How To Breed Rabbits

The reproductive rate of rabbits is notorious. The common rabbit breeds from February to October; its gestation period is 30 days and there are five to eight young in a litter. In most regions its numbers are kept down by its many predators, such as the fox, the badger, and birds of prey. However, when domestic rabbits escaped in Australia, where they had few natural enemies, they ran rampant and stripped the countryside of vegetation in many regions. They were brought partially under control by the artificial introduction of a viral disease, myxomatosis.

A rabbit may normally start breeding at the age of 6 months for the small to medium size breeds and 8 to 9 months for the heavy breeds. The gestation period (time between breeding and kindling) is 31 days. After the doe has kindled, I normally re-breed her at 6 weeks and wean the litter at 5-7 weeks. This cycle continues until she is about 4 years old or until her production is unsatisfactory.

Keep good records of your herd. Review the herd records every quarter to determine which rabbits are not producing up to par and eliminate them. In October through December, some rabbits go into what is called moulting. At this period, many do not conceive. If you have lights on all the time in your rabbitry, this will help. Rabbits are like chickens that lay eggs only if there is enough light. Also, if it gets too hot in the summer, especially for those who live in the Southern U.S., the buck produces less viable sperm and the conception rate goes down. Some people keep their bucks air conditioned to keep the conception rate high.

The recommended minimum standard for a doe is that she produce at least the following number of rabbits per year all the way to weaning:

• Dwarfs: 8
• Small Breeds: 14
• Medium Breeds: 16
• Meat Type: 20
• Giants: 16

Never breed brothers to sisters. Other combinations are fine: father-to-daughter, mother-to-son, cousins, etc. Until you gain some knowledge as to how genetics works with inbreeding, do not breed closely related pairs.

As mentioned before, mate the same breeds together unless you are trying to get meat rabbits with certain characteristics or you are doing genetic experiments or you don't care about the fate of the offspring. You cannot sell the offspring as pedigree if their ancestry is not of the same breed going back four generations.

You may mate rabbits of the same breed having different colors. Keep in mind, though, that there are many combinations of possibilities when mixing colors. Some of the offspring may have colors that are not recognized by ARBA. It is usually best to mate rabbits having the same color to start off with until you know more about how the colors interact.

Avoid breeding rabbits that have genetic defects such as tooth malocclusion (wolf teeth) or moon eye (cloudy cornea), or produces offspring whose skull does not come together (except in dwarfs, where approximately 25% are born too small with deformed head or legs - the offspring are called peanuts). Determine whether the sire or dam is responsible for passing the genetic defect and eliminate it for breeding purposes.