BREEDING THE BUCK AND DOE

Before bringing the buck and doe together for breeding, the first thing we do is to check that they are both in good health and condition. We do a quick look-over for any signs of illness: runny nose, eye infections, diarrhea, or injuries. Also, if does are too overweight they probably won't breed well, may not become pregnant, and may have more complications in giving birth. Likewise, underweight animals are either not in good breeding condition or may have an underlying illness which should be addressed before breeding.

The genital areas of both the buck and doe should be inspected before breeding to be sure that neither one has any form of infection which could be transmitted. We check the vulva of the doe for color. When the vulva is a pale pink, it is not likely that the doe will accept the buck. If it is a red or purple-ish color, then a successful breeding is likely. Here is a good place to add that rabbits need sunlight to reproduce well. If your doe is housed in a dark area and you just can't get her bred, move her into an area where she'll get several hours of sunlight daily for a couple weeks. Then you should see improvement in your conception rate.

Always take the doe to the buck's cage for breeding. Bucks will welcome a doe into their cage, but does can be extremely territorial of their space and may injure a buck placed into their cage. We remove the feed and water crocks when we place the doe with the buck, giving them the full area of the cage.

Breeding usually takes place quickly. The buck may circle or chase the doe, then attempt to mount. If the doe is receptive, she will raise her hindquarters to accept the buck. When union occurs, the buck will usually grunt and fall over on his side. He recovers quickly, and sometimes stomps several times following mating. Within just a few minutes he is probably ready to try mating again. We usually allow the buck to cover the doe twice before removing her from the cage. (We take her back a few hours later for a follow-up breeding, which may increase litter size.) After breeding we return the doe to her cage and give her some hay to munch. This calms her and preoccupies her so that she doesn't run to the back of her cage and urinate immediately, which could reduce the effectiveness of the breeding.

If you have a large enough herd, it is always a good idea to breed more than one doe at a time. If you should have a doe that fails to nurse her babies, wants to sit in the box and smother them, or dies after delivery, you'll have another "Mom" to take the litter. Just one word of advice, though: be certain to keep clear records of which babies went to which mom! You're going to need to write pedigrees for them later on! It's easiest if you have a differently-colored litter to foster the new babies into (say, rews into a black litter). Then you can obviously tell who is whom. But if not, you may need to place a dot on the back foot of the foster baby with a magic marker every couple days just to keep track of him.

Female rabbits do not have "heat cycles" that are like those experienced by dogs and cats. Instead, the act of mating causes the eggs to be released from the ovaries. For this reason rabbits can be bred at almost any time, for most of the year. As stated before, however, the duration of sunlight does affect the reproductive cycle of the doe, so it may be harder to settle a doe in the darker winter months. Also, the doe may fall out of the reproductive cycle for brief periods of time, and this can be assessed by checking the color of the vulva, as stated above. Sometimes a doe that is not ready to breed can be brought into a reproductive cycle just by switching her with the buck and keeping her in his cage for a couple days. His scent may cause her to come into a state of breeding readiness.

Jersey does should not be bred until they are mature at six months of age. Even then, if it were a very small show doe, I might wait a few months more. Does should, however, be bred within the first year to get the highest chances of conception. Show does that are two years of age or more and have never been bred might not conceive at all.

Smaller "show" type does have one dwarfing gene and are more likely to have problems with giving birth, such as inability to pass a large fetus, prolonged labor, and dead litters. Larger "brood" does have no dwarfing genes and are the "meat and potatoes" of any good herd.  Brood does are usually larger in size and have plainer heads with longer ears than show type does.  They may not look classy, but they are just as able to pass on "show" genes and do it with greater ease and success.

Larger brood doe on left, dwarf doe on right

Brood doe head on left, dwarf head on right

Keep your bucks in good health and condition. Overly fat or very underweight bucks may not have the stamina necessary to be aggressive breeders.

Keep your bucks cool. In hot summer weather bucks often go sterile. To help them out a little keep them in the bottom row of cages nearest the floor, where it is usually cooler.

Do not keep an overly aggressive buck. Although you want an aggressive breeder, you don't want a vicious buck that will tear your does apart. We did purchase such an animal once, and took it right back after witnessing the first breeding. You have too much invested in your show animals to have them missing noses or parts of ears, and you don't want the does to panic every time you try to breed them!