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Introducing

ChrisL

Young Bun
Hi im new here, me and my GF have a male silver fox named Basil. pics will follow shortly. He is 7 monts old and we are looking into getting him a female friend with plans to breed them next spring.
She will be roughly two months old how and when should we start introducing them to one another.
We already have two seperate hutches.
Any help will be great.

Thanks :)
 
I'm sure some of the breeders here will be able to tell you what age, 8 weeks is very young and it will be several months atleast.

Have you thought carefully whats involved though? You will need more than two hutches as the babies will also need somewhere to stay when they leave the mother. You'll also have the job of finding good homes for them which isn't an easy task as I'm sure some of the rescues here will tell you.

Where did your lad come from and where will you be getting his girlfriend from? Its very important you know the family history of rabbits otherwise you could unknowingly produce babies with health problems like malocluded teeth.

Some other issues you'll need to consider are here - http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/breedingrabbits.asp

Tamsin
 
Hello ChrisL and welcome to the forum board :wave:

I am a former breeder and what Tamsin has said is correct - you really must think it through first (if you haven’t already). Not just for your rabbits but for your sake as well. You need more then two hutches.... or have at least one large hutch. When I was a breeder I had a rabbit house in the garden. The female bun will need to be over 9 months old to even think about breeding - also remember the extra costs.... all that rabbit food does cost believe me lol. Also you need to be prepared for the worst.... its not all happy and jolly breeding.... I have woken up in the morning to half eaten babies, and baby buns dieing. The Doe isn’t always successful on her first attempt.

Hope this helps :)
 
hi,
i breed rabbits at the mo and emma is correct breeding isnt as nice as people make out it to be as first time moms often scatter a litter and even eat them some will some times decide to chew off ears legs tail ect for no apparnt reason also at about 6-8 weks take mom away from babies not other away around so it is lest stressful for the babies, talking of stress babies often get too stresses and get bloat and is hard to clear up and in alot of cases fatel.
when breeding never put the buck (male) into the does (females) hutch as she will attact him but put doe into bucks hutch and leave for a few hours or so and put doe bk into her own hutch
my adivce is to find a decent breeder local to u and get some advice off them or find a local rabbits show which will be full of friendly helpfull breeders and all should be decent as they will be brc members but please dont dive into this but find out all info first. i started to show around apil last year but was visiting shows 5 months before and got lots of info about rabbits and breedng and didnt start to breed till august last year
becky
 
Hi thanks for all the replies. alot has happened since last been on, liannes sister has bought a female lop rabbit who is 10 weeks old (pics will follow soon) We have decided that we will not be breeding rabbits and Basil is being neutered tomorrow! we will then have the female spayed when she is old enough.
Thanks again
 
I think you probably made the right decision as breeding sounds like a full time job!!

Don't forget male rabbits can remain fertile for a few weeks after being castrated so if you are planning to introduce the two it will have to be through cage bars only as she is not spayed. Ask your vets how long they recommend keeping them apart after neutering if there is an unspayed female present.

Caz
 
Caz - i have just noticed the size of your rabbit. i have never seen a rabbit as big as that!!!! Its like that joke picture on the net of the man with the giant cat!

giantcat.jpg
 
I love the angle I took this picture at - he is pretty huge naturally but where my husband is lying down it makes Zeus look like he is winning a sumo wrestling match!!

I haven't altered the pic in any way (unlike the cat one ;) ) except to crop it and shrink it to fit in my collage.

Caz
 
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