Had a doe kindle this morning, and this is her 3rd litter in a row. We wanted to follow a 3 litter on, 1 litter off pattern. Does this sound reasonable? Also, how much time off should I typically give them for a break before putting her back into production? I was thinking of rebreeding her 30 days from her day 21, where I would typically rebreed her. What do you all do?
Giving a doe time off.
- Thread starter fuzzy9
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OneAcreFarm
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I think it depends on the doe...has she lost condition? Does she NEED time off?
The champagne does seem to need a month off several times a year but my creme, new zealand crosses, and mini rex don't appear to suffer any problems breeding back to back year round. Maybe when they get older since I have all young does. I was going to give them more of a break but some of them just become pests when they aren't pregnant. They will tease the bucks through the wire and get really grumpy at other rabbits. The more dominant ones become rather difficult to breed after being given a break because they are so eager they chase and mount the bucks until exhaustion. I ended up throwing out my planned schedule this past year partially because they tore down the colony divider to get to the bucks when I was trying to give them July off. Now I'm just breeding everyone provided they will breed, don't start having small litters, and maintain weight. If one of those things happen I will deal with it then.
Thank you for sharing your experience, because it addressed some things I was concerned about, like not getting her bred back after a break. It sounds like we had similar plans to begin with, so I guess we'll just go with it, and let her tell us when she needs a break.
to give a doe a break I just hold her off for a week. A week to a rabbit can make a big difference in their overall health. I do force mine to take a break over the summer though as I don't need to breed then and dislike losing rabbits due to heat stress.
