Californian Meat Rabbit Grow-Out Thread... **Picture Heavy**

[Hooligan Farm]

Quote:
You breed them that early? I thought it was to wait till they were 6 months

 

[Dead Rabbit]

to be politically correct that would be the proper time. but ive never been that civilized...lol. i start trying to breed them at 3 months. this line i have the lady i bought them from, she has raised them to mature early. she breeds them that way. so i follow suit. if they aint bred by 4 months i start to become disgruntled with them. b/c i know they can do better. she also turns around and breeds them couple days after kindling.....i usually wait a couple weeks.

i usually breed them once. then test breed at 2 wks. they usually have a small litter, of 5 or 6. ive only lost a few to kindling on the wire and not in the box....shes been breeding this way for yrs and yrs. and ive taken up her techniques the past few yrs.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Bet that suprised ya! My second litter has started hunting down momma. It's hard to hide when theres 9 of them chasing you.

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

LoL heck ya it surprised me!! I wasn't even looking for them and by the time I saw them they must have been a couple days old already!

Speaking of, I need to go check on them soon.

I've been so busy with school starting this week and work that I haven't had a chance to get the 6 week weights on my other litter... I know they are over 2 pounds, but they eat A LOT! Maybe I will have to just do 7 week weights instead.

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Weigh them when you can and I'll reweigh mine so we can compare them. My kids are more than happy to climb in the cage (at times I'm tempted to lock them in too!) and bring me the babies.

 

[chickincoop]

We have 7 week old purebred Californian babies. They are three girls who are going to be 4 H bunnies. Mama was rebred 2 weeks ago and has little "graplets" palpable inside. She is 7 months old (this was her first litter) and currently weighs 12 pounds. Dad is 8 months old and weighs 8 pounds. One of the babies weighs 3 1/2 pounds, the other two weigh 4 1/2 pounds. We have 18 day old Californian/ WNZ crosses which we have not weighed, yet, but they share the same daddy. The New Zealand White mama is 7 months old and she weighs 12 pounds, also. She threw a litter of 8. These are going to be dinner in a few weeks! Our smallest cage is 30" X 36", and the grower cages are 42" X 44".

 

[terri9630]

I've got the 8wk weights of my litter of 5.

They are 4.5lbs, 3.85lbs, 3.63lbs, 3.65lbs, and 3.97lbs for a total of 19.6lbs.

 

[Hooligan Farm]

I processed one from my litter of 3 today. She weighed 5lbs 7oz and hanging weight was 2lbs 12 oz

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
That's a lot of weight lost. Is that the usual?

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

I was thinking the same thing.


I haven't had a chance to get my 8 week weights, but half of them are sold (the larger ones) so I think it would be skewed anyways.

However... Lily has 9 new babies, Sweet Pea has 7 new babies and Honey is going to pop any minute!