How to Breed Rabbits - Silent Springs Rabbitry

Breeding Bunnies

       Now you have rabbits and want to breed them! How do you do this? First, you must decide which buck gets to romance the lucky doe! There are numerous things that you must factor when picking out a suitable buck. All of your choices should be related in some way or another to your doe. You will get more consistency in the offspring this way than if you outcross. Outcrossing should be done every few generations to help keep a strong immune system and to bring in traits that your line is lacking. You should not excessively outcross or else you could loose all the traits you have been trying to lock in with line breeding!

        The most important question, is their type complimentary? You don't want to start off breeding two animals with so-so shoulders and expect to get an animal with awesome shoulders from the cross. You should worry about the body aspects that your breed gets the most points on first, then less important aspects later. If a rabbit can not hold condition well, or is constantly throwing poor offspring or offspring that are unshowable, you might want to consider culling those animals from your breeding program. For Mini Lops, Body is worth 43 points, Head is 20 points, Ears & Crown are 12 points, Fur is 10 points, Feet, Legs, and Bone are 5 points, Color and Markings are 5 points, and Condition is 5 points. That means my main focus should be on body and head, which together make up over half the points for the breed standard. I should not be as concerned with ring definition or if broken markings are perfect, since these are very insignificant things. If you have a breed that has a lot of emphasis on coat and color, like Havana's, you should be more concerned about it.

       Second, look at the colors of the potential breeders and also look at their pedigrees to see if they carry any genes that you might not want to mix together. It isn't especially important in Lops (English, French, and Mini) that fall into the Lop Color Guide, but for other breeds that are restricted in the number of recognized varieties this is a more important decision. With the Lops you just have to make sure not to introduce the Tan pattern gene into your herd, since that is the only Group of Color not recognized by the ARBA. If you select incompatible colors you are likely to get unshowable colors. While some judges do not know their colors very well and might let them pass, they should and will be disqualified under most judges.

      Now, you have decided to breed your Broken Blue Buck to your Black Doe! Congratulations on getting through the first hurdle. Now, the hard part begins, because rabbits don't always 'breed like rabbits.' First, look over both the buck and doe to make sure they show no signs of disease. Never breed a bunny that has a disease, because you then risk spreading it to your entire herd. You should quarantine it, treat the animal, let it fully recover, and then breed it. Also, check the doe to see if her vulva is dark red/purple. This is a sign she is receptive and ready to breed. If your doe's vulva is pale pink you shouldn't waste your time breeding her. Even if she does breed the chances she takes are less likely. I would wait until her vulva is also dark red/purple.

      Now, assuming both bunnies are disease free you can decide how you want to breed them. Here are several technique's.

- Table Breeding . . . . . Put the buck on your grooming table and let him get used to his new environment for a few minutes. Then take the doe from her cage and put her on the table also. The buck should immediately start breeding the doe. Table breeding is good because you can control the situation better and also help the doe lift.

- Cage Breeding. . . . . Take the doe from her cage into the bucks cage (NEVER put the buck in the does cage.). The buck should immediately start breeding the doe.

     After breeding put the doe back into her cage. You should not assume she is pregnant because she was bred successfully. You should palpate the doe to confirm pregnancy at 12-14 days after breeding. Since I am left handed, I place the doe facing me . With my right hand I hold her head down and with my left hand I go under her belly and 'squeeze'. The fetus should feel like a grape in size. After being palpated positive slightly increase her food rations. Then put the nestbox in on day 28 and wait! :-)

                                                        Good Luck and I wish you all the best!