I confess that I have been rather discouraged this rabbit breeding season, but I finally have the number of Silver Foxes for breeding I wanted and I have hopes with the upcoming breedings as I will have only purebred Silver Fox kits!
Yesterday, I thought out what I would like to accomplish with the end of the breeding season fast approaching, because breeding in the heat of summer in the Southeast is not a good idea. Being that I am visual type, I had to make some charts as I thought it all out. My original breeding plans had to change because I bought two Silver Fox does who would need to be added in the rotation.
Then, there is the other problem of space that probably every rabbit breeder understands. Presently, we have eleven cages. Seven years ago, we started with just six cages and that worked well enough with a New Zealand trio and their large kindles that often had to be separated for grow out. Then we added a pair of Silver Foxes and added a couple more cages and a kindling suite. This year, I begged for two more at least, which we actually had available just needing to be refloored and hung on a frame with a roof, but would I have preferred four cages, and/or another kindling suite. Unfortunately, that space thing is a problem with not only cages, but the space in which the cages are kept. Since we are in the Southeast and rabbits do not do well with summer heat and sunlight, we have them under the cover of our back deck that is shaded by trees in the hottest part of the day. Also, we prefer roomy cages for the rabbits, therefore we cannot really expand presently.
I currently have four SF does, two SF bucks, one NZW buck, one NZW doe, one NZW/SF cross doe, and a growing out kindle of five for three more weeks. This means I only have one empty cage that is not quite complete anyway, so I cannot use it yet. I have a kindle on the way and the next kindles will overlap even more (I had a large gap in the breeding schedule because of Whoops not taking in her first breeding) so I seriously need cage space.
I thought out different scenarios and have tried offering two rabbits on a listing, but in the end, three rabbits just do not fit my plans to focus on Silver Foxes:
Whoops' last litter added one more disappointment. However, I am grateful that I had not sold her after all. Many breeders advise to breed a doe immediately after her last kindle if it is lost or even if she had a fetal giant, because that is when she would be that most fertile, but I felt any doe would need more time to recuperate from birthing the fetal giant. Plus, with needing cage space and now having three Silver Fox does ready to be bred, I decided to retire her. It was the right decision because we found that she was rather torn up from the birthing, had three underdeveloped fetuses still in her, and had bloody urine in her bladder. My husband believed she might be septic and we passed on the using the meat from her.
I also had been trying to sell the New Zealand buck, NZW-B, as I no longer have need of him. However, this time of year everyone has a cute New Zealand Easter bunny to sell. When we bought the three NZWs for $30 from a breeder closing down to move, we planned to pick one and have a meal of the other two. The one was to be here only temporarily, to breed for meat rabbits a few months until my SF bucks were of age, which is why I did not even give NZW-B a name. However, I was able to pass on the two other bucks to meat breeders, so I am happy. It is just that NZW-B has sired three kindles and is a good producer; I would have preferred to see him go to someone would needs a brood buck.
Then there is Golden Girl. She is the youngest of the three older does with which we started this breeding season. She is Misty Blue and Buck's daughter and the reason I started to learn about rabbit genetics. She is a smaller doe usually throwing average sized kindles and kits of smaller to average sizes, but she bred readily and has been a good mother. Being that she also is three years old, she is not drawing much interest from any breeders.
Needless to say, perhaps, but I now have four empty cages...but not for long!
