The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Other => Rabbits => Topic started by: neilhenry77 on June 30, 2014, 10:43:47 am
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Hello! We have just invested in 2 NZW x Californian does to raise for our own consumption, I seem to have gone well overboard on building there hutch as its probably about 5 times bigger than what they were in and the breeding stock were in, never mind, they will be happy bunnies and we have plenty of space.
We want to breed for meat and for the pelts, the obvious choice for meat would be a pure or cross the same as the does but what would I gain and lose if I used a standard Rex buck, I know I would lose out a bit on meat but would it improve the quality of the fur and also have some more interesting patterning? I read briefly about breeding the kits back to the sire or similar but does this not raise its own problems with interbreeding?
When they are old enough they will mostly be kept on movable arks on grass to supplement there diet.
The lurcher who I use for hunting rabbits really didn't know what to make of them when I brought them home, she's clever though and will soon learn.
Thanks for accepting my membership request!
Neil
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Hi there,
I'm sure you've found your answer by now, but here it is -
You will not get the plush rex coat in your first generation. If you bred one of these rex- cross kits back to the rex buck, you will get plush coats and a slightly larger carcass in the second generation. A lot of meat breeders do interbreed if the resulting offspring are terminal, ie for the pot.
I personally don't, on the off chance I find a kit I really want to keep!
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Welcome to the site Neil .
Good on you for making their housing big .
Far to many folk bung a rabbit in a pokey ill sited box and expect them to be happy bunnies.
Re inter breeding.
From immense amount of research I did for our mammal farm I discovered , it can be used to fix desirable traits by mating grand children with grand parents but should not be done as a system that is always used in the rabbitry .
You should cease that practice in the heritage line if you discover any impediments such as ; _ wry neck , sore hocks , malocclusion or hermaphrodites or intense tendency to be nervous /skittish when approached as part of your normal daily routine etc.
So keeping detailed long term records are exceedingly very useful .
We set up an eXcel breeding register for each species we farmed and ended up with over 26 lines separate to the original stocks across all but two species and we were heading that way when I became disabled & had to close down the farm .
Setting the records up on eXcel was aided by getting the eXcel for dummies book as it holds the formulas for the work needed .
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Looks like Neil's not beed around since last November