Mating Between A Buck And A Doe

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(Edited)


One of the Doe (female rabbit) in my rabbit farm called Mercy has ended her rest period after waning her kits successfully (until they stop sucking and are removed from her own cage). I have been feeding her specially so that she will recover from the stress of the last breeding cycle and regain more pounds and from all indication she is now ready to have another go at breeding new kits.

I have been posting pictures and videos of the different rabbit kits from when they were born to adulthood and felt it would be nice to show the process that leads to the kits coming forth onto this world of ours in the first place.

For mating to take place it is ideal that both the Doe (female rabbit) and the Buck (male rabbit) are matured enough. I like crossing (mating) the female rabbits when they are 6 months old. I have some Dutch and New Zealand White breeds and 6 months is very ok though some farmers start mating them when they are 5 months if they are big enough but I like sticking with 6 months because everything is set by then.

The white Buck I am using to mate the doe is called Miracle, the name miracle came about when I bought 5 of them from another farm at the age of 8 weeks. Unfortunately, 4 of them died even after taking them to the Vet and having them sleep over for 3 days. Only one survived and that one is the one we call Miracle. His success rate of getting any doe brought to his cage pregnant is more than 95%, he is a year and 8 months old.

Before mating starts, the buck normally sniffs the doe, especially her private area, I think this stimulates his hormones and boost his desire to have sex and for mating between a buck and a doe to be successful the buck will fall on his back after climbing the back of the doe, this is a sign that penetration was successful and ejaculation was achieved.

After mating the male rabbits usually stumps his feet on the floor in a repeating manner as a way of saying that he is the dominate rabbit in the cage. He may also do the stumping thingy if the doe is playing hard to get and resisting him from climbing her repeatedly. One more thing, when crossing a buck and a doe the doe should be taken from her own cage to the cage of the buck. The female rabbit can act violently if the male rabbit is put into her own cage.

Fourteen days after mating you can check if the mating achieved pregnancy using a method called palpating. Palpating a female rabbit to check for pregnancy simply means placing your hands under her belly and squeezing gently to feel if there are any signs of several roundish bulge. If you feel you are touching several bulges the size of grape fruits then there are high chance the mating was successful. This method takes time, practice and experience. The best way to find out if the pregnancy was achieved is to take the doe to a Vet who has all the facilities in place to confirm pregnancy.

Once pregnancy is confirmed, you need to put a nest box into the cage with the nesting materials that the doe will use to prepare for the coming of her kits in the next 14 days time i.e. 28 days after conception. You should be expecting the kits between the 30th to 34th day from date of conception but ideally the 31st day is the most likely date they show up but as they say, anything can happen so 30 to 34 days is a range we normally expect the kits.

Thanks for watching, there are loads of rabbit videos on my dtube channel so you can check them up to see other videos about my rabbits. Keep your comments coming and follow me if you have not already done that. Again, thanks a lot for your support to me always.

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Great post explaining the entire rabbit breeding process. With experience you are now a pro at breeding those beautiful animals 🙌.
Thank you for sharing, at least I learned something new👍😁

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You're welcome my dear. Learning is a continuous process.

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