Reluctant buck

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hotzcatz

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He's a year and a half old, has had one successful litter before, but he's the most reluctant buck I've ever seen. The doe has to almost be aggressively ready to breed before he can manage to get the job done. Is there any way to encourage a buck to be more interested in breeding? Yesterday, I gave him a choice of two different does and he wasn't interested in either one.

He is a voracious eater, more so than most of the other bucks. He doesn't seem to be overweight nor much larger than the other bucks. His sire is also a voracious eater, so I've just thought it was genetic. His sire, however, is a much more aggressive breeder although at five and a half years old, he's getting too old. Should I sell this reluctant breeder and try to get another litter from his sire? Maybe try for another litter from his sire and keep him until that litter shows up would be a better plan.

These two rabbits are the only source of the agouti (chestnut) color pattern I have in the whole herd. It's a dominant color pattern for friggin's sake! How can it be so elusive?
 
when i have had a "problem" with a "lazy buck", - i house him next to a buck that is an aggressive breeder, - i let him watch the other buck breed does, ... and then , let him hate him through the wire divider, - after a few weeks, ,,, the "reluctant buck" is usually "ready to go"....
 
Usually the doe can be bred to more than just one buck, so I'll put her with the one I really want her to breed with first. If that doesn't work, then she gets shifted over to buck #2 and then #3 and then on down the line. If none of them get the job done, then she will go back to the beginning and start over. Usually, with any other buck, once the doe has gone off to a competitor, when she comes back, he will be interested even if he wasn't before. With this fawn buck, he just doesn't seem to care.

Maybe I could take the fawn buck out and let some other buck be in his space for an hour or so. Then when he was put back into 'his' space it would smell like an interloper. Then perhaps introducing the doe at that time would find him at a time of more aggression?
 
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