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How to Select Quality Breeding Rabbits
A breeding rabbit's quality strongly affects its offspring, so check both bucks and does carefully when buying in. Here is how to choose.
Which Rabbits Should Not Be Selected as Breeding Stock?
Rabbit farmers place great importance on breeding-stock development, especially large-scale operations, because only high-quality breeding stock can raise a herd's reproduction rate and economic returns. Selecting excellent young rabbits as replacement breeders is key to maintaining both quality and numbers. So how should you select replacement breeding rabbits? We hope the following advice helps.
Key Points for Selecting Breeding Rabbits
Breeding stock is the core of a rabbitry, so selection must be planned and scientific. For meat rabbits check growth, feed conversion (2.8–3.2:1), conception rate (≥85%), litter size (≥6–8) and weaning survival (≥80%). For wool rabbits judge yield, density, length and evenness; for rex rabbits judge color purity, fur that is short, flat, fine, dense and secure, and adult weight above 3.5 kg. Always verify the animal's health.
False Pregnancy in Doe Rabbits
A false pregnancy makes a doe show nesting and swollen mammary signs without any kits, usually lasting 6–8 days and lowering your breeding herd's productivity. It is caused by an infertile or over-stimulating buck, uterine or vaginal inflammation, or the doe's own progesterone after ovulation. Good management, repeat or double mating, pre-mating checks, and timely re-mating keep it under control.
How to Raise Meat Rabbits Well
Raising meat rabbits well means timing breeding to the seasons (spring best, summer cooling, autumn nutrition during molt, winter warmth), mixing concentrate, roughage, and green feed or using complete pellets, and choosing fast-growing, disease-resistant breeds such as Belgian, New Zealand, or Chinese White rabbits.
How to Raise Young Rex Rabbits
Young rex rabbits (weaned to 90 days) are fragile and stress-prone, so survival depends on gradual feeding, grouping by size, daily exercise and sunlight, close health monitoring, clean dry housing, and culling weak stock. Feed twice daily to about 80 percent full.
How to Choose and Introduce New Rabbit Breeding Stock
Choosing rabbit breeding stock means matching the breed to local conditions and market demand, sourcing from reputable farms rather than resellers, and preferring autumn transport with climate-matched animals. Pick healthy, high-yield stock and avoid old, sick, or weaned rabbits on long trips.
Nine Measures for Steady, High-Yield Rabbit Breeding
Steady, high rabbit yields come from selecting strong breeding stock, mating at the right time, careful feeding, protecting pregnancy (days 10-20 are highest risk), assisted birth, attentive postpartum and kit care, and timely weaning at 40-45 days.
Measures to Boost Rabbit Litter Yield in Autumn
Autumn is the peak breeding season for rabbits, but it is also their molt, so extra nutrition is essential to keep breeding stock in condition. Feed bucks and does differently, choose strong genetics, and manage mating and pregnancy carefully to raise litter size.
Common Deformities in Rabbits
Earlier we said to watch a breeding rabbit closely; if it does not match its breed look, do not select it. Any rabbit with a defect or deformity - born or acquired - cannot be used for breeding. Here are common deformities.