When can I start breeding?

[hlboswell]

I just recently acquired 6 mini Rex rabbits, 2 bucks and 4 does. They were born on November 27th, so they're a little over 2 months old. At what age can I start breeding?

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I think the generally accepted age is at least 6mos, but some will breed a bit earlier.

 

[Jana15]

We normally breed around 7 months, but thats just a personal preference.

 

[akane]

On mini rex 5-6months. They generally mature quickly and will sometimes breed their siblings at 8weeks. They could probably breed at 4months and remain healthy but a more mature doe should in theory be better at raising kits and have a larger litter. All the accidents we've had that were before 4months resulted in 1 or 2 kits that the doe completely failed on where as we have rarely lost a first time litter on a doe that was 5-6months. If I wait until 6-7months my does start to get fat because they don't need to put anymore energy in to growing and they aren't producing kits so I have to mix up diet food if I want to keep a doe over 5months not bred.

 

[hlboswell]

On mini rex 5-6months. They generally mature quickly and will sometimes breed their siblings at 8weeks. They could probably breed at 4months and remain healthy but a more mature doe should in theory be better at raising kits and have a larger litter. All the accidents we've had that were before 4months resulted in 1 or 2 kits that the doe completely failed on where as we have rarely lost a first time litter on a doe that was 5-6months. If I wait until 6-7months my does start to get fat because they don't need to put anymore energy in to growing and they aren't producing kits so I have to mix up diet food if I want to keep a doe over 5months not bred.

You said 'breeding siblings'. I thought you weren't suppose to breed siblings?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

You said 'breeding siblings'. I thought you weren't suppose to breed siblings?

At eight weeks the kits were probably still housed together so it was an accident. Breeding siblings is not ideal, but it can be done, especially if you are trying to strengthen a particular trait in a line and they both carry it. Generally mother/son, father/daughter, or grandparents are preferable to a sibling pairing.

Rodents and rabbits are commonly inbred- take the Hamster as an example. This is from the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Assoc.:
"The Syrian or golden hamster is native to southeast Europe and Asia Minor (northwest Syria). In 1930, a female and her litter were obtained in Syria and brought to Israel, and, from this family, the domesticated hamster was developed. Syrian hamsters were brought to the United States in 1938."

We have been breeding hamsters for over seventy years from these original siblings. Considering a hamster has a litter in 16 days, that is an awful lot of inbreeding!