Understanding Rabbit Mating for Profitability
Rabbit Mating
About 2-3 weeks before the planned first mating of your rabbits, the doe should be placed in a single box for isolation.
When keeping sexually mature females in groups, ovulation can occur due to mutual jumping and resulting in false pregnancy.
During the false pregnancy period, the female cannot be re-engaged, but only after about 17-18 days with the beginning of nest building, according to Farmpally.
For mating in rabbits, the doe is put to the ram. The doe is stimulated by the typical smell of the buck bay.
The male rabbit is sexually more active in its familiar environment. As a result of the mating game and the subsequent mating act, ovulation is triggered in the rabbit, so that shortly after mating.
Eggs are available in the fallopian tube or uterus for successful fertilization.
If a female rabbit cannot be mated immediately, she should be kept in a pen directly next to the male rabbit for 4-6 hours so that she has visual and olfactory contact with the male rabbit, Chaktty advised.
With particularly hot female rabbits, assistance is occasionally necessary during the mating process.
In order to protect rams from biting the female because of the possible danger of injury, the breeder should hold such females by the head during mating.
Some breeders successfully mate the female in a group.
For this purpose, the ram is placed in the running box one week before the beginning of the mating.
The rabbits, max. 5 per rabbit, are then simultaneously placed in the pen and remain there until the insemination is successful.
Doe with young animals
Throwing and throwing control
The wild rabbit is a cave-dweller by nature and sets its young down in a 30-40 cm deep burrow.
Also, our domestic rabbit is still marked by this instinct in his throwing behavior.
For this reason, the rabbit is provided with a closed whelping box a few days before throwing.
Immediately after the littering, the first nest check is carried out to remove any afterbirths, weak young, and stillborn animals.
If several female rabbits come to the litter at the same time, the litter can be balanced in the first days after the litter to create the conditions for even development of the young animals.
This means that surplus young animals from large litters are added to the rabbits with smaller litters.
In order to trace the ancestry of the converted young animals, the animals should be marked.
This can be done by marking them with a tattoo needle or with a skin-friendly felt pen.
Heavily retarded and underdeveloped kittens should be removed after litter control to prevent them from starving to death.
If the nest construction is insufficient, the breeder can fill the nest by plucking the wool in the teat area of the female.
From the 2nd day of the life of the young, the rabbit can be barred access to the nest box and only be allowed to suckle once or twice a day under supervision.
In conclusion
Keeping the doe and the young animals separate during the suckling period reduces the pressure of infection with pathogens that can be transmitted from the doe to the young animals (e.g. coccidiosis, rhinitis).
For hygienic reasons, the nests must be checked daily to remove dead animals as quickly as possible.
If necessary, nest litter is supplemented or, if it is soaked, renewed.
