Rabbit Breeding

So, I went to a rabbit breeder and purchased a "trio", 2 does and a buck. One would think that I had the right idea, HOWEVER! It seems to me that I purchased 3 gay bunnies! NONE Of them will breed! I have had them for over a year now and still NO babies! The one doe even broke into the buck's cage and tried to breed HIM! He seems terrified! Can anyone give me any ideas on how to correct this situation so that I can get these guys to breed? Thanks! P.S. All 3 of these bunnies were sexed right in front of me so I know that I got 1 male and 2 females.

 

we did this at one time and i thought I had 2 does and one buck but after a while i checked again and I had 3 does I just got a new buck and now we have babies running out our ears
I don't know how to post my comet

 

I've never heard of this problem before. It's just not meant to be I guess. The only remedy I can think of is buying a better ratio of male to females. I'm talking about at least 2 males to every 5 females. The chances of mating would be higher as the selection process is better.

Let nature takes it's course and just because you put them in a cage together doesn't mean instant success. I'm guess there is a selection process that they go through. I'm sure buy 9 more bunnies won't hurt the cause. But I would suggest you buy bunnies that are of not the same litter or from the same parents. Get them from different bloodlines. Call it what you want, but the thought of interbreeding is not pleasant thought, and deep inside the rabbits may sense it. Superstition? Maybe.

 

Even though you believe they were sexed right I would check again. Usually rabbits have no complaints and will breed like crazy! If you check and you still believe they are sexed correctly I would replace the male. Maybe the original breeder will trade you.

 

We had a California Red a few months ago, and no female. He almost drove my cat crazy --he was definitely one over-sexed bunny. Unfortunately, he got loose out of the cage and wandered off. I hope he's somewhere nice, with a sweet little bunny wife and they are very happy making lots of babies.

 

At first, I thought we could raise rabbits for food. It seemed like a doable thing, since they breed so well, and gestation period is not very long. Then we got to know them. They have personalities, you know. So they're not potential food any more. They're family.

Sometimes, they're family that you'd like to see move out and get their own apartment. They're very bad room mates.

But they're still family.

 

Good idea for some healthy protein. However, this is funny! I have never heard of bunnies not wanting to procreate.

 

This is actually sort of funny to me. I've never heard of rabbits that won't breed. Usually, you can't get them to stop. I would definitely get them checked out again. If they are as they should be, then maybe they just aren't interested (they have interesting personalities). My rabbit was recently in heat and kept trying to mount my kitten (her best friend). I've never seen a female rabbit make the first move either. Maybe we should trade bunnies! Good luck on getting your bunnies to do the deed!

 

We have a relative in the province who was raising rabbits for the meat. In their place, rabbit meat is one delicacy of drinkers. It is usually cooked when there is a drinking session of the men in the community. The best dish of rabbit meat is the caldereta which uses tomato sauce, soy sauce and lots of chili.

For breeding, they have different coops or cages with rabbits that are categorized. There is a cage for butchering, one for breeders, one for young rabbits, etc. Now, with the breeding, the most effective is placing in a cage 1 male and 1 female. It is best if the couple could not see any other rabbits around. There are male rabbits and sometimes female also that wouldn't engage in sex when there are other rabbits. They need privacy too. Try it.

 

Here's a good video about linebreeding and inbreeding. Most people don't take this in account when breeding rabbits. There are a lot of health deficiencies that can happen when you do this. So you need to to find different rabbits to breed that are not genetically similar. In other words buy your rabbits from different places. Not from the same batch.

 

That is a weird thing. Any chance you considered purchasing more? I mean, if one of them was a dud, that wouldn't mean everybody else is. Bunnies are pretty cheap, so maybe if one of them isn't working to your way, you can get more to see if that fixes your problem. But why breed rabbits though? It's a survival forum so I assume it's for food? Yes, they replicate quickly, and would not need a lot of food to grow up, but they also provide fairly low amount of meat, and their fur are basically useless if you want to make clothes, unless you have lots of them. So why not try raising sheep, goat, or cows instead? I mean they are harder, but they would definitely provide more.

 

Haha, abstinent bunnies. Actually, though, it's not that uncommon of an occurrence. Some male rabbits get "shy." In other words, just like humans, when they have a bad sexual experience or were never probably encouraged to be fruitful and multiply, they decide not to seek out the opportunity. Some female virgins are frightened of meeting the male. Basically, you could just have some very, very reticent rabbits with socialization issues. Or they could have health issues.

As others have said, they might have also been sexed incorrectly. Though, I'm sure a decent breeder wouldn't have an issue telling male from female.

 

There's no way to FORCE them to actually do something. They're animals, and you should respect they're nature. They are not in their natural habitat, which could be one of the causes to that problem, but , if i may ask , why do you want rabbits? There are many other breeding you could try out , and if those bunnies do not reproduce , then you can always just pet them and have fun with them instead of forcing them to do things they don't wanna do.

 

I am experienced about rearing of rabbits because we used to rear them. One of the things you should consider is the age difference, also familiarity might also cause them not to breed. Buying both sexes from the same place is not a good idea especially if they have been together since birth. Anyway, some people advice that in this type of situation you have to help the buck, by raising the tail of the doe and on sighting this, he might get excited to mate. There are other local means of getting by situation like this, just try to Google it.