Naturally you want to breed your best buck to your best doe and try to pick a buck that is strong in places where your doe is weak. We like our does to be at least 5 months old when they are bred and our bucks seem to do better when they are around 7 months old, especially the "little" bucks. Always take the doe to the buck's cage and place her with him. Do not take the buck to the doe's cage, as he is very territorial and will have to mark the new cage. You want his mind to be strictly on the doe. Many times the doe is not receptive to the buck so you will have to take her out of the cage and try another time. Where we live in Louisiana, doe's do not seem to want to breed in the early spring, late fall and winter. Wild rabbits breed only two times in a year and that is in the spring and in the summer and some of that wild is still in the domestic rabbit. The "trick" to getting the doe's ready to mate at these bad times of the year is to extend light so they will think it is spring. This can be accomplished by turning a light on in their area until 10:00 P.M. at night 5 nights in a row. you can also turn your doe over and if she is ready to mate, her vulva will be dark red. Now we put the doe back in with the buck. She may run around in the cage and he may try to ride her head. Do not worry, this is all rabbit foreplay. Finally she will stop and stretch her body on the cage bottom and raise her backend. The buck will mount her and he will double up and fall off her and sometimes squeal. Believe me he is not hurt. Reach in the cage and pick up your doe and turn her over on her back and hold her that way for about 5 minutes or so. At this time, you may want to put her back in with the buck one more time and do the same thing over again. After holding her on her back for the last five minutes, before you put her back in her cage, put some hay or dried leaves in her cage so when you put her back in, she will go to eating instead of to a corner and try to urinate to get the sperm out. If your buck placed the sperm right, she cannot get it out.
Now, go to a calendar and count 28 days from tomorrow. We start the count tomorrow because the doe does not ovulate for 12 hours. Put the tag on her cage showing whom she was bred to and the 28th day when you will put a nest box in the cage and the 31st day when they usually litter. Most doe's are pretty consistent on the 31 day mark, whereas some vary from between 29 to 31 days. If you have a doe that litters differently than the normal 31 day gestation period, make a note somewhere so that you will know that doe's pattern. It is extremely important that you keep a record of all of your rabbits that you breed, whom you bred to and if they are consistent on a deliver of 31 days.
Once your babies are born, inspect the litter. With Holland's, a lot of times you will end up with what is called a peanut. This baby is extremely small compared to its siblings and you will never be able to save on of these peanut babies. Believe me, I have tried & tried & tried. Peanuts are born with what is called a negative, negative gene; this prevents them from surviving no matter how hard you try to save one. Me, being the type of person that I am, & loving animals as I do, I just would not accept the fact that one would die without trying everything to keep it alive. After a full year of fighting this to no avail, I no longer try to same them. I dispose of them the day that the are born.
It takes baby bunnies 14 days to open their eyes. At that point, you need to pull the nest box, "save the core with the fur" andmake them a fresh nest box and put the core of fur in it. It is very important that you keep these nest boxes clean & sanitized, or you will end up with eye infections from the bacteria caused by babies urinating in the nest. You will start seeing where the mother has left poop in the nest box. Do no remove this unless it is just an excessive amount. The mothers poop is left in the nest box for the babies to nibble on. This is where they get their immune system. It is also important that you make sure that there is hay under them at ll times in the core of the nest box & that they are not down directly on the floor of the box, as this will cause the babies legs to be sprawled out from not being able to get traction & this will not corret itself.
At about 3 weeks of age, you need to lay the nest box over on its side so that the babies can come & go, to spend more time with mom, explore the cage, find the water, & eventually find the feeder. We use pieces of quarter inch plywood in the cage also so that the babies will have a place to rest and to get off of the wire. When the babies are 3 weeks old, we breed the doe back for her next litter. Every breeder has their own ideas on how long you hsould leave the babies in the cage with their mother. You will hear many different opinions on this subject. It is totally up to you to decide for yourself how long you leave them with mom. But do not remove them before they are 4 weeks old. I only leave my babies in with mom for 4 weeks. But I make sure that they are eating well out of the feeder before this is done. When you take them away from mom, this is extremely stressful for them. Take all of the babies from that litter & place them in a cage together & put a big hand full of hay in with them. I leave them together like that for about an additional 2 to 3 weeks before separating them out into their own cages. It is very important once you move the babies from their mother, to watch the cage bottom close for signs of diarrhea. We have already explained what to do if you see this on the cage floor. Take care of it immediately or you will end up losing your babies fast.
Some parts of raising rabbits can be very challenging, but if you find yourself in love with these bunnies as I have, all of the trials that you go through is well rewarded in the end. Most of all, enjoy what you are doing.
