Difficult Doe and Gentle Buck

[Jakub Witkowski]

Hi I have recently started breeding rabbits. One of my does is very difficult. She is a Giant Flemish / French Lop mix (one year old). She has been scared of everything and is quite jumpy ever since I got her.
I have paired her once with a Giant Flemish buck. She took a long time to lift and it took a few hours of him chasing after her for her to let him mount and fall off successfully and at that point she just let him mount several times. She ended up with a big nice litter but she was a terrible mum and I had to give most the kits to my other does for care.

This time I wanted to pair her with a French Lop male as I would like to keep one of the kits and replace her with it. However, the male is quite nice and gentle ( in comparison to the previous one), He chases her a bit and tries to mount but she will not lift for him. He is very nice to her and cleans her and tries to get her to like him I guess but she isn't responding. watched them for about 3 hours out of interest and saw only one successful falloff. Unlike with the other buck, I'm not afraid to leave these two together all day as there is no animosity at all.

Is there any way to help her along? It is really the last time I need to breed her and I would like it to be with this buck. Thx!

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

When a Doe is being difficult I usually hold her down and try lift her butt up for him and nudging him over to her

 

[Her Farmstead Rabbitry]

One falloff has given me a large litter before. But I had a doe who would not lift at all. So I tried lifting her but it didn't work. I used the rubber band method and lifted her. He got 2 falloffs and then when he got on her again she lifted by herself.

 

[ladysown]

if you had a fall-off, once and done works just fine here.

Just had a litter of seven born with a once and done (dutch rabbit).