Max ages for breeding stock

[Steve]

I'm stil setting up my breeding pens and am having some difficulty getting my desired breeds. Most of the does I can find from local breeders are all older does.
I was juist wondering wat the best maximum ages for breeding does and bucks are.

 

[akane]

You can continue to breed them for 8-10years but litter sizes drop off, they don't get pregnant as easy or often, and complication risks increase after 4-5years.

 

[Steve]

Thanks akane for the info. Most does I get offered are from 2011 - 2012 so I guess at that age the rijks for complications would be be minimal.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I have heard that sometimes does will not breed as well in a new home due to the stress of the move. However, you have to start somewhere, and you can always eat them if they are poor producers.

I would get them and keep some does from the first litter(s) to grow out as replacements.

 

[Dood]

Most breeders keep the best and sell the rest.

I wouldn't recommend older production stock does and would suspect the does are not producing well which is why they are for sale.

Your best bet is to request young kits from the breeders best stock.

 

[akane]

The breeder may be selling them because they are not producing well but that doesn't really mean anything. They may have been wonderful producers in the earlier years so all you need is to get 1 good doe kit out of each to replace the mothers. It doesn't take full size litters of 8 and up to get that. 1 or 2 small litters of 3-5 is about all you need unless you get unlucky.

 

[skysthelimit]

It really depends on why the breeder is breeding. For meat, I would think the breeder would keep the does as long as possible, no reason to get rid of them. For show, keeping a doe too long creates a bottleneck.
I started with older does, and they still had big litters for me. The first 2 were three years old. I kept them for a year and culled because they out produced themselves. I have an 18 mos old doe now, and I have a 6 mos old doe from her and a jr litter of 3 keepers. There is basically nothing wrong with the doe, but for lack of space I would sell her if I could, because I no longer need her genetics. She was good enough to breed or I would have culled her, had two litters of 10 back to back and the last litter of 5.
I wouldn't give anybody crappy does, but some people would. I wouldn't take anything over 3, and it would have had to have had a litter within the last 3-4 mos. The ones I got all came bred and delivered successful litters.

 

[akane]

We started with mostly 2 year old does. Some of them never having been bred. None of the ones I bought as bred produced anything either. I had no trouble getting litters out of anything after I bought it but the does not taking at the sellers' ended my creme d'argent line. I was suppose to keep a buck kit from the bred doe to breed with. It started a nice meat rabbit line though because for lack of anything else to use I put our new 4year old chocolate mini rex buck with her and then kept a buck from that breeding to use as my main meat buck. Produced better rabbits than the pure champagnes I got a little later and the colors were very interesting. A few generations later I sold the meat mutts far easier than any of my purebreds.