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I'll will keep this short.
I have many snakes and have a rack system for breading rats but my burms are taking rabbits now. I have plenty of room to also bread them. My question is are they like rats? anything to watch out for?
Any and all info would help....

Thanks, Mrenzz

Breeding rabbits is very different than breeding rats. You should keep all your adult rabbits housed individually. You can have a single male to numerous females, but if you intend to raise offspring to serve as future breeders you will want to have two unrelated males so as to have two seperate gene pools to breed to each other to avoid inbreeding.

Place the female into the male's cage and watch. The male will ordinarily attempt to mount and breed the female regardless if she is ready to be bred with or not. If she wants to be mated she will raise her rear end up and the male will suddenly spasm and grunt and seize up and fall over. This usually always indicates a successful breeding.

When you put her back in her own cage mark down a date 30 days in the future. This will be just prior to when she will be due, which is roughly 31 days. At a couple of days prior to her due date place a nesting box in with her. On her due date (1 day after the date marked down) she will pull fur and line the box with it. A little later that day she will have 6 to 16 babies, depending on the breed and age. If she pulls no fur or has her babies on the wire, don't feed her off just yet. First time mothers are frequently bad moms, but I always give them a second chance. If they are bad moms twice in a row, feed them off, they won't likely improve.

Back to breeding: Each male can "service" 2 or 3 females in a single night. After he impregnates the first, give him another and another until he has bred with 2 or 3 or until all the rest of the females have refused him. When a female does not want to be bred she will usually run swiftly away from the male or will grunt loudly or will huddle close to the cage bottom with her rear tucked tightly in. This usually just means that they are not ready. But often, if they grunt very loud and emphatically this can also indicate that they are already pregnant. To check this feel for enlargened nipples.

As soon as the female's babies are of a weanling age she can be re-bred. This is when the babies are roughly 3 weeks old, hopping around and beginning to munch solid food.

I hope this info helps you. One last note,.... if you live in a region that gets very hot during the summer and the day temps are exceeding 90 degrees, do your breeding between 10pm and 2am. This will greatly increase your chances of the females accepting the males. High temps usually discourage them from breeding. We run approximately 60 females at any one time to sustain our large pythons and they breed for us year-round because of this little trick. This is the first time I have posted it, so enjoy.

>>I'll will keep this short.
>>I have many snakes and have a rack system for breading rats but my burms are taking rabbits now. I have plenty of room to also bread them. My question is are they like rats? anything to watch out for?
>>Any and all info would help....
>>
>>Thanks, Mrenzz
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True "power" is not to be found in social or economic placement or stature, which are merely illusory, finite, frail and brief.
True power is to be found in one's sheer will and personal determination to achieve one's goals at ANY cost and at ANY sacrifice.

Another thing to watch for during breeding is to make sure your females have enough protein. Lack of protein will cause the new mothers to eat their young. Most commercial rabbit food will have enough protein, however you will need to suppliment if you choose to feed alfalfa (hay). Also avoid feeding large amounts of greens (lettuce, carrot tops, etc.) on an inconsistant basis; gives them the runs.

Thanks for the help........

Wow... Brian sometimes you never cease to amaze me. I guess it's all your experience in the 'industry'.

Thanks man. That's a nice compliment. But I have bred rabbits off and on since the mid 70's for snake food. And this time around I am running so many large python species that I decided to breed the rabbits on a large scale so as to not only save a lot of money on food for the snakes (overhead) but also so that I know EXACTLY how the rabbits are raised and thus how healthy the food going into my snakes is. But I save hundreds every month doing this. And saving money is equal to getting paid. It costs me only about 150 to 200 dollars per month to produce roughly between 200 and 250 offspring. They grow incredibly fast, about a pound a week and they are very soon a large meal for the retics, rocks, burmese, hybrids and celons. Oh, and the big boas too. They get them too. Oh,. wait,.. the bloods get them as well. Almost forgot about them. Well, you get the idea. There are probably others I am forgetting about. But the bottom line is that it is SO much cheaper than buying them, and in my opinion, safer (nothing implied toward rodentpro, I hear they are tops). I have all auto systems, so it's really a cinch to do too. We also run several thousand rats in a pretty state of the art rat facility that I spent 9 months building, that cost a few grand on materials and auto water valves, but it paid for itself in less than two months. I will post some pictures soon if folks want to see it and maybe it can help someone out. It takes the cost of the rats down to 25 cents or less each. Wel, actually, they don't cost me anything because I sell about a thousand rats (overage) each month and it takes care of overhead and makes me a few hundred and I have my free food. It's a triple-win situation.

>>Wow... Brian sometimes you never cease to amaze me. I guess it's all your experience in the 'industry'.
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True "power" is not to be found in social or economic placement or stature, which are merely illusory, finite, frail and brief.
True power is to be found in one's sheer will and personal determination to achieve one's goals at ANY cost and at ANY sacrifice.

Rabbits can cause digestive problems even in the healthiest snake, they are also more fatty than rats. Try to stick with rats if you can, the snake will be much happier.

In the 30 years I have been keeping burms I have never experienced any problems related to feeding rabbits to pythons. Your statement here is so absurd I shouldn't even address it. And do you have ANY idea just how many rats it would take to sustain a 16 to 20 foot burmese??? It's just a ridiculous notion.

>>Rabbits can cause digestive problems even in the healthiest snake, they are also more fatty than rats. Try to stick with rats if you can, the snake will be much happier.
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True "power" is not to be found in social or economic placement or stature, which are merely illusory, finite, frail and brief.
True power is to be found in one's sheer will and personal determination to achieve one's goals at ANY cost and at ANY sacrifice.

OK, for some reason, Ill humor you for a moment. What is that assertion based on? I cant imagine how many rats I would need in order to keep my female full?
Seriously, what evidence is that based on?

Ok, I had to jump in. Not feeding rabbits will get very expensive, especially to us breeders. Try not feeding rabbits to 20 15' burms, or 30 15' Retics. Rabbits have been fed to burms, and large boids for quite sometime, and I have not heard of any digestive problems. The only problems I have ever experienced was feeding live rabbits (one female will take nothing but, so save the responses on that one.) Live rabbits will scratch your snake while it is constricting, but digestive problems?????? I'm not bashing, but where is the research? If feeding rabbits is detamental to large boids, the industry would be dealt a severe blow. Rats just won't cut it for big snakes.