I now have a trio of californians. They are skittish and will box at me sometimes. The male doesnt box he just runs. And the boy and older girl are small where as the other doe who is a sister to the buck and 2 weeks younger than older one is probably a pound plus bigger than both. The buck is 5 1/2 to 6 pounds at 4 months. The does I cant weigh because of the anger issues. I have new zealands at 7 plus pounds at 3 months so i have the growth i want with them. Do you think I should sell all of the cali's or keep the bigger doe? I have no problem selling anything and the empty cages would be nice to get some more of the good growing new zealands as I only have 3 does that big. Any help would be great thanks.
Trying to decide to keep a breed or not.
- Thread starter CameronW
- Start date
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My hybrids out grow my purebreds so I would keep the doe and the buck and breed them to a NZ to see if the kits out grow the pure NZ and see if the doe, produces larger or healthier litters, makes more milk or has better mothering skills, if not then cull them.
BlueLove16
Well-known member
they may not have been socialized, the good kits you can keep and just make sure their socialized better. doesnt sound like their mean, just nervous so they react defensively
the guy i bought them from had probably 150 rabbits in that barn plus 2 other barns so not much handling but my problem is more of the slow growth and small size these are just meat rabbits but the new zealands are pretty calm<br /><br />__________ Wed Jan 09, 2013 8:05 pm __________<br /><br />i was thinking of keeping the big doe for hybrid crossing so that was my main problem
Cali's are smaller and lighter boned than NZ but he meat to bone ratio should be better. I do agree that their growth rate seems a bit slow.
Ok, thanks I think that I will keep the larger doe and sell the smaller older doe and the buck. I have a friend that has a cali buck that I can use if I want. And this way I can bring in some more new zealands from the more commercial lines. I think the cali's are from a show line that the guy used to breed meat pens. Whereas the NZW are from a commercial breeder.
