Once you get a grasp on how rabbits work, there breeding becomes quite regimented. Unlike most mammalss, who has a normal cycle, the doe will ovulate about ten to twelve hours following breeding. That being said, as soon as you put that buck in with her the timer begins ticking. From there, prepare the nest box, move her to a calm area and plan accordingly for each step.
Regardless of how breeding is done with rabbits, the post-breed timeline are similar for most domesticaly bred rabbit. For all practical purposes, there is no noticeable signs during the first week. Around days 6-7, implantation has taken place, and you should of be able to feel the embryos gently another week or so afterward. At about day 18, the doe’s body will look thicker in the middle. Her disposition also change, sometimes making her less receptive to handling and more defensive of her environment. These changes is useful signals if you want to confirm pregnancy without specialized equipment.
How to Breed Rabbits
On about day twenty-five, set the nest box in place, giving the doe plenty of opportunity to move things around inside. Experienced keepers will tell you they looks for her to start pulling hair from her sides and chest. That’s the telltale sign that she’s about ready, typically happening only a day or two prior to kindling. The litter are born within a fairly narrow window of a few hours, most often during the quiet hours of early morning.
After arrival of the kits, the doe does most of the hard work in the process of raising her kits. Newborns are blind (they’re born without eyes), deaf, virtually hairless, and totally dependent on their mother and the nest for warmth and milk. For at least the first couple of weeks, there isn’t much they can absorbs besides gain weight, a lot of it. At about day 10 to 14, their eyes open up and they start poking their noses outside the nest box. At about four weeks, they’ll also start nibbling on some solid food, but they will continue to nurse too. By eight weeks, most litters will be fully weaned and ready to separate.
About three weeks after kindling, milk production reach its maximum and she needs the most food, which is why so many beginning keepers underfeed their doe at this stage. If you ensure that there’s unlimited pellets, hay, and fresh water available, she’ll feed the litter without losing any condition herself. Smaller kits will result if you cut corners here; she’ll take longer to recover for next breeding.
If the doe is physically up for it and you want to do so, when should you re-breed? Production systems will sometimes breed again at twenty-eight days; other times they won’t re-breed until the kits has been fully weaned. That decision impacts not only how many litters you’ll get out of that doe each year but also her overall health in the long term. Checking her body condition at three weeks will tell you if she have enough energy to support another pregnancy right away.
The size of the litter average can differ among breeds as well. Generally, meat types has a higher litter average than do small dwarfs and fancies. Each time a doe has her first litter, however, you may expect it to be smaller then subsequent ones. Having an idea what the average is for your breed makes you know if something might not be right with that litter or if some close watching is warranted.
But all of it is rewarded by closer observation; much more so than with fancy tools. You’ll learn far more about when to expect things by paying attention to the behavior of the doe, the growth of the kits, and especially the shift in her hunger level than any one piece of data will tell you. After several successful cycles, the rhythm gets easier to follow, and even somewhat predictable.