Living in the southeast has its challenges with raising Silver Foxes. At the top of the list is keeping them cool and healthy during the hottest and most humid time of the year. As meat breeders, we would have our last breedings in April and no breedings until September. The only schedule I had to consider was my own and cage space.
As a show breeder, I still quite strongly believe in not breeding in the summer, particularly when I have invested so much in my rabbits. However, working around show schedules has been a new challenge for me this past year. For instance, I put off breeding Luna last fall until she earned three legs as she was my best doe to show at the time and I had other does that could be bred. Still, there were gaps I would like to avoid this coming breeding season, if the rabbits cooperate.
This spring I was faced with another breeding schedule dilemma with Zinfandel. I bred her to GC Starry Knight after we returned from the Silver Fox National Show in April. She built a nest about two weeks later, but her due date of May 16th has come and gone. I have not been able to feel any babies in her. (Yet another incident of rabbits messing up my brilliant breeding plans!)
I was faced with a doe, whom I consider to be the best rabbit in my rabbitry, that just turned 8 months old and was over senior weight that would be a year old in mid-September. It is usually advisable for a doe to have her first kindle before she turns a year old—something to do with bones of the hips and ease of kindling later on. At the earliest, she would be kindling between the first and mid-October, after she was a year old. That would also depend on the temperatures and the fertility of my bucks.
The second consideration is that our newly ARBA approved club, Georgia Silver Fox Rabbit Breeders (GSFRB) is having its first specialty show in Perry, GA on November 16th. This is a big do-not-want-to-miss show for all my best does and I rather not take Zin when she might be out of condition from nursing.
The only solution to my dilemma seem to be breeding her again right now in mid May, when the buck should be still fertile. Bucks can become heat sterile, so it is good that we have had a cooler start into summer, but it is heating up now. Torn between the two should do's, I made the decision for the one I felt I could have some control over, I bred her again to Starry Knight and she readily lifted. From this point on, I will be considering Zin's pregnancy a high-risk one.
We have a few plans to keep her cool and healthy above and beyond what we do for all the rabbits, which is to have fans on each cage. I could place her in a two-hole carrier with the divider removed in the garage, which is under part of the house and is always much cooler than outside, during the day and take her back out at night so she has more room to romp around in the cooler night. Our concern is the moving back and forth might be upsetting to her, but this is my top pick of solutions, since we presently do not have the room for in a regular cage in the garage. I would keep her inside close to her kindling date and two weeks after when the kits open their eyes. I might start this to see how she takes to it in just a few days as the temperatures are predicted to be in the high 80s to mid 90s.
My husband suggested keeping her fan on a large with ice bottle in the air flow, which I will begin to implement today to see how she takes to it also. We have had rabbits that seem upset with the ice bottles before and only increased their activity during the hottest part of the day.
I still do not think it is even remotely a good idea to breed in the summer and we just never have done it, even as meat breeders, but I am confident that we can keep her cool enough to make it less risky for a single doe and the winner for me is still the garage during the day. By the way, I get that gauges are not always that accurate, but I can feel the differences so I think they are very close.
This spring I was faced with another breeding schedule dilemma with Zinfandel. I bred her to GC Starry Knight after we returned from the Silver Fox National Show in April. She built a nest about two weeks later, but her due date of May 16th has come and gone. I have not been able to feel any babies in her. (Yet another incident of rabbits messing up my brilliant breeding plans!)
I was faced with a doe, whom I consider to be the best rabbit in my rabbitry, that just turned 8 months old and was over senior weight that would be a year old in mid-September. It is usually advisable for a doe to have her first kindle before she turns a year old—something to do with bones of the hips and ease of kindling later on. At the earliest, she would be kindling between the first and mid-October, after she was a year old. That would also depend on the temperatures and the fertility of my bucks.
The second consideration is that our newly ARBA approved club, Georgia Silver Fox Rabbit Breeders (GSFRB) is having its first specialty show in Perry, GA on November 16th. This is a big do-not-want-to-miss show for all my best does and I rather not take Zin when she might be out of condition from nursing.
The only solution to my dilemma seem to be breeding her again right now in mid May, when the buck should be still fertile. Bucks can become heat sterile, so it is good that we have had a cooler start into summer, but it is heating up now. Torn between the two should do's, I made the decision for the one I felt I could have some control over, I bred her again to Starry Knight and she readily lifted. From this point on, I will be considering Zin's pregnancy a high-risk one.
We have a few plans to keep her cool and healthy above and beyond what we do for all the rabbits, which is to have fans on each cage. I could place her in a two-hole carrier with the divider removed in the garage, which is under part of the house and is always much cooler than outside, during the day and take her back out at night so she has more room to romp around in the cooler night. Our concern is the moving back and forth might be upsetting to her, but this is my top pick of solutions, since we presently do not have the room for in a regular cage in the garage. I would keep her inside close to her kindling date and two weeks after when the kits open their eyes. I might start this to see how she takes to it in just a few days as the temperatures are predicted to be in the high 80s to mid 90s.
My husband suggested keeping her fan on a large with ice bottle in the air flow, which I will begin to implement today to see how she takes to it also. We have had rabbits that seem upset with the ice bottles before and only increased their activity during the hottest part of the day.
I still do not think it is even remotely a good idea to breed in the summer and we just never have done it, even as meat breeders, but I am confident that we can keep her cool enough to make it less risky for a single doe and the winner for me is still the garage during the day. By the way, I get that gauges are not always that accurate, but I can feel the differences so I think they are very close.
Outside temperature: 88°
Rabbitry with fans: 81°
Garage temperature: 73°
