Rabbits have a high reproductive rate compared to other livestock. They become sexually mature within a few months of birth and have relatively short pregnancies. They produce large litters and are unique in that they can be rebred immediately after kindling giving birth. With an intensive breeding program, a doe can be expected to have 60 weaned young a year. Such intensive breeding is not recommended, however, for the beginner and is seldom used in commercial production.
When setting up a breeding system for your rabbitry, your first consideration should be your purpose for raising rabbits. Rabbit breeding schedules are usually based on 7-day intervals for ease in recordkeeping.
Many commercial rabbit producers will breed does back 14 to 21 days after kindling. A day breed-back schedule is recommended. You can shorten the interval between kindling and breeding as you gain experience. No matter what breeding schedule you use, always check the condition of the rabbits before mating them.
It would not be wise to mate a doe again in poor condition or one nursing a large litter 21 days after kindling, as it could affect her reproductive performance. This could result in poor fertility, a small litter or high death rate in the young produced. Make sure the doe is in acceptable health conditions to limit risk of potential problems. When possible, mate several does on the same day or within a few days of one another. Kindling will take place at about the same time 28 to 32 days later , which will make fostering the young easier if it becomes necessary.
Does should be expected to produce seven or eight young in a litter, but they may occasionally have smaller or bigger litters, depending on the specific breed of rabbit. From developing new therapies that treat and prevent disease to helping people in need, we are committed to improving health and well-being around the world.
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More Content. After a year, how many rabbits would you have? The formula used to derive the answer is called the Fibonacci sequence, and the rabbit problem is well-known and still used in math texts today. The answer to the question posited by Fibonacci is rabbits would be produced in one year based on the scenario presented, Live Science reports.
The math problem, though, is not based on the biology of rabbits. While Fibonacci's question does demonstrate some interesting principles about numbers and mathematical patterns, it isn't a true representation of how many rabbits one pair of rabbits can produce. As with many things in nature, many variables affect a cottontail rabbit's reproduction and life cycle, which makes it impossible to determine exactly how many rabbits one mating pair can become responsible for in their lifetime and beyond.
But when you consider that one female can birth three or four litters averaging five babies each, you can see that number gets big quickly when you take into account their offspring's offspring. For that reason, an area's eastern cottontail rabbit population is nearly always on the verge of exploding, Pennsylvania State University reports.
At any given time, the vast majority of the cottontail population is younger than 1 year old. If those rabbits live long enough to produce their own litters of offspring, the populations can quickly become very large very fast. Elizabeth Gatto is a lover of wildlife and promoter of wildlife conservation. She promotes humane nuisance wildlife removal so people know it is possible to respect nature as well as maintain safety in your home.
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How Fast Do Rabbits Reproduce? Reader Contribution By Elizabeth Gatto. Tags: wildlife , rabbits , wildlife removal , animal care , Elizabeth Gatto , ,.
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