I'm now, officially a rancher... well a rabbit rancher at least. We finally brought home a buck and two does on Saturday and they are now settling in the barn. We had a couple of false starts before I got these as two different dealers had promised me rabbits and they both lost litters for some reason. It just told me they weren't necessarily good breeding stock to begin with.
These are New Zealand Whites, with the buck being three weeks older than the does. That again tells me the buck is not from the same litter as the does so we shouldn't get too many problems with inbreeding.
I was a little worried that they weren't eating the pellets, but this morning the does feeders were empty so they have settled in okay. The buck is still not on the pellets but he is eating vegetables and they have all figured out the water bottles. The does are at ten weeks so I have plenty of time to get us all acquainted before they start work.
One of the girls has decided she is going to help me with the rabbits. She is the money wise kid of the three and has already worked out how to sell lucky rabbits feet at school. She's also the one with the strongest stomach and will probably help me at processing time (more to make sure I don't cheat her out of any of the feet).