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At what age can a female rabbit get pregnant?

And she's also a small breed, so she's like to mature faster than most other breeds

I think you mean slower. My vet said the same to me - she wont spay my female until she's had a season because it makes everything easier to find.
 
There was a bun pregnant on here at 14 weeks (at start of pregnancy - so giving birth at 18 weeks), & there were also 2 people saying their buns got pregnant 5 weeks post male neuter. A lot of the advise for 8 weeks after neuter is regards to male hormones dying down - in a rebonding that has already resulted in a fight, or an expected difficult bond - to give inexperienced bonders the best possible chance:D My vet advises 6 weeks if doe is unspayed:D
 
I think you mean slower. My vet said the same to me - she wont spay my female until she's had a season because it makes everything easier to find.

You're gonna be waiting a long time then... rabbits don't have seasons in the way that dogs and cats do: they are reflex ovulators- they ovulate in response to the stimulus of mating. They do have hormonal fluctuations of course due to the time of year.
 
I think you mean slower. My vet said the same to me - she wont spay my female until she's had a season because it makes everything easier to find.

thats bad advice as rabbits dont get seasons... they are stimulated to produce eggs when the male stimulates them if im correct(please tell me if im wrong) so therefore dont need seasosns like a cat or dog i would use a different vet. x
 
Any idea what those tests showed - the rabbit advice seems to vary from 2-7 weeks so it'd be interesting to see where the results of those tests were on that continuum. Which advice is based on dogs? 2 weeks or 7 weeks, or something else?

I guess what I'm getting at is yes, we must err on the side of caution - but what does that mean? There's a huge difference between 2-7 weeks for a margin of error, especially in an animal that no longer has any reproductive organs!

(PS sorry for hijacking your thread!)

Sorry I wasn't very clear really. She said the 6 week advice was based on findings of fertility after castration in Dogs. (Don't ask me how they tested this - I don't want to know!!!) She felt that 2 weeks was sufficient for rabbits to no longer be fertile. By err on the side of caution I mean wait the longest reccommended time ie 6 weeks. I agree it seems unbelivable that a castrated animal could reproduce after even 2 weeks but it seems it happens!
 
I think you mean slower. My vet said the same to me - she wont spay my female until she's had a season because it makes everything easier to find.

I did mean what I said. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but smaller breeds of rabbits (netherland dwarfs, holland lops, etc) will sexually mature faster (4-5 months) than a larger breed (giants), who matures as late as 6-8 months. I'm pretty sure I've read that in several places.
 
I think you mean slower. My vet said the same to me - she wont spay my female until she's had a season because it makes everything easier to find.

I'd question your vet about that..rabbits don't come into season like cats and dogs as they are spontaneous ovulators.
 
Scanning around for research into this I found this rather lengthy old document, if anyone can be bothered to read it (i've only scanned it) ;)

http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/4/2/155.pdf

Ooooh that's really interesting even if it is from 1926 :shock: Thank you :D It does indeed show that the sperm could still be alive after several weeks :shock:

It looks as if they tied off the tubes but left the testicles in that experiment though - I know I sound sceptical (well, I am! :lol:) but I wonder if keeping the testicles, and therefore the hormones, makes a difference to the residual 'shelf life' of remaining sperm. I wonder if this has been tested out more recently taking more modern techniques into account :?
 
Ooooh that's really interesting even if it is from 1926 :shock: Thank you :D It does indeed show that the sperm could still be alive after several weeks :shock:

It looks as if they tied off the tubes but left the testicles in that experiment though - I know I sound sceptical (well, I am! :lol:) but I wonder if keeping the testicles, and therefore the hormones, makes a difference to the residual 'shelf life' of remaining sperm. I wonder if this has been tested out more recently taking more modern techniques into account :?

I still haven't read it yet :oops: but yes. The 'shelf life' of sperm is reported to be considerably longer in the presence of testosterone.
I've got a few days of so hopefully will get around to reading it myself :)
 
I did mean what I said. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but smaller breeds of rabbits (netherland dwarfs, holland lops, etc) will sexually mature faster (4-5 months) than a larger breed (giants), who matures as late as 6-8 months. I'm pretty sure I've read that in several places.


I would agree that smaller breeds mature faster than larger ones.
 
A lot of literature that I've read agrees with that too :oops: however most state between 14-16 weeks!! So hopefully we shoud be ok x
 
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