When to separate does and bucks in grow out cages

[Tiny Buns]

We are raising rabbits to sell for show/breeders/pets. When is the time you separate the boys from the girls in the grow out cage to prevent pre-sale 'accidents'?

 

[caroline]

I separate @ weaning/tattooing. Or at least before 4 months of age.
I have had both bucks and does who were ready to breed by 4 months old.

 

[Tiny Buns]

The reason I ask is I picked up two 7 week old Holland lops last night and put them in my grow out cage with some 5 and 6 week olds. The 7 week old buck started humping the babies and I got a little concerned. Seems early but I didn't want to take any chances.

 

[kacklingkelly]

I agree, before 4 months old. I'm rather new to sexing bunnies. I am 99% accurate so far. That one percent had a tragic ending last month. Our doe last kindled in February. I thought I had thelma and louise sharing a cage only to come home from vacation and find fur pulled and babies scattered in the bunny barn. Everyone has their own cage now and I am not ready to purposely breed for a while yet - UGH. Thelma is now known as Teddy.

 

[Zass]

I generally separate my buck and doe kits before 12 weeks, since I've had plenty of doelings ready to breed by 16 weeks.
My bucklings get separated from their dam by 8 or 9 weeks, but sometimes the doelings stay longer.

 

[Rainey]

Sometimes we leave the whole litter together until they go to freezer camp--between 12 and 14 weeks . This year we had a couple litters we sexed and divided at 12 weeks because we wanted to keep a buck from one, a doe or 2 from the other. One time we just put 2 bucks who were possible keepers together for a week or two while we made the decision which to keep--the rest were butchered. One of the bucks sort of bullied the other for a couple days and then they settled down, we chose one and butchered the other in a couple weeks. Last week we sexed a litter of 12--only had 4 that were clearly does, put the clearly bucks and not so sures together in one cage and they started spraying which had never happened before. Also a fair amount of chasing going on in that cage. The 4 does seem to be doing fine together.
So I wondered if anyone else has noticed buck behavior deteriorating when the litter is divided by ***?

 

[Nika]

So I wondered if anyone else has noticed buck behavior deteriorating when the litter is divided by ***?

Yes, we have a lot of fuss. I can`t move growout bucks anywhere, I can`t put them in another cage when I clean theirs and they are forbidden in the running pen. I move them once when they are young and thats´t it, in any other case they start fighting, charging at each other, chasing.. But we butcher them slightly older - 4 to 5 months.

 

[Tiny Buns]

I just found it a bit surprising that a 7 week old buck was mounting anyone. Is that early?

 

[LatchawBriarPatch]

I have a nearly 6 week old buck and doe humping all the other growouts. I'm trying to put kits from two litters into a single grow out cage. But five of them have been in the grow out cage for a week. I took mom out and put in two new kits. They are a tad larger than the former residents of the cage so I think they are holding there own. Hoping I didn't make a huge mistake here.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

I have a nearly 6 week old buck and doe humping all the other growouts. I'm trying to put kits from two litters into a single grow out cage. But five of them have been in the grow out cage for a week. I took mom out and put in two new kits. They are a tad larger than the former residents of the cage so I think they are holding there own. Hoping I didn't make a huge mistake here.

Kits will practice mounting whether they're Does or Bucks

 

[eco2pia]

Mounting behavior is also about dominance. watch for fighting.