when should i???

Rabbit Talk  Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

sarai

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 2, 2020
Messages
60
Reaction score
2
hi ya'll i was wondering about weaning kits.
i heard someone say something about weaning them early at around 2 weeks :?
so how do you do that i want to wean my kits early
so how do i do that if you all can give me some links or something that would help a lot!!!
:D :D :D
 
It's not recomended to weane kits early, it makes them far more prone to all kinds of deseases and makes them very vulnerable to early death. I keep my kits with their moms until they sell or get big enough for chopping at 3months or so.
When I do decide to split the mom and kits it'll be at 5 weeks minimum ideally, 2 months minimum for my english angoras.
There are always exeptions, maybe the mom died, maybe she has too many kits and some need to be removed or maybe one devellopped a health issue that needs treatment and cant stay in with the others. The youngest I've chosen to weane at is 3 weeks because of a severe eye infection that needed hourly treatment and I would highly recomend doing all you can to keep them that long agaisnt all odds if you can manage. At 3 weeks They've already started eating hay naturally so even if they're not weaned yet, it's easier to do at this point. Before that, you'll have issues, at 2 weeks or less they arent strong enough to chew the food and can't drink water by themselves yet. They are 100% on milk at this time wich means you'd have to feed them formula somehow or risk losing half the litter.

My first year of breeding I've had a mom die, leaving her 2 week olds and neither me or my friend had another female that could adopt or any formula available. I managed to get them to eat apples, they were easier to chew and juicy so they didnt lack fluids that way. But they grew slower and I ended up losing a few kits to malnourishment. Even at 3 weeks they hadnt started eating hay, I managed to add carrots and lettuce to their diets but that was it. I ended up taking a young 6week old male I bought and placing him with them. They loved him and always swarmed him (see my avatar) and they finally learned to eat hay after following his exemple.

Finally, I've had petshop suppliers force me to weane at 4 weeks cause they needed the bunnies to be smaller to sell and I hated that. He didnt care about their welfare, just about profit. From my perspective, 5 weeks is the best timing for most thougher breeds, while more fragile ones like english angoras need 2 months.
 
We wean at 4-5 weeks. By then the kits are eating hay and willow and whatever other fresh forage is available at the time. They are also eating grain--wheat and oats--we don't feed pellets. We don't give our does the grains except when they're nursing a litter or in cold winter weather and have been concerned that the does would get fat if left with kits that are not taking much milk. The does seem to avoid letting the kits nurse by 4 weeks and the kits don't seem to miss the doe at that age.
We're raising for meat, started with NZW does and Silver Fox buck, and our 'meat mutts' are all descended from them. Have no experience with other breeds, don't know what difference it would make in weaning time.
 
thx bright now mine are 3 weeks and i want to ween at 4 weeks
 
I wean somewhere in the 6-8 week range usually, depending on my litter sizes.

I know many people have does who can't stand older litters. I don't keep fussy does myself, I just give them something to jump up on away from the kits. Some does love having the company, and will let kits climb all over them and sleep right on their backs. I'll admit, those are my favorite girls.

I find my bigger litters (8+ kits) can get a bit crowded before 8 weeks, and it's inconvenient to have to fill j feeders more than once a day, so it's usually the boys who get their own growout pen before that. :lol:

A very small litter (3 or less )sometimes calls for a more rapid breed back to keep a chubby doe in good condition, so I may rebreed the doe and give her her own space again before my usual 8 week point.

I'd like to also mention, no matter what age you decide to wean, it is illegal to sell rabbits as pets before 8 weeks old in many places. Definitely check your local laws.
 
Back
Top