need advice

[cottontail]

his will be my third post and hopefully someone an help me. I have 5 does, 1 buck. Right now there are 2 californians and a new zealand red buck in my shed as a colony. there was a few fights with the girls when I introduced them but now it is ok. they are both pregant. the NZ red has had her 9 babies a week ago and is in her own cage in the shed. I have 2 others I think a new zealand broken and a black silver fox. they are both about 5 weeks old, sharing the same cage in my house. my thoughts are to introduce all of them in the outside colony after the last californian kits are weaned and seperated to the growout cage. I heard they should be dry when I introduce them. should I introduce the young ones to the momma red when her kits are 3 weeks old? The 2 will be 7 weeks old by then. I can introdue them in a 9x15 pen with lots of places to hide.
I am thinking of digging down 3 feet along the perimiter of the 16X16 area and placeing indstrialized fencing so they cannot dig out. The will have tons of hiding spots before they start to dig and make their natural dens under round. they wll have acces to the shed also. I will have a 5 foot fence and netting on top. I know they will be ferral and harder to catch but I want them to be as natural as possible. Please any suggestions?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I raise in cages, so will leave it to others to give input on the introductions of the rabbits... but I do have a suggestion for catching your rabbits. If you feed in one corner of the pen, you can block them in with a temporary barrier, or make it a permanent gated area, leaving the gate open for free access until you need to catch them.

 

[avdpas77]

I am a bit uncertain about your description, or exactly what you are asking, but I will throw in a few thoughts on my own experiences. Multiple adult bucks in the same colony does not work well. In fact 1 adult buck left in a colony will re-breed the does immediately after they kindle, and your doe will be giving birth to a 2nd(3rd, 4th etc.) litter when the first litter is 4 weeks old.

In a colony, the rabbits will usually dig their burrow against and under the most "substantial" object, if that is s ahed foundation, or a large rock, that is usually where they will dig, if there is nothing but fences, they will dig attempt to dig under them. One side of my colony was inclosed by a shed foundation and they never tried digging under the fence.

I had an experimental (outside) colony with one buck and one doe in a 10' x 24' enclosure. after about two litters, I started having occasional coccidiosis show up in the (grown out) litters. By the end of a year, when I terminated the experiment, every kit was showing moderate to severe coccidiosis. The pen had existed in that place for 15 years with no animal larger than a bird or mice being in it before I introduced the rabbits, before that no animals had been raised there.

I decided that unless one had a much larger area, that even 1 pair of rabbits was too much. Perhaps if it was inside and the ground had remained dry, there would not have been a problem.

 

[cottontail]

That is a great idea. I have an extra large wire dog crate I can use. I will try posting pictures.