Buns in the oven!

by Teresa N
(Dallas NC)

I have a Lop, he is around 7mths old and seemed very depressed, so I went and got him a friend. I was scared to see if they were going get along. Well, they hit it off from the start ... Lord I did not realize she was a female and not to mention old enough to get prego! I think she may be around 4 mths old and still very petite!

Now they have mated the 1st time on the 12th and many times after that I can already see the buns kicking around in her belly... What do I do now? lol He goes crazy when I try to put her in a separate cage? He wants to be right beside her at all times. Is it okay to leave them together? They live on my porch off of my bedroom. I have set them up with their own little apartment, I guess you can say they are very spoiled!

1. Do I remove her from him till the buns come or completely?

2. I am not sure what breed she is, where can I go to find out? I have looked on line and she does not match any of the others. She does have lop ears but she is pure white with gray ears and gray circles around her eyes???

3. Where do I go to see if my male is show quality. He is beautiful but he was not tattooed so I would like to see if he is pure bred or not...

Thanks for any advice
Teresa N.
Dallas NC

****Karen Sez****
How much do your rabbits weigh? The weights might help to know which kind of a lop they are and if they are the correct weight. They DO look lovely, both of them!

The doe is a 'charlie,' indicating a double 'spotted' gene. All the babies will be spotted, I think. She can't be shown, but her offspring may be of excellent quality.

You might go to www.arba.net, and find a rabbit show in your area. Attend the show and bring your rabbits. There will be lots of breeders there who will be happy to check out your rabbits and give you an educated opinion as to quality.

I cannot tell you for sure whether or not to leave the two rabbits together. If it were me, I'd be tempted to let them be together - they have a large living space, the buck seems to be tightly bonded to the doe, and because in the wild, a couple like this does live together in the same burrow.

The only thing is -- if the doe gets irritated with him always breeding with her, he might need to be removed. The other thing is -- he'll rebreed her the minute the babies are born...just about literally. So, you might want to decide how frequently you want babies.

Have fun! Besides raising rabbits, showing them is very exciting. :-)