age is nothing but a number?

Question
Dear Sheila,

            I am going to buy a mini lop buck in a week and the seller has told me that the doe will be ready two weeks after that. I am wondering if the age difference of 2-3 weeks is a problem when breeding them?

thanks.  

Answer
do I wish !  No age sure does matter.  In most mini breeds of rabbit breeding age is around 122 days for females and 150 for bucks.  This is the "best" breeding age in that both are adults - same as humans - soon as they hit puberty they want to NOW - even if NOW is only 70 days old.  When I was very green at this I sexed a litter and a male fooled me and went in a cage with his sisters - three of the five sisters had litters when they were 80 days old. This is not good since neither the male and much less the female develops their true potential when bred so young.  I have had to seperate just weaned kits of both sexes because they were driving their litter mates crazy by mounting everything that moved.  At 30 days this is more of a dominance thing than sex but it is a pain in the rear end from a breeders point of view because you need to seperate that kit ASAP.  So ,yes - age does matter.  But the buck should always be older than the female - you know - females are always way ahead............... :-)