Inadvertant breeding. Darn it.

[LBMBarbalooski]

Here in Northern Indiana, the summer temps are really hot and sticky. Our four french angoras have been ding pretty well in our garage thanks to several fans, iced two liter bottles and giving them plenty of play time in the rabbit run out in the shady back yard or in the kitchen/dining room in the air conditioned house. Here's the problem. The rabbits needed to be cooled down today so I out the does in the kitchen with baby gates at each entrance. The bucks were put in the dining room. There was a baby gate covered with a cardboard box side from our last appliance purchase. I thought this would be enough to keep them separated. It wasn't. The kids and I ran to the grocery store and when we came back all four bunnies were cozied up together in the kitchen. :x From the looks of the kitchen, they sure had some wild romping fun the 15 minutes we were gone. Lesson learned. Rabbits are very motivated at times. We were planning to breed the rabbits but not until this fall. This changes things a tad. The does are 1 and 2 years old. The 2 year old had a litter before I bought her a year ago. The bucks are just 6 months old.

So, now we wait and watch to see if anything happened to the does. How do I tell if they are pregnant? My husband told me he thinks this is not the first time this has happened which makes me wonder about the one doe who has gotten really fat the past two weeks. (Thanks husband for letting me know about this two weeks ago. :evil: ) I'm also bummed about it since I don't know which rabbit were together. This makes listing their pedigree a tad more difficult. What to do......suggestions?

Lesson learned.

 

[hucklekree]

I had something like this happen when I first got rabbits. It was in the heat of summer too but happened outside. We had them in their respective runs. Does on one side and buck on the other side. We left them out all day and locked up all night for weeks. Then one afternoon we went to pop ut them away and all three were together in the same run. The buck had dug under the fence and we had never thought to be vigilant. Lesson learned. No popples came of it though as i beleive the heat sterilized the buck whew! But we had to wait and wait for a whole month :x to be certain and by then we wanted popples so they were promptly bred when it became apparent that they didnt have any on the way.

Long story short heat might have sterilzed the bucks...but it sounds like yours were inside so maybe not? I dont think i was any help.

 

[SA Farm]

Do you have enough color diversity between the bucks and does to be able to tell by the color of the kits which was the father?

 

[hucklekree]

I am a nitwit ignore my response

 

[LBMBarbalooski]

One buck is a blue tort and the other is a self black. The does are a chocolate tort and a rew. I would think the any color variations will be fairly easy to figure out. The rabbits were indoors when they 'found' each other but live most of the time in the garage and out back. I am hoping the heat has sterilized them but the rew is getting very fat, testy and eating a lot. My husband thinks the bucks got to the does two weeks ago so I will know by the end of next week if she kindles or is just a pig. (She does snort at us a lot...pretty funny).