How to Breed Rabbits at Home

Rabbits are wonderful pets and are also good for eating, but they can breed out of control if you are not careful. Breeding them intentionally is a wonderful project that can provide you with a little bit of income or with more rabbits to use for your own purposes. If you have good pedigrees, your rabbits can be bred for sale. If not, it is still possible to breed rabbits for friends and family or to sell for meat. You can even breed rabbits to keep your own food supply growing in your back yard.

Things You'll Need

  • Male rabbit
  • Female rabbit
  • Two cages
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Instructions

    • 1

      Keep your rabbits in separate cages until you are ready to breed them. They are old enough by six months of age, although smaller breeds can be ready to mate sooner. To be safe, do not put them together before you are ready. When you are ready, be sure to plan ahead for the actual time of the birth, which will happen 31 days after the conception.

    • 2

      Bring the female rabbit to the male rabbit's cage. This is very important, as if you bring the male to the female, he may be more interested in sniffing the cage than in breeding.

    • 3

      Wait for the rabbits to successfully mate. You can tell this has happened when the male flops onto his side and grunts after mounting the female.

    • 4

      Return the female to her own cage. She will not need any special consideration except keeping her food full until just before the birth, at which time she may want materials to create a nest (like bits of newspaper).

    • 5

      Wait about eight hours, then return the female to the male's cage one more time and wait for them to breed again.

    • 6

      Breed your rabbits again as soon as the babies are weaned (at about six weeks) or whenever you are ready.