came with a ton of stuff for a great price....I think we are more than at capacity now!

 

[EnglishSpot]

Keep your young buck until he's old enough to get the job done regularly, then replace your senior buck with the more desireable. Granted that doesn't solve the here and now problem of not enough cages.

Perhaps dispensing with the least liked/poorly formed/bad personality doe whether proven or not is the way to go for right now. Is making that doe into dinner a possibility?

 

[macksmom98]

I think doing something with one of the 4 does is the best option, it's just picking which one, or even two. We kept one from our spring litter who is due with kits. 9/15, but I really don't think she took.
Then we have our poven doe. Then there are two other does that are about 7-8 months old. Problem is I either haven't had them long enough to see temperaments or know what kind of moms they will be, and right now everyone seems pretty friendly. The older Buck is the only one of the bunch with a bad personality right now.....so we can't (or don't want to) get rid of him yet.

 

[imajpm]

After my bloody nose scare I don't think I could handle having that much contact with outside bunnies!

Poor kiddo it's hard for the grownups too. I'd have a good hard look at your young does. Look for what you want, good type, good health, and good manners! Then I'd sell the doe who doesn't measure up to your favorite.

I got some good advice a long time ago. That was to look hard and log what you consider a flaw for each rabbit. Every rabbit has one. That helps when deciding who to keep and who to sell/cull.

 

[macksmom98]

That's a great idea. We will start a list together and give it a little more time. I think she will do ok once the decision is made, then we will more forward but it's just getting to that point. I think seeing it on paper will really help us both! We see new to rabbits and are mostly in the pet market raising Holland Lops, and don't have any knowledge of proper confirmation. But we can learn! Thanks for the suggestion