184 CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF RABBITS 
that a baby, for instance, cannot be fed solids 
until it is twelve months old. Suppose that 
someone would try to wean a baby from milk 
entirely at six months. Would it be peculiar 
if that youngster should pass away? 
Yet people are constantly trying to fly in 
the face of Nature by doing this very thing 
with their rabbits. There is nothing to be 
gained in weaning the youngsters sooner than 
eight weeks. Andifyoupracticethisreligiously 
you will find at the end of the year that you 
have had very little of the infant mortality 
you hear other breeders complaining so much 
about. 
One of the largest breeders of New Zealand 
Reds in the country states that he weans the 
youngsters at seven weeks of age, allows the 
doe to rest a week, then breeds her again, 
provided it is in the breeding season, which is 
late winter to early summer, or in the fall. 
During the summer months he does not breed 
at all. 
And he never does this unless he is rushed 
