I know what most people would say but I'm going to ask anyways because I do love hearing everyone's point of view.
I have a doe who is an amazing producer. She consistently gives me litters of 8-10, she nurses them wonderfully, they are the first litters to be super fat and plump (the last litter literally outgrew the nesting box because of their SIZE before they were even opening their eyes!!), her kits are always docile. We have two of her daughters and the are equally wonderful producers. Their kits aren't growing quite as fast as their mother's do but only because this last litter from their mother supersized really fast!! The daughters are producing litters of equal size, equal health, equal temperament.
These are all meat mutts. We never sell these as breeding stock. The growout at the same rate as my New Zealands and dress out with the same live-to-dressed weight ratios as the NZs.
The ONLY downside is the kits are very prone to nest box eye.
I treat the Silver Fox, the New Zealands and these mutts all the same but litters from these three girls always end up with at least one kit with nestbox eye if not more. Right now, the mother has three kits with it. I know that genetically, some rabbits are more prone to certain diseases, illnesses, malformations, etc than others. Because these litters are always, without fail, destined for the dinner plate, I haven't worried about it.
But now that we've reached capacity and we have no vacancies for new rabbits, I'm starting to look harder at the pros and cons of my current breeding stock. My gut is telling me to keep these does through the summer and fall and then reassess. Once we get past all these crazy winter freezes, I'm going to experiment. I'd like to try adding ACV to the mother's water from conception to weaning for one litter, then none for the next litter and see if that yields any differences in the kits. Then proactively treat the eyes of one litter and see if using pink eye drops for cattle (vetrimycin?? can't remember the name) will prevent nestbox eye. I'm also going to watch the daughters and see if their kits are less likely to have nest box eye.
My feeling is that, in the end, I'll be culling all three of these girls. In the mean time, I'd like to see what I can learn.
I have a doe who is an amazing producer. She consistently gives me litters of 8-10, she nurses them wonderfully, they are the first litters to be super fat and plump (the last litter literally outgrew the nesting box because of their SIZE before they were even opening their eyes!!), her kits are always docile. We have two of her daughters and the are equally wonderful producers. Their kits aren't growing quite as fast as their mother's do but only because this last litter from their mother supersized really fast!! The daughters are producing litters of equal size, equal health, equal temperament.
These are all meat mutts. We never sell these as breeding stock. The growout at the same rate as my New Zealands and dress out with the same live-to-dressed weight ratios as the NZs.
The ONLY downside is the kits are very prone to nest box eye.
I treat the Silver Fox, the New Zealands and these mutts all the same but litters from these three girls always end up with at least one kit with nestbox eye if not more. Right now, the mother has three kits with it. I know that genetically, some rabbits are more prone to certain diseases, illnesses, malformations, etc than others. Because these litters are always, without fail, destined for the dinner plate, I haven't worried about it.
But now that we've reached capacity and we have no vacancies for new rabbits, I'm starting to look harder at the pros and cons of my current breeding stock. My gut is telling me to keep these does through the summer and fall and then reassess. Once we get past all these crazy winter freezes, I'm going to experiment. I'd like to try adding ACV to the mother's water from conception to weaning for one litter, then none for the next litter and see if that yields any differences in the kits. Then proactively treat the eyes of one litter and see if using pink eye drops for cattle (vetrimycin?? can't remember the name) will prevent nestbox eye. I'm also going to watch the daughters and see if their kits are less likely to have nest box eye.
My feeling is that, in the end, I'll be culling all three of these girls. In the mean time, I'd like to see what I can learn.
