Comet007
Well-known member
I haven't been on the forum as much recently, due to being immersed in garden planning and setup, but we've been thoroughly enjoying working with our breeding trio, and they are really doing well! It has been a learning curve, but their personalities are really starting to shine (except Velma, who still just sits in her corner). Shaggy and Daphne are both a kick in the pants to play with and watch.
Anyway, the girls turned four months on April 2nd, and their weights on Apr 4th were 8 Lb (Daphne) & 8 Lb 4 oz (Velma) so we started the trio on their "fertility" herbs on April 5th. 1/2 tablespoon of Parsley for the girls and 1 tablespoon of equal parts parsley, raspberry leaves and ginger for Shaggy each day. Also, in preparation of breeding, we wanted to do some cage maintenance on the girls' cages. They were 48" wide by 30" deep, which we really wanted to try, but I couldn't reach the girls if they were in a back corner. So DH took them down, cut off the back 4", cleaned and disinfected the cages, and installed the Sani-Nests. I think I'll do a separate post of the pictures. In any case, we had to move the girls across the aisle to the grow out cages, so one doe on each side of Shaggy. Velma stayed on the opposite side of her cage, but Shaggy and Daphne were intensely interested in each other, it was love at first sight.
We checked the girls color again on Apr 12th, and they were both a nice deep pink. So on Apr 16th we bred Shaggy and Daphne in the morning and Shaggy and Velma in the evening. Both of them had really good color! I'm going with what many on here have said, that the second
breeding really isn't necessary, which I hope turns out to be the case for us! We are really hoping that we can sync their litters so we can foster if necessary.
I was prepared for all kinds of dramatics and fighting, growling, etc. I told DH to be ready to grab her out if Daphne looked like she was going to kick the stuffing out of Shaggy lol. It ended up being rather anticlimactic. They sniffed at each other rather quickly, then she lay down with her nose pointing to the corner, and proceeded to lift her tail right up!
Unfortunately, Shaggy didn't have the foggiest notion what to do! He tried doing the deed on various locations of her body, nuzzled her, stamped his foot in frustration, lay sideways on top of her, etc. It was pretty funny to watch and I think that I got some really cute pictures. Haha - I feel a little perverted! Every time he sniffed at her tail, she would lift it right up, so eventually he got it right. The first few times that he fell over, I didn't think he was really well positioned, so I don't know about those. I think in total he actually fell over like five times. We took her out (which made him stamp his foot again!) and checked her - Shaggy actually tried to follow her out of the cage! It seemed like she was a little moist? But for a newbie, it was hard to tell. We put her in one more time, because they both seemed frustrated when we put her back in the cage next to him. She did the exact same thing, and just laid right down and lifted for him. The last time when I checked her, there was no doubting that he found his mark.
Here's Shaggy - he would nuzzle and groom her and rest between each round. For some reason he chose to rest laying across her one time, he actually ended up with his front feet on the opposite side of her right after this picture, and just lay there - she just stayed in the same place the entire time.
This is Daphne getting a treat (pumpkin seeds) for being such a good girl lol
Later that evening we bred him with Velma. When we first put her in she lay down and lifted for him - this time he knew what to do, and all went well. Then she proceeded to go sit in a corner and was making low warbling noises at him. He tried to give her kisses and groom her, but she just started grunting and growling at him, and he actually looked confused! He tried his best to get behind her in the corner, which of course he couldn't. After a few minutes I had DH move her toward the center of the cage and see what would happen - we didn't try to lift her for him, though. She did lift, while DH was holding her lightly at the shoulders, and Shaggy did fall off. She seemed calm, so he let her go and we closed the cage to see what would happen next. At that point she started to race around the cage, Shaggy was just turning from one side to the other, totally befuddled. Then she started really growling and nipped toward him, so I told DH to get her OUT! Unfortunately, he was in the middle of the cage and she was racing back and forth in the back, so it took a minute to get her. She lunged once more toward Shaggy and actually sheared off a big chunk of hair (no skin, thankfully), then DH managed to get her out. We checked her, and it looked like he hit the spot both times, so hopefully it was a successful breeding. What dumb luck that we bred the easy one first!
This is Velma right after the second breeding, saying - I don't want your stupid kisses!
And, unlike when we took Daphne and he tried to follow her out of the cage - this is him saying, Good Riddance! when we took Velma out!
Our intention, since the girls are from the same litter, is to be watching from the get-go for a doe that we like the color, has good body type and good personality to hold back, then replace either Daphne or Velma so we can get more color variety (for fun, these are meat rabbits). All things being equal, it looks like Daphne is our first choice. We will watch their temperament and mothering ability going forward, but we definitely like Daph more at this point! We do know that it's Velma's first time, so she's not out of the running. Even if we hold back a doe from the first litters, she will have two more chances before that Doe would be breeding age, since we are planning a 28 day breed back. It was interesting to note - she growled and bit at Shaggy, but she didn't try to do either toward my husband, so I am taking that as a positive sign!
Anyway, hopefully we will be able to feel some embryos when we try to palpate in 9-11 days - and hopefully we'll have some kits in 28 days!
-- Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:59 am --
Just a note - the staining that's still left on their paws is not from us. The cages they were in at the breeders were very dirty, and their paws were very stained, even up to the top of their paws a little. They are slowly fading away.
Anyway, the girls turned four months on April 2nd, and their weights on Apr 4th were 8 Lb (Daphne) & 8 Lb 4 oz (Velma) so we started the trio on their "fertility" herbs on April 5th. 1/2 tablespoon of Parsley for the girls and 1 tablespoon of equal parts parsley, raspberry leaves and ginger for Shaggy each day. Also, in preparation of breeding, we wanted to do some cage maintenance on the girls' cages. They were 48" wide by 30" deep, which we really wanted to try, but I couldn't reach the girls if they were in a back corner. So DH took them down, cut off the back 4", cleaned and disinfected the cages, and installed the Sani-Nests. I think I'll do a separate post of the pictures. In any case, we had to move the girls across the aisle to the grow out cages, so one doe on each side of Shaggy. Velma stayed on the opposite side of her cage, but Shaggy and Daphne were intensely interested in each other, it was love at first sight.
We checked the girls color again on Apr 12th, and they were both a nice deep pink. So on Apr 16th we bred Shaggy and Daphne in the morning and Shaggy and Velma in the evening. Both of them had really good color! I'm going with what many on here have said, that the second
breeding really isn't necessary, which I hope turns out to be the case for us! We are really hoping that we can sync their litters so we can foster if necessary.
I was prepared for all kinds of dramatics and fighting, growling, etc. I told DH to be ready to grab her out if Daphne looked like she was going to kick the stuffing out of Shaggy lol. It ended up being rather anticlimactic. They sniffed at each other rather quickly, then she lay down with her nose pointing to the corner, and proceeded to lift her tail right up!
Unfortunately, Shaggy didn't have the foggiest notion what to do! He tried doing the deed on various locations of her body, nuzzled her, stamped his foot in frustration, lay sideways on top of her, etc. It was pretty funny to watch and I think that I got some really cute pictures. Haha - I feel a little perverted! Every time he sniffed at her tail, she would lift it right up, so eventually he got it right. The first few times that he fell over, I didn't think he was really well positioned, so I don't know about those. I think in total he actually fell over like five times. We took her out (which made him stamp his foot again!) and checked her - Shaggy actually tried to follow her out of the cage! It seemed like she was a little moist? But for a newbie, it was hard to tell. We put her in one more time, because they both seemed frustrated when we put her back in the cage next to him. She did the exact same thing, and just laid right down and lifted for him. The last time when I checked her, there was no doubting that he found his mark.
Here's Shaggy - he would nuzzle and groom her and rest between each round. For some reason he chose to rest laying across her one time, he actually ended up with his front feet on the opposite side of her right after this picture, and just lay there - she just stayed in the same place the entire time.
This is Daphne getting a treat (pumpkin seeds) for being such a good girl lol
Later that evening we bred him with Velma. When we first put her in she lay down and lifted for him - this time he knew what to do, and all went well. Then she proceeded to go sit in a corner and was making low warbling noises at him. He tried to give her kisses and groom her, but she just started grunting and growling at him, and he actually looked confused! He tried his best to get behind her in the corner, which of course he couldn't. After a few minutes I had DH move her toward the center of the cage and see what would happen - we didn't try to lift her for him, though. She did lift, while DH was holding her lightly at the shoulders, and Shaggy did fall off. She seemed calm, so he let her go and we closed the cage to see what would happen next. At that point she started to race around the cage, Shaggy was just turning from one side to the other, totally befuddled. Then she started really growling and nipped toward him, so I told DH to get her OUT! Unfortunately, he was in the middle of the cage and she was racing back and forth in the back, so it took a minute to get her. She lunged once more toward Shaggy and actually sheared off a big chunk of hair (no skin, thankfully), then DH managed to get her out. We checked her, and it looked like he hit the spot both times, so hopefully it was a successful breeding. What dumb luck that we bred the easy one first!
This is Velma right after the second breeding, saying - I don't want your stupid kisses!
And, unlike when we took Daphne and he tried to follow her out of the cage - this is him saying, Good Riddance! when we took Velma out!
Our intention, since the girls are from the same litter, is to be watching from the get-go for a doe that we like the color, has good body type and good personality to hold back, then replace either Daphne or Velma so we can get more color variety (for fun, these are meat rabbits). All things being equal, it looks like Daphne is our first choice. We will watch their temperament and mothering ability going forward, but we definitely like Daph more at this point! We do know that it's Velma's first time, so she's not out of the running. Even if we hold back a doe from the first litters, she will have two more chances before that Doe would be breeding age, since we are planning a 28 day breed back. It was interesting to note - she growled and bit at Shaggy, but she didn't try to do either toward my husband, so I am taking that as a positive sign!
Anyway, hopefully we will be able to feel some embryos when we try to palpate in 9-11 days - and hopefully we'll have some kits in 28 days!
-- Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:59 am --
Just a note - the staining that's still left on their paws is not from us. The cages they were in at the breeders were very dirty, and their paws were very stained, even up to the top of their paws a little. They are slowly fading away.
