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by Daydreamer on May 13th, 2005

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What do I need to consider before I breed my pet rabbits?

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  • by Daydreamer on May 13th, 2005

    Daydreamer

    I’ve recently been trying to persuade my sister and her boyfriend not to breed their rabbits, as I don’t feel they have thought it through or have good enough reasons for wanting to breed them. They plan on selling the baby bunnies in the hope of making some money. This is not a good idea considering that in most cases you would make only a very small profit if any at all. Fortunately I still have about four months until their male rabbit is old enough to breed so I hope I can change their minds in time!
    The first thing you need to think about is what are your reasons for wanting to breed them and are they good reasons? If you plan on keeping the babies as pets and have the money, space, time and knowledge to do it, then this may be a good reason to breed. However, before breeding for this reason you should also consider all the unwanted rabbits waiting for new homes in animal shelters. Do you really want to produce more rabbits for you to keep as pets when you could just as easily get rabbits from an animal shelter? There are so many lovely rabbits destroyed each year only because they don’t have a home, wouldn’t it be a better and more rewarding idea to provide a loving home for a bunny that might otherwise be put down? If you still decide to breed for this reason then I’d suggest either keeping the males and females apart or having them spayed and neutered as soon as possible before you end up with more rabbits than you can handle!
    If you wish to breed and sell your rabbits because you like the idea of little babies running around and just generally think you would enjoy breeding them then also think about this:
    If you have rabbits with a friendly nature, that does not necessarily mean that their babies will be the same. All rabbits are different; so don’t breed rabbits just because your friends and/or family want a rabbit “just like yours”.
    Something I know that I would find upsetting if I were to breed rabbits is that the babies might not survive. This can be for many reasons, here are a few: If you breed dwarf rabbits there is a 25% chance of them producing “peanut” babies, they are born with the wrong genetic combination and will not survive more than a few days. Also, not all female rabbits are good mothers; some eat their babies shortly after birth. This is mainly due to inexperience, in which case they should be forgiven and get another chance, but some still do this after their second or third litter. If the mother does this with her third litter then under no circumstances should you breed her again, she simply doesn’t have a mothering instinct. Don’t breed if you couldn’t handle these situations. You must think of every possible thing that can go wrong and decide if you would feel comfortable and do the correct thing in each one.
    Are you a good judge of character? Can you be sure that the people you sell your bunnies to could provide a good enough home for them? If not then don’t breed. Some people love the idea of owning baby rabbits but just don’t know how to look after them, as with a lot of pets. Also, some people don’t realise the daily time and effort involved. If you sell to people who aren’t very sensible then they might also decide it’s a good idea to breed their rabbits, probably for the wrong reasons. If you do breed then it would be a very good idea to spay/neuter them before you sold them. If you have any doubts whether a person could look after rabbits properly then don’t sell to them, you’ll just have to keep your rabbits until someone responsible and caring enough comes along.
    You might be thinking about breeding your rabbits because a lot of people have said if you did then they’d buy a rabbit from you. If this is the case then you have to understand that your baby rabbits are very unlikely to be in demand like this all of the time. Not many people can breed their rabbits constantly (or repeatedly) while making a profit and finding good homes for each baby.
    For whatever reason you want to breed bunnies please remember the ones we already have without homes, they should be looked after first before deliberately breeding anymore.
    If after all this you still wish to breed your pets, please find out as much information on breeding as possible and be sensible, don’t breed if you don’t know what you will do with the babies.

    Good information on these sites:
    www.debmark.com/rabbits/breeding.htm
    www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/breedingrabbits.asp

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