When to breed?

[MamaSheepdog]

I have 3 does that turned 7 months on Dec. 24th. Seething with jealousy over all the popple-pics (kidding!), I want to breed them n-n-n-now!!! But I weighed the girls yesterday, and they are 6lbs. 2 oz, 6-10, and 6-14. So my gut tells me to let them grow for another month at least. With all the comments about does not doing well raising kits during winter, and my own personal experience with Feather, I think it may be more prudent to wait. But I don't want to! <Wail!>

What do you more experienced popple-producers say?

 

[MaggieJ]

If they are standard-size meat rabbits, I would wait until they weigh 7.5-8 pounds. How much do their parents weigh? That should be a fairly good indication of their adult weight.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I figured I was being premature wanting to breed them- but I do so want my own popple-blizzard!

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I know the prevailing wisdom is 8 months or 8lbs, but I have found with mine that the ones I bred at 6 months did better with their first litters than the ones I waited until 8mos/8lbs. I had been reading some research done by the WRSA and it said that they found the best time to breed was actually right around 5mos. Now, this is for commercial meat rabbits, not show rabbits. They said that the does were better moms and typically had better litter results when bred for the first time between 5 and 6 months. The moms will probably not grow as big as they could have, if allowed to get to 8mos/8lbs before breeding, but these moms are not used for anything but producing meat rabbits. Just a slightly different perspective...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Hmmm... didn't know the 8 months/8lbs. rule... I wonder why the younger does had better results? That goes contrary to logic. Good to know, but my does have passed that 5-6 month window, so I guess I'll wait. <sigh! Want popples NOW!>

I have 2 slightly older maiden does that are bred, along with a senior (hopefully, anyway!)- I'll have to double-check how old they were when I bred them.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

hm... thats interesting.
i'm still catching on to all the stuff about rabbits. hadnt heard of the 8 months/8 pounds rule. that is interesting though because with goats there is an 8 month/80pounds rule.
just caught my attention and had to think aloud.

 

[MaggieJ]

That is interesting, One Acre Farm. Goes against my gut feeling that maturity makes for better mothers, but I have no statistics or studies to back it up.

 

[sommrluv]

What's the opinion on smaller animals, like dutches?

 

[OneAcreFarm]

hm... thats interesting.
i'm still catching on to all the stuff about rabbits. hadnt heard of the 8 months/8 pounds rule. that is interesting though because with goats there is an 8 month/80pounds rule.
just caught my attention and had to think aloud.

I don't know that it is a RULE, per se, but I have heard this from lots of rabbit folk.<br /><br />__________ Wed Dec 28, 2011 12:02 pm __________<br /><br />

That is interesting, One Acre Farm. Goes against my gut feeling that maturity makes for better mothers, but I have no statistics or studies to back it up.

I know, right? I will find the link to that study so you can look at it. It was done overseas, but they used NZW I think.

 

[ladysown]

Seven mpnths old. Breed them. Worst that happens you lose a litter. But you probably won't. At their weights theywill do just fine

 

[kotapony]

It does seem counterintuitive that they actually do better bred young. I have in my notes someone on HT posted that for commercial breeding you can start at 4.5 months or 7 pounds, whichever comes first. I went ahead and bred mine at 5 months for the first time, and have now had 2 litters with no problems and no lost kits. I plan to go ahead and breed my replacement doe at 5 months and just see what happens.

These are the times I wish I had a big rabbitry. It would amuse me to repeat studies like this one and see what kind of results I got.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I have in my notes someone on HT posted that for commercial breeding you can start at 4.5 months or 7 pounds, whichever comes first. I went ahead and bred mine at 5 months for the first time, and have now had 2 litters with no problems and no lost kits.
These are the times I wish I had a big rabbitry. It would amuse me to repeat studies like this one and see what kind of results I got.

We do have a big rabbitry! The virtual RT rabbitry.

I believe my youngest does are around 5 months old, so I may just go ahead and breed a doe from each age group and see how they do. Perhaps Maggie or Midnight coder could make it a sticky so everyone can post their results, and eventually we should have a nice body of data to evaluate.

 

[sommrluv]

I am new to rabbits, and I only know what I read...here, other sites, books books books books and more books. I read for about a year before I finally felt safe enough to own rabbits.

So basically I'm a noob and anything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. LoL

One of my very first kits I kept because she is SO sweet. She'll push up against my hand for a pet and fall on her side so I rub her belly. (weird, huh?) She's the biggest of the litter and a daughter (I believe because of her markings) of my dutch doe that died in labor. My other doe is solid black with a light rust color on her in spots, but she throws some very dutchy looking kits so it's all a crapshoot for me.

She is 4 months, 1 week old. She weighs over 5 lbs, and is currently bigger than her father. She looks nearly twice the size of her mother. But she's only about 24 oz or so bigger. She has not gained any weight in about three weeks. She gets really agitated if I don't visit her first, she'll rip the door to her cage open, run in circles around her cage...a lot behaviour my 'randy' does exhibit.

I always tie their hay into little balls, it helps with waste. Last week she started HUMPING the hay balls. I kid you not. The dutch buck is right under her, so I'm not sure if this contributes to her behaviour or not.

But yesterday after a week of this behaviour...DH and I had been talking about breeding her, he wanted to wait until 7 months, which I'm fine with, but she is getting out of hand. When she starts running in circles all the males in the barn start freaking out. So I bred her yesterday. It's a pure meat production, so I have no huge regrets. It's just getting weird to have her stand at her door and thrash it back and forth and grunt until I pay her some mind.

She took right to it the first time...humping the buck, lifting for him, but wasn't a fan for the second breeding and whimpered.

So I have no clue yet if I did something horrible, but she was getting difficult to handle. And I'll be happy to report back any happenings. I'd probably be glad if she didn't take, but she did calm down very slightly. No door banging.

 

[akane]

The averages I always see for small breeds is 5-6months and large breeds 6-8months.

Some rabbits are just plain too annoying not to keep bred. They'll drive themselves, any bucks in the area, and you nuts with their hormones. This is why my creme d'argent has been bred pretty much constantly for more than year. I planned breaks for her. She just wasn't interested.

 

[sommrluv]

That makes me feel better, akane.

Since we're on the subject, when do you generally breedback? I have an NZW who failed the first litter, but took on her second. Problem is, I bred her to both bucks and all kits were very obviously not my nzw buck. I'd like to breed her asap to find out, but keeping a useless buck is less important than making sure she is in good condition. Her kits were born Dec. 4th so they won't even be 8 weeks until January 29th. I'm pretty sure she's almost weened them but she only had five so I'd like to keep them in there until 8 weeks. Should I breed her when I remove them?

Can I bump it up to breeder her when they are six weeks old? They are in a concrete block building with a dirt floor. The building has an attic but we've closed off the staircase to keep as much heat as possible. We've had nights in the teens with no frozen bottles so far (knock on wood). It's been pretty comfortable in there...high 40's to 50's.

 

[akane]

The ones I have control over get bred again 2-4weeks after having kits depending on condition and if I want more from that doe at that time. That means I can wean the kits around 5-6weeks and still sometimes have a gap before the next litter. My colony does get bred within 3 days of giving birth and wean their kits by 4 weeks. I have no skinny animals. I quit scheduling breaks and certain wait times between breeding because it hasn't been necessary. My does stay in condition and want bred except during times of extreme weather like when it was 100F+ out there and when it was -20 to -30F last winter with no sunlight. I breed certain does back quickly even if not in colony because after a week or 2 from giving birth they start to get overly hormonal and will beat up my bucks chasing and mounting them for not getting the job done fast enough. Every time I tried giving those does a break I'd have to scruff them at the next breeding in order for the buck to have time to get in position.