I've asked before but always along with other questions and this one didn't get answered. How long would you expect to keep breeding a doe? Is age more important or the number of litters. If breed matters, I'm raising meat mutts that started with NZW and SF. The 2 does I have now are 2 years old and had 3 litters each last year and 3 again this year. We also bred a couple young does this spring and they had successful litters but not as good as their mother so we sold them to someone else just starting and have kept out 3 does from this year's litters to breed next year.
From what I've read here on RT some people seem to change does often to get different colors or because the younger ones are an improvement. On the other hand you never know what a doe will do until you try her and the one junior that we tried and she lost all of her first litter and 7 of 11 from the second. I would rather not go through that experience again. And I don't want to breed more rabbits than we have cage and freezer space for. So keeping the successful does makes sense to me. But I don't know how long I can expect them to produce and feed litters and need to have replacements ready when they slow down. What should I watch for and how abrupt will the end of their productivity be?
From what I've read here on RT some people seem to change does often to get different colors or because the younger ones are an improvement. On the other hand you never know what a doe will do until you try her and the one junior that we tried and she lost all of her first litter and 7 of 11 from the second. I would rather not go through that experience again. And I don't want to breed more rabbits than we have cage and freezer space for. So keeping the successful does makes sense to me. But I don't know how long I can expect them to produce and feed litters and need to have replacements ready when they slow down. What should I watch for and how abrupt will the end of their productivity be?