sexing baby rabbits

Question
What are the major identifiers you personally observe when sexing baby rabbits?  Please list those you look for first and then those that may be secondary identifiers.  Please give specifics.  I hope sexing will be made easier with your expert advise.  Finally, with a high reliability factor,  what is the earliest age a baby rabbit can be sexed?  

Thanks!!!

Answer
Dear Serenity,

It is really really really hard to reliably sex baby rabbits.  I'm pretty good at it, but with a rabbit younger than eight weeks, even I bat only about 70%.

You can find illustrations here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sexing.html

But truthfully, I do not even know any rabbit-experienced *v ets* who can reliably sex a baby rabbit younger than 8 weeks of age, which is the soonest they should be weaned.

A male rabbit's genitals will appear as a little "donut", with a central depression in a round bump when you gently press the prepuce to evert the genitals.  A female will have a slit that extends the full length of the protrusion when you evert the genitals, and I've also noticed that a young female will also have two relatively conspicuous red streaks (vascularization) extending from the genital opening towards the belly when the genitals are everted.

Hope that helps!

Please also read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

Dana