Stunted doe

[andyva]

We have what we were told was a NZ crossed with American Blue doe that seems a little small. First let me give you some background. We were given three satins, a white buck a black buck and a black doe which was later attacked by sex change fairies. The obvious black buck we promptly traded for the NZ/American doe. The black doe we tried to breed, much to his annoyance until recently when we found out his "secret". The NZ/American was the smallest in a litter that was weaned a little early, six weeks, my son picked her out because she was different, BEW in a litter of blues. She was understandably small, but she looked like she was growing. I just weighed her at four months and she is only 3 1/2 pounds. Our recently aquired Belgian appears to be passing her, and she is a month younger. I'm sure that the early weaning has something to do with this, but will rabbits eventually grow out of it, just take longer doing it. I know other livestock will usually reach almost their full potential after some inhibiting factor, (early weaning, bottle raising, illness) just take longer to do it. Or did the guy forget to tell me the dad was a "mini" NZ mix?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

That has got to be the funniest post I have read in a long time! :rotfl:

I don't know if the little gal will catch up or not, but I am leaning toward no. She still may be useful to your program despite her small size. I would breed her a time or two and see how the kits turn out, providing she is not attacked by the swarms of sex change fairies that seem to have taken up residence in your rabbitry.

I have a Rex doe that was born in December that is only six pounds. She was one of only two out of the litter that survived- their dam just wasn't producing any milk, and they died one by one. We ended up eating her brother, but she just had a litter of nine kits, and they are all doing well. She was bred to my LionHead buck (who weighs about 5lbs) as a fun little side project. Some of my big does have smaller litters, so she gets to stay a while.

 

[andyva]

I know sometimes with cows if the heifers breed early, it stunts their growth a little raising a calf, if the same age and breed heifer misses a breeding, she matures as a 1200 pounder, the others are only 900. In my opinion they both raise a calf equally, the 1200 pounder eats more doing it though. As long as they are big enough not to have birthing issues, it is OK. I don't know if rabbits work the same or not. My satin buck is kind of small at about 7 pounds,(If he even stays a buck!) so maybe if she grows just a little more it will be OK. I'm guessing 6 pounds might be good to shoot for?