Q & A

[jaxmarblebuns]

I have one of my Rex does with a long shoulder area, not great type, and has been incredibly difficult to get her to gain weight. She is 7 months and 6.9 lbs. I am breeding for meat. As soon as she reaches 7lbs will be my first time breeding my rabbits. Is she worth it? Should I cut her out of my program now, or work with her for a while just so I can learn the ropes on a less expensive less than ideal rabbit? I have a good buck....but I'm anticipating all her offspring being for freezer camp.

as long as there are no life effecting problems i think it would be ok to "practice" with that doe, just a litter or two of meat rabbits. that way you aren't possibly messing up good genetics of better rabbits. after one to two littler though i think it would be better not to breed her mostly because of size but also because of type it would probably take a lot of breeding to get good quality rabbits from her genetic even if she is paired with a perfect buck.

 

[jaxmarblebuns]

Recently my Buck Russia has been acting like a brat lately. He gets grunty/squeaky when we picked him up, but hes super nice when he's in his cage. He's also pooping EVERYWHERE on the floor. He'll follow after out two she-cats, Trubbish and Twitter and try to mount them, as well as trying to mount my arm sometimes. He's going to go to the next show near the end of this month, and I'm hoping he doesn't keep this attitude. He is about 6 and a half months old. Is this a teenager-like state, where he has lots of harmones? Will he stop when he grows up? It started suddenly and he wasn't like this for a while.

at that age it probably hormones kicking in, try and give him his own space while still work with him. if he get arnery than just back off for a minute and try a again. I've herd that giving rabbits treat when they do something you want them to can work (like if he stays posed for a long time) i have never tried this but it seems to work for others. routine handling will also help i like to do show/posing practice for 30 mins a day and then at least an hour of just hanging out with them to socialize them.

 

[MuddyFarms]

I have one of my Rex does with a long shoulder area, not great type, and has been incredibly difficult to get her to gain weight. She is 7 months and 6.9 lbs. I am breeding for meat. As soon as she reaches 7lbs will be my first time breeding my rabbits. Is she worth it? Should I cut her out of my program now, or work with her for a while just so I can learn the ropes on a less expensive less than ideal rabbit? I have a good buck....but I'm anticipating all her offspring being for freezer camp.

Hey @LatchawBriarPatch - Just wanted to mention that the original Rex stock I purchased as 8-week-olds took significantly longer to reach adult weight than the kits I have raised from them. One doe was a good six months and a low 6lb 11oz. She was kinda stuck at that weight, so knowing that Rex can sometimes be only 7.5lbs as adults, I went ahead and bred her. It was at that point that she began growing again, and she ended up getting to 8lb 8oz as an adult doe (BTW- the weight at which she was bred is about 80% of what her adult weight ended up being.). She produces some awesome stock that reach full weight quickly. I read somewhere that the stock (any animal) one buys will not always be as good as what they end up producing on your farm. It seems that bringing in young rabbits can mess with their growth a bit. The ones you raise can be better suited to your climate, methods, feed, etc. I think it would be a good idea to breed her and see what kind of kits she produces, so you can use that data for decisions.

 

[HTAcres]

why would i lie about something like that? I'd love to show you next time i have kits, if i can figure out a good way to. i do recheck at 8 weeks when weening just to make sure, but I've only been mistaken twice that i can remember. I suppose i should have explained a little better in my original comment because it can vary from breed to breed depending on size. the pictures that muddyfarms posted are pretty accurate as well

I for one would LOVE to see that!

 

[jaxmarblebuns]

I for one would LOVE to see that!

OK i would have a litter for a few months, but i will try my best to have it make sense when i do.

 

[SixGun]

Hey- I found a post with some pictures about sexing newborn kits a while back:

https://rabbittalk.com/threads/sexing-newborn-kits-pics.6152/#post-60593
Never tried it, though!

Yup, those are great for day old kits. By ten days they have changed quite a but and you don't have that same clear cut picture because they've furred out. Thats why I found 10 days to be a less possible time. If the OP had said newborn, I would agree, although I don't think 100% accuracy or even 90% accuracy would be likely. When I've sexed at day old they've been accurate-ish, but its difficult to keep track of kits, since even if you make ear tattooed marks they're often faded by 4 weeks. If the OP can do it though, Great!

 

[SixGun]

why would i lie about something like that? I'd love to show you next time i have kits, if i can figure out a good way to. i do recheck at 8 weeks when weening just to make sure, but I've only been mistaken twice that i can remember. I suppose i should have explained a little better in my original comment because it can vary from breed to breed depending on size. the pictures that muddyfarms posted are pretty accurate as well

Didn't say you lied. I just said I find it hard to believe. Newborn is one thing that I've seen done, and tried with only limited success... and then 4 weeks and after, with 5 weeks being much more accurate, but 10 days? There's just nothing to even see. I look forward to what you post when you have kits again.

 

[MuddyFarms]

Yup, those are great for day old kits. By ten days they have changed quite a but and you don't have that same clear cut picture because they've furred out. Thats why I found 10 days to be a less possible time. If the OP had said newborn, I would agree, although I don't think 100% accuracy or even 90% accuracy would be likely. When I've sexed at day old they've been accurate-ish, but its difficult to keep track of kits, since even if you make ear tattooed marks they're often faded by 4 weeks. If the OP can do it though, Great!

Ah- makes sense!

 

[jaxmarblebuns]

I'm bored again and have nothing better to do, so I'm "opening this back up." Feel free to ask any questions and I will answer them to the best of my knowledge. See first post in the thread for more info on me/my knowledge base.

 

[Lil Acorn Acres Farm]

I raise goats. So I'm really new to rabbits. Actually most of what I know I found the information here.
I saw my first fall offs a few weeks ago. But not sure if they settled. It's been really hot.
So my question is this. The wild rabbits in the yard have fleas. My rabbits are chest high off the ground. Is there a preventative measure to keep my rabbits from getting fleas?

 

[Cindy in SD]

I raise goats. So I'm really new to rabbits. Actually most of what I know I found the information here.
I saw my first fall offs a few weeks ago. But not sure if they settled. It's been really hot.
So my question is this. The wild rabbits in the yard have fleas. My rabbits are chest high off the ground. Is there a preventative measure to keep my rabbits from getting fleas?

Catnip repels mosquitoes successfully ime, when used in a lotion. IDK how well it would work on fleas as we don't have them here, but you could do a bit of research and see what ppl say. We don't have mosquitoes either, except around the lakes, where they're horrible.

If your rabbits are in an outdoor hutch, you might try growing some catnip around their little houses. If it doesn't seem to work, you can always feed it to them; mine love it.

Around here, hardly anything becomes invasive (except pine trees & thistles), but the catnip I planted years ago is still popping up here & there. Not what I'd call invasive, but it does survive & reproduce. Sooo, it's easy to grow, but if your climate is milder than mine, be careful with it.

 

[jaxmarblebuns]

I raise goats. So I'm really new to rabbits. Actually most of what I know I found the information here.
I saw my first fall offs a few weeks ago. But not sure if they settled. It's been really hot.
So my question is this. The wild rabbits in the yard have fleas. My rabbits are chest high off the ground. Is there a preventative measure to keep my rabbits from getting fleas?

I am not super well versed in natural preventatives, as we have never really had to deal with mite/fleas in the past. However, in the last three years mites have been going crazy across my entire state thanks to record heat. You can use revolution for dogs, in the USA it is only prescription However you can buy it from this website and have it shipped over from Australia (buy the large dog one, it’s the exact same formula but a larger bottle for the same price). Just place two small drops on the skin behind the ears (you want it as far out of reach from them ingesting it as possible) and massage it in. and then you treat one every 30 days.

I had to treat my herd just last month, it was my first using the product, the results were practically instantaneous, the next day all of them were dead and I just needed to brush them out. So far it doesn’t seem to have any negative affects on the rabbits ether. It is the most common flea treatment for rabbits, both prescribed by vets and in the show/meat community.

 

[Lil Acorn Acres Farm]

I am not super well versed in natural preventatives, as we have never really had to deal with mite/fleas in the past. However, in the last three years mites have been going crazy across my entire state thanks to record heat. You can use revolution for dogs, in the USA it is only prescription However you can buy it from this website and have it shipped over from Australia (buy the large dog one, it’s the exact same formula but a larger bottle for the same price). Just place two small drops on the skin behind the ears (you want it as far out of reach from them ingesting it as possible) and massage it in. and then you treat one every 30 days.

I had to treat my herd just last month, it was my first using the product, the results were practically instantaneous, the next day all of them were dead and I just needed to brush them out. So far it doesn’t seem to have any negative affects on the rabbits ether. It is the most common flea treatment for rabbits, both prescribed by vets and in the show/meat community.

Thank you. We don't have them on the rabbits yet.
We were eating the wild ones and that's when we decided to go with home grown. I cleaned them in the house so that's the other thing I learned on this site. Do the messy work outside.