Rabbit Maturity

Maturity is reached when the rabbit is capable of producingova or sperm, although rabbits may attempt to mate as muchas two months before this stage of development. Maturityoccurs a month or two or more before the rabbit attainssexual maturity, that is the age when it attains full repro-ductive powers. As an example, a doe might stand to thebuck as early as three months, but be incapable of producinga litter until four months. Site might then reach her fullpowers at about six months, although this example wouldbe right only for the smaller breeds.

Different breeds and strains will reach Maturity and sexual maturity at different ages. The most important factorsinfluencing these ages are breed size and nutrition. Thelarger the breed the later in general does it reach Maturity.The smaller breeds are fertile at about four months or slightlylater, whilst the largest breeds are rarely fertile before aboutseven months. On this basic pattern, determined by weight,is imposed a good deal of variation due to the nutrition ofthe animal. The well fed animal will develop much morequickly than the poorly fed specimen of the same breed.Maturity in body growth is closely related to maturity insexual development, and therefore general development is amuch better guide to the correct age for first mating than isany other.

There are of course other factors which affect sexualmaturity. Animals born late in the year usually developearlier than spring born stock. This may be not unrelatedto the fact that spring born animals are often subject to adecreasing level of nutrition, whilst late born animals oftenhave improving conditions at about the right time for sexualgrowth