I am finally having some limited success with baby rabbits. I have 7 from 9 to 3 weeks old with three different mothers. all the babies are female. Is this just a fluke or do rabbits run predominatly female?
from what we have personally learned is that some males are late bloomers and become more apparent later. but, don't take my word for it. somebody who knows more than me is bound to be here in a second or two to prove me wrong...
More than likely you will be vistited by the sex change fairy soon. Three week olds are hard to sex with alot of accuracy. It is much easier to see the "parts on 8-10 week olds. Although I have had a litter of ALL BUCKS :flame: of course I wanted a doe to keep back from that litter too!
Melissa
My co-host for the Rabbit Production chat has over 20 years
of rabbit related research to his credit. In 2004,he identified sexes
(at kindling) in over 1200 litters of NZ . He found that the average of
males kindled was 51% to 49% females for those litters.
I'm not sure of the # of kits involved but it was over 10,000.
I know someone that in the past 3 months or so has had a majority of buck kits born. I agree with the poster that said expect the sex change fairy to make a visit. It is very hard at times to sex kits that young. Give it a few weeks and check again. There are plenty of breeders at shows that have mis-sexed juniors in classes. Happens to everyone.
Here's how it works: when you want a doe really badly from a litter, they're all bucks. Or, one is a doe, but it's horrendously ugly and unsuitable for breeding.
When you just lost your main herd sire, you get nothing but does for three months.
Thank you for the responses. Sounds like I had a fluke or more likely I am incompetent at sexing rabbits. When you say they will change sex do you mean that literally or do you mean the male parts will become apparent?
Go up to the sticky called 'useful sites' or something like that. At post #16, Pat put some links to photos that help sex. Compare those to what you are doing, and that way you can help rule out whether or not it's you!
If I try sexing them before about 8 weeks, the sex change fairy comes along for me! (That just means 'easier to tell', not a real change) Personally, I'm much better at newborn kittens!
We had 20 bucks and 30 does the first time around this summer.
And it is easy to get it wrong even when they're a bit older if you're in hurry.
I put one in the doe tractor and it started a hump fest immediately. Ooops.
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