Weaning, Breeding, and Separating a litter | Raising Silverfox Meat Rabbits 

Congrats! It is a lot of fun and very rewarding! You learn as you go. :)

Glad to hear! Thank you!

This is by far my favorite litter I have ever had!

Awesome! Thank you! :)

Thank you, glad to help! Yes you absolutely can. Luckie is currently pregnant and due any day now and I bred her with one of Thumpers offspring (Arlo, my new buck). The rule of thumb is to never breed littermates together. Hope this helps!

@@rabbitathomestead perfect. Thank you so much.

Because it's winter here and it gets in the single digits. I only use them in the winter. Water bottles freeze.

Makes sense!

Thanks you! And yes you are correct

It depends on if I need another breeder or not. If I'm all set on breeders and don't have space for more, we process them. Predators haven't been an issue with or rabbits surprisingly. We have had lots of bear problems with our chickens. Had to stop raising chickens because of it. But my rabbits have been fine.

Hi! I'm going to be completely honest with you, I don't have a whole lot of knowledge on rabbit genetics. What I do know is that genes improve when breeding offspring with a parent. The litter you see here is one of Luckies (my brown does) litters. She is half rex half silver fox. I bred her with my pure silver fox buck who is also her father. So Luckies kits were all 3/4 silver fox. So the colors you see in this litter, the gray and black is from my silver fox buck. And the brown was from Luckie. If I wanted too, I could have saved a brown doe from the litter and bred it with my pure sf buck. And then bred one of her kits again with my buck and so on. That's how you can breed out the rex side. And eventually end up with a pure brown silver fox to breed. Then you would have a good chance of all your litters to have those three colors. If I were you, I would breed what you have and see what you end up with. Sounds like you may have a good chance ending up with blue from the buck and black and brown from the doe. And yours would be pure silver fox right from the start. It's hard to find a chocolate silver fox. I hope this helps, like I said, I don't know a whole lot about this subject but like you, I'm leaning too. :) Thanks for your support on my channel!

@@rabbitathomestead Thank you so much for your kind and thorough reply. That does answer all my questions. I LOVE following your channel. I am currently building the same hutches you have from your video. We get almost as cold as you (-5 to - 10 sometimes) but get up to 95 degrees in the summer. The hutches will be in an open hay barn so some protection but I am wondering if the plywood side will give them enough ventilation in the summer... how hot do you get in the summer? So appreciative of your advice and help. Going to order your dispatching tools as well. Thanks!!

No I have never had any issues with them fighting

Yes I like them. Those are the best bottles I have found. Once the weather changes to freezing temps I have to switch over to metal bowls because the bottles freeze pretty quick

Thank you! In case the babies are still nursing I leave a couple to slowly wean them off of her. Just for the does sake. It's better for her. Although I don't think they are nursing at 8 weeks, I just do it to be safe. Sometimes I wean the litters at 6 weeks depending on the time of year and I definitely leave a couple kits in with the doe because there more likely to be nursing at that age. Hopefully that makes sense!

@@rabbitathomestead okay, thanks!

I leave a baby or two if moms still nursing to prevent mastitis of the Doe.

I would start trying at 6 months. But it doesn't hurt to try earlier. As long as the doe is full grown and ready and the buck is willing, you should be okay

@@rabbitathomestead thanks!

Yeah I know what your talking about… I use it as nesting material for the bottom of my nesting boxes sometimes. I’m sure there is a better way to utilize it tho

Not right now. I raise pure silver fox but I don't have pedigree papers.

@@rabbitathomestead oh no worries do you have a website or somewhere I can contact you?

You can email me. Rabbitathomestead@gmail.com