Sexing Rabbits

Knowing how to decide the sex of a rabbit is one of the essential steps in rabbit farming. Sexing Rabbits helps you to avoid unwanted pregnancy if you keep groups of rabbits together. If you follow the below mentioned few steps, you can find the sex of your rabbit easily.

Know the Rabbit’s age

Young rabbits can start breeding at the age of 12 weeks. It means that it’s essential to separate the rabbits into same-sex groups before three months of age.

You can attempt to find the sex of a rabbit that is a few days old. But to see the sex of your rabbits, wait until they are at least four weeks old.

Start with the older rabbits

If you are not aware of sexing rabbits, it’s best to start with an adult. If you have the parents of a litter of rabbits, you can look at the anatomy of the mother and father rabbit. It will help you see what a fully developed rabbit looks.

Get the rabbit into place

Pick a rabbit to start. Like most mammals, the rabbit’s genitals are between their back legs. To see this area, the rabbit needs to lie on back.

Here are few videos which might help you to get the rabbit into place.

Look for testicles

Male rabbits have testicles, which are visible on the outside of their bodies. These are in-between the back legs. Rabbit testicles are long and narrow. Look for two torpedo-shaped bulges, one on either side below the skin. They are usually slightly furred and purple color.

Testicles can usually recognize from 10 weeks of age. Before this age, they are tiny and hard to spot reliably. However, no matter the rabbit’s age, it’s easy to check before you look for the penis. In a well-developed adult male rabbit, the answer will be evident because you can spot his testicles right away.

Check the genital openings

You now need to look to see if your rabbit has a vulva or a penis. To find these, gently part the fur between the back legs until you can find a small mound. This area is the vent and has the opening to the anus and the reproductive tract. To see it more clearly, apply gentle pressure on either side, which opens the area and makes things clearer to understand.

The genital opening is the one farthest from the tail. Apply gentle pressure with a finger and thumb on either side. If the rabbit is female, you will see a slit-like structure, commonly described as a letter I. If the rabbit is male, you will see a kind of round structure, which defines as an O.