Plan: Breed either NZW-A (or NZW-B) x Whoops
Goal: Change NWZ-A status to proven (or breed proven NZW-B)
Conclusion: Took a risk with NWZ-A and observed two fall-offs, but the unusually low temperatures we are experiencing may be a factor in fertility for the buck.
Goal: Change NWZ-A status to proven (or breed proven NZW-B)
Conclusion: Took a risk with NWZ-A and observed two fall-offs, but the unusually low temperatures we are experiencing may be a factor in fertility for the buck.
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Today, I bred our remaining NZW doe, Whoops, with NZW-A, who is now about six months old. We are concerned about her age, but Whoops has always been receptive to breeding and is a good doe for a first time buck. However, she is not the type to want to cuddle after the deed is done and after the second fall off, she wanted nothing to do with NZW-A. In fact, she kept looking for a way out and became aggressive with him. For his safety, I removed her quickly. (White rabbits do not look as pretty when they have been bleeding.)
We have kept the practice of observing the breeding since we started with rabbits. I have read that some breeders just leave the doe in with the buck for the day or overnight and I suppose that some does might be good with that, but I have not had one yet, especially after they had done a few breedings. Outside of her after-breeding behavior, Whoops is probably the sweetest of my senior does. She did not even hassle the bunnies that squeezed through an the top of the wire between the hay feeders and visited her just a few weeks ago. In fact, I even thought she looked like she would like to mother them. Whoops accepts handling well too.
NZW-A is the youngest of the NZW bucks we had and unrelated to NZW-B. NZW-C, who was unproven but five ounces heavier than his brother NZW-B at the time, went to a woman who breeds only for meat for her family. She had just lost her only buck and one of her does to a raccoon so she needed a buck of breeding age and his brother was proven by then. That freed up a cage for the SF doe I was getting the next day from JRRF, but not really because it was time for the BGG-4 kindle to be weaned. Thankfully husband had a weekend home so we could replace the floors of the two extra cages we had and he began building a small frame with a roof to hang them. That made those cages excellent for quarantine as they are not next to any other cage. Black Ivy is serving her time in one of them right now.
Hopefully, this breeding will take and we will have some purebred NZWs in about 31 days!