why does my male rabbit always stop humping my female rabbit?

It sounds like your buck is getting tired. This can happen with any buck, but it especially happens with young bucks that are inexperienced at breeding or really old bucks that tend to get tired easily.

You'd think that the problem was due to the buck, but its really more related to the doe normally. The doe has to raise her tail and rear end up for the buck to be able to breed her. If she doesn't do that, it's almost impossible for the buck to breed her. Some old bucks are really good at getting a doe to raise up. I normally like to place the young inexperienced bucks right across from the old bucks so they see the old bucks in action and the competition helps them to be more agressive and breed better.

Female rabbits tend to have periods when their hormones are at a higher level. When a doe's hormone levels are raised, she is more likely to raise her tail and want to be bred by the buck. There are several ways to tell if the hormone level of the doe is up. The doe will sometimes tend to act more aggressive in nature than normal. Then doe may also tend to raise her tail or rear end when you put your hand on it. Or when you sex the doe, the vagina will be a dark red color. The darker red it is in color, the more ready the doe should be able to breed. Sometimes attempting to breed the rabbit can cause her hormones to rise after a few days. Does also tend to have high hormone levels right about the time they are ready to wean their babies. You can tell that because the babies will try milking her and she will get mad at them for trying to milk. I'll normally try breeding my does around the time their babies are ready to wean for this reason, because the doe is ready to breed easily. Or I'll look for signs that the hormone levels are up and will try to breed then.

The other thing you can do is called a "forced breeding". This was taught to me by an old rabbit breeder that had been raising rabbits for at least 60 years. You take an old shoe string and you make a slip knot at one end of it. Then you tighten the slip knot around the base of the tail. It needs to go around the base or you could potentially break the tail. Then when you put the doe in the buck's cage you let her run around a little to get the buck's attention. After she has his attention, then grab her and pull the shoe string tight over the top of her back. This raises the doe's tail up. You can place your other hand underneath the doe and then if you feel back close to the tail where you would normally sex the doe, right in front of vagina area is a vein that you can feel. Rub your finger back and forth across that vein and it should cause the doe to want to raise her rear end up. The buck still won't breed the doe if his rear end isn't close enough to hers. So sometimes you have to help him out a little. After the doe has raised up. Remove your hand from under her and push the buck's butt up against her's as he is humping her. Him poking her will help keep her up and will make it more likely that he finds his hole and breeds her. When he does breed her and curls up into a ball on top of her, hold his butt in against hers for a few seconds. This helps ensure that the sperm enters her and that she gets bred. Otherwise he may pull out too soon and the sperm doesn't enter like it should.

Normally, I avoid the shoe string if I can. I'll first attempt to let him breed her on his own. If that doesn't work, then I'll grab her and try to get her to raise up by rubbing across the vein. If that doesn't work, then I grab the shoe string.

It takes a little practice to get used at forced breeding. And it would be much easier for you if someone could show you in person.

What your buck is doing is getting tired. When he gets tired he takes a little break then goes up to her head and nudges her. Nudging her is kind of like his way of saying, "Come on, raise up for me." Then once he gets his energy back, he goes back to humping her. Never leave the doe in with the buck for over 1-2 minutes. After that amount of time, the buck is going to be way too tired to even make a successful attempt. After that amount of time, it is best to remove the doe and try again in about 1-2 hours.

Rabbits are induced ovulators. If your buck does, breed the doe. Then it is a good idea to put the doe back in his pen about 8 hours later and attempt to breed again. At 8 hours, the doe will be at her peak hormonal level and she will have dropped eggs ready for fertilization. This makes the chance of getting the rabbit pregnant higher. And it also has been shown to increase the number of babies in the litter.

the female rabbit is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting in her apparent 'lashing-out' against the male rabbit. he was then driven into a state of depression after the attack. these are just sequential steps in the recovery process for both rabbits. you may want to seek rabbit-counseling for them.

Breeding can be a VERY frustrating process for the breeder. Sometimes is the doe, but most commonly the buck. As you can imagine domesticated rabbits rely very little on instinct. Generations of that will cause a buck, in your case, to become distracted or uninterested very easily, and with an attention span as short as a rabbits you can imagine, in your case witness, this effect the breeding process. Also some bucks are just more affectionate and would really prefer to cuddle. lol. Just be persistent and patient.

how old is your male? he may not be old enough to bred. if he is a young rabbit try him again when he is older they can bred when they are around 6-8 months old

That happens a lot when I breed my rabbits. I don't like the idea of force breeding though. Sorry. I just don't like the idea of forcing a living thing to do something that they don't want to do.

Wait till the doe is in season and raises her rump when he humps her. You might have to wait a bit, but I think it is better than forcing. I mean not to sound mean or anything, but how would you like it if some one forced you to do something you didn't want to do. I don't think you would like it very much.

It doesn't take that long. Your male is mating with your female rabbit and very likely she is already pregnant. Females are what are called induced ovulators and they can (and do) get pregnant w/almost any mating. If she is pregnant, you'll want to keep the male away from her when you think she is ready to give birth. You don't want another litter of bunnies right away.

For their health and well being it is far better to have them neutered/spayed. For females especially they run a very high risk of getting diseases of the reproductive organs. See:

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.htm...

Scary statistics: http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/scary.html

There are so many rabbits in rescue, I hope you get these bunnies neutered and not let them have babies.

they do that when she isn't raising her tail. its not the boy that is the problem is the girl, she isn't ready to breed or she is just being stubborn. If they are breeding right he will fall off of her, If you really want them to breed you can do table breeding and lift up her tail for her its gross but sometimes you have to do it.

why do you want to mate these animals what will you do with the babies... there are so many unwanted bunnies in shelters that will be put down . please reconsider your thinking and have the male fixed. it's cheaper to have him done than her although both should be done for health sake

On top of this insane question, I can't believe their are even more insane answers. WHY MUST YOU BREED THESE RABBITS??????? The OVER POPULATION IS OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm pleading with you to PLEASE, schedule her to be spayed NOW-just in case it actually took. I'm 100 % Pro Life for babies and even animals, But, getting her spayed within a couple of days is not like aborting..because should it have took-there is a couple days just like human females where you have time to stop the implanting of the sperm/egg.

As the sperm from the male rabbit heads towards the egg in the female rabbit, it has to pass a number of "barriers" at the vagina, the uterus, the fallopian tubes and finally the egg.

PLEASE SPAY HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do you realize how many animals are euthanized every single day????????????? Plus, the complications of the female and her chance of dying, killing the babies, or refusing to nurse and you would have to manage to not only feed them, but stimulate them to get them to even use the bathroom-the way the mother would.

You obviously do not know what you are doing-or you wouldn't be on here asking. NO ONE should ever attempt breeding a rabbit without years of research and gaining information, so you know what to do if any problems happen. If you were a responsible owner, you would NOT breed your rabbits!!!!!!!!!!!

he wants to have babies!!!!!!!! its natural in rabbits mine used to do it all the time but he gave up after a while (they were both neutered) Is yours neutered? If not then like I said before he wants to have babies but if he is...then it's just natural behaviour and nothing to worry about. You could make him stop by clapping and scaring him everytime you see him doing it. He might learn soon

(thats what we did)

Is she spayed? Probably not, but you might want to check.