Tag Archives: breeding rabbits

How Can I Tell if My Rabbit is Pregnant?

You’ve bought the breeding pair of rabbits. You’ve let them do their business. (Perhaps by accident, like us!) Then all you can do is wait and wonder for a month whether or not you’re going to be a fur baby mama. Right?

Not necessarily. Some indications of pregnancy in rabbits are not all that different from pregnancy in humans! While none of them are surefire, there are several different factors you can check to “test” for pregnancy in rabbits.

Your doe is being moody. Rabbits undergo pregnancy hormones just like people, and may start acting cranky or mean. (Phew, it’s not just me.) Perhaps she is spending more time by herself, or even running from you when you come to her cage. Unusual behavior of this type may be a sign of pregnancy.
You’ve got a nest-buiding fiend. If your doe is frantic to dig holes, gather hay, pull fur, or otherwise make a cozy nest, it’s likely she may be pregnant. Rabbits, like people, want to prepare for the arrival of their babies by making a safe and comfortable place.
You can feel babies. In order to feel the baby rabbits, you must palpate your doe. This is best performed between 10-14 days gestation, when the babies are large enough to feel, but still small enough to be distinguished from the other internal organs. Palpation is done by gently securing the doe with one hand while feeling along the undersides of her abdomen for grape-sized lumps with the other hand. (Lumps on the sides are babies, and lumps in the center are poop pellets! Just a minor distinction. 😉 )

You must know that I have not been able to successfully palpate our doe, as she is quite irritable and won’t let us handle her right now. So, I present to you a video of someone more experienced than I performing this task:

As for our doe, my guess is that she’s likely pregnant. She’s not letting us handle her at all right now. Also, she usually visits us at the water bottles every morning, but recently she’s been hanging out in her nesting box almost nonstop. She’s been out of character and solitary- so perhaps we will have babies in March?

However, aside from a successful positive palpation or a blood test, it can be somewhat tricky to tell if your doe is actually pregnant. Rabbits don’t always get all that large during pregnancy (unless they have a big litter), so you can’t always see it. Rabbits also have this tricky little thing called false pregnancies- when they act hormonal and pregnant, and may even build a nest- but all to no avail.

So as you can see, pregnancy signs in rabbits can be a little bit of a guessing game. I’m getting the gist that it’s best to look at combined factors to make an educated guess on your doe’s status- and then wait 31 days to find out for sure. 😉

Here are more resources on checking your rabbit’s pregnancy status:

This post was shared at Front Porch Friday.

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Getting Started with Meat Rabbits

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We’ve toyed with the idea of owning our own renewable meat source for a long time. We’ve talked about meat chickens or turkeys (something we may do next spring). We’ve also considered a small pig, but don’t have the fencing for such an animal. But over and over, we’ve heard the praises of rabbits sung for a small homestead meat source.

We made a plan to build a hutch and get rabbits sometime in the next year or so. However, when we received a free rabbit hutch from one of my husband’s co-workers, all that was missing were the rabbits and a few supplies. We finally took the plunge last month and bought ourselves a breeding pair.

Our rabbits are a mix between the Standard Rex, known for its dense, velvety fur, and the Silver Fox, a slightly larger breed whose fur resembles the fox of the same name. Both are also bred for their meat. We expect that the cross between the two should yield rabbits weighing approximately 8-10 lbs at maturity.

The pair came with names- the doe is Rosie and the buck is Peter. While I am generally not a proponent of naming animals being raised as a meat source, we expect these two will stay on as our resident “Mr. & Mrs.” for as long as they’re healthy & happy in their roles.

Rabbits are- so far, anyway- fairly easy to care for. Their requirements are few and simple, as you can see. They only need:

Housing- a basic rabbit hutch will do just fine. Male and female should be separated until breeding. They’re pretty cold hardy and can generally be kept outdoors without a problem.
Nesting boxes- These will serve both as shelter, and as a nest for baby bunnies. My hubby built them little boxes on the end of their hutch:
Food and water- These guys like to drink a lot for their size! They have a constant supply of water from their bottles and rabbit feed in their little feeder bins. They also have access to the grass (we have no snow here yet) and we bring them fruit and veggie scraps as treats.

We are complete beginners with both breeding and butchering rabbits (so please let me know if anything is incorrect!), but the basic order of things goes like this:

An adult pair of rabbits can be bred at about 6 months maturity.
The gestational period of a rabbit is about 31 days, and we are told they generally bear a litter of about 8-10 babies, though it can vary greatly.
The babies will be ready to process as fryers at 8-9 weeks old, or you can wait a little longer for a slightly bigger rabbit.
The meat can be eaten fresh, frozen, or pressure canned. The furs can also be tanned and kept for various uses- this is something I know absolutely nothing about but would love to learn!
The rabbits can be bred 3-4 times a year to repeat the cycle- providing more than enough meat for our family.

I’m sure I’ll write more on the “how to” of raising and processing meat rabbits after we’ve gained more experience. Here are some other articles on the subject that we’ve found helpful:

Do you raise your own meat source? Any words of advice for us newbies?

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