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Rabbits - Breeding Information
We recommend that rabbit breeding is left up to the professional rabbit breeder. Remember that rabbits can have quite large litters and unless you have a lot of space or a ready market for your new rabbits you will have to find homes for them quite quickly. Young rabbits grow at an astonishing rate!
Rabbits are physically sexually active from about 8 weeks of age but generally the males are not generally viable and the females are not ovulating until both are about 16 weeks old.
It is best to wait until the doe is mature, at around six months of age, and use a slightly younger unrelated buck about the same size as the doe.
Bucks and does should not be confined together in the same hutch for longer than is necessary for copulation to take place once or twice at most. Keep an eye on what is happening as fighting can break out. The coupling may over in a few minutes! If you leave them together longer the buck will keep pestering the doe and may damage her. The buck may 'spray' over the doe, marking her as his a few times before actually getting round to the business in hand.
The average gestation period (pregnancy) is around 31 days. The baby rabbits or kittens are born with their eyes closed and totally hairless in litters, usually of between 4 and 10, although more or less are not uncommon. The smaller breeds are likely to have smaller litters. The kittens should not be touched for the first week as the doe may abandon them or even kill (and eat) them.
An inexperienced doe may accidentally eat one or more of her babies in her efforts to clean up after the birth. The young rabbits can be removed from the doe from 5 to 8 weeks. They should then be kept in same sex groups. Most responsible pet shops would not stock rabbits for sale under 8 weeks old.
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