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Our Rabbits

We raise New Zealand/Californian mixes. We have raised rabbits since 2002. We had them before but stopped for a little while. We have tried different approaches like colony raising, solitude, and two to a cage. I like the two to a cage the best. But sometimes there can be some problems. I decided to share with others some of the things I have tried and what problems I have had. I would like to try a movable tractor. If I ever do I will report what happens. 

Things we have run into:

Colony raising:

We raised 2 does and a buck in a colony on the ground for several months. It was going great. Lots of kits. The does even took a break after having a few litters back to back. The kits had a great survival rate and the does didn't bother each others nests. It was a large penned area with plenty of room and things for the rabbits to do. It worked great for a long time. We noticed as the summer went on that there was a lot of urinating around the feed troughs and we had to start moving the feed around every few days to keep the fly population down. I brought in a doe from another breeder. It was from good lines and was healthy. Everything seemed fine, until after she had her litter. One by one the litter began to die, then she died. I could not figure out why. I had even separated her from the others to try to save the rest of the litter. Only one survived from the litter. It developed a large mass on its underside. She lived for several months before dying. 

After the mother and kits died, my buck had 2 warbles. They had gotten bad and needed to be removed. I separated him to get him ready for the procedure. While he was safely tucked away in a cage, I went to feed the other two does. I was shocked at what I walked into. The two does had been fighting. One had bit into the neck and below the ear of the other. The poor doe did not recover. Come to find out the bite was all the way down to the ear canal and it was unable to drain correctly. It was too late by the time I realized it. Finally, she died. 

We did the surgery on my buck and after that he became very aggressive and we were unable to handle him. He was so sweet before then. He had gotten so bad that he would lunge for me and try to bite me when I would go into feed him. After a couple of bites we decided to put him down. 

We only ended up with one doe from the original colony.

Solitude:

I had all of my does separated in cages and would bring them to my buck. Sometimes the buck would breed the does and sometimes he would not. Sometimes I would even leave him in there for a couple of days. I would wait and they would not have any kits. I had a lot of trouble getting the girls to take. I never did figure out why. That was the reason I tried the colony.

Two in a cage:

I had two sisters that I raised together. I decided to leave them together and see what happened. The first few times I bred them, they bred either the same day or within a day or two. They would normally use the same nest and raise the babies together with a good survival rate. Once only one of the does bred and had a litter of kits. The kits did fine and I had no trouble from the other doe. The last time, one of them bred and the other didn't. I decided to rebreed but did not do it till 4 wks after I bred the other. I figured when the first kits were being weaned the 2nd does kits would be born. There was one thing I didn't take into consideration. When ended up happening is that after I took the first does kits she turned to the second litter and fought to raise them herself. Because the two fought over the kits they did not keep them covered as well and I lost two of the kits on cold nights.  I decided that next time I will not breed the second one that far apart from the first one. If the doe doesn't breed the first week I will not try after that. I hated seeing these girls fighting after getting along all this time. The rest of the kits made it just fine.