The first follicles appear on the 13th day after birth, and the first antrum follicles at about 65 to 70 days. Does are able to mate first at 10 to 12 weeks, but as a rule this will not produce ovulation. The onset of puberty varies greatly with:

• the breed: sexual precocity is more de-veloped in small or medium breeds (four to six months) than in large breeds (five to eight months). In Europe does are now mated at 120 to 130 days and fertility performance is good;
• body development: precocity goes hand in hand with rapid growth. Does fed ad lib reach puberty three weeks earlier than other does of the same strain receiving only 75 percent of the same daily feed. The body development of the latter is also delayed by three weeks.

 

Does generally reach puberty when they have grown to 70 to 75 percent of their mature weight. However, it is usually preferable to wait until they reach 80 percent of their mature weight before breeding them. These relative weights should not be considered absolute thresholds for all rabbits, but rather limits applicable to the population as a whole. Sexual behaviour (acceptance of mating) appears long before the ability to ovulate and bear a litter. Such behaviour should not be regarded by the breeder as a sign of puberty, but as prepuberty play.

The first follicles appear on the 13th day after birth, and the first antrum follicles at about 65 to 70 days. Does are able to mate first at 10 to 12 weeks, but as a rule this will not produce ovulation. The onset of puberty varies greatly with:

• the breed: sexual precocity is more de-veloped in small or medium breeds (four to six months) than in large breeds (five to eight months). In Europe does are now mated at 120 to 130 days and fertility performance is good;
• body development: precocity goes hand in hand with rapid growth. Does fed ad lib reach puberty three weeks earlier than other does of the same strain receiving only 75 percent of the same daily feed. The body development of the latter is also delayed by three weeks.

Does generally reach puberty when they have grown to 70 to 75 percent of their mature weight. However, it is usually preferable to wait until they reach 80 percent of their mature weight before breeding them. These relative weights should not be considered absolute thresholds for all rabbits, but rather limits applicable to the population as a whole. Sexual behaviour (acceptance of mating) appears long before the ability to ovulate and bear a litter. Such behaviour should not be regarded by the breeder as a sign of puberty, but as prepuberty play.

The does inseminated at 17.4 weeks faired better than those at 14.5 weeks because they were more mature. I have not found any research discussing waiting longer.

Proceedings - 8th World Rabbit Congress –September 7-10, 2004 – Puebla, Mexico Invited Paper. BREEDING OF YOUNG FEMALES DOES. ROMMERS J. M. web link

The does inseminated at 17.4 weeks faired better than those at 14.5 weeks because they were more mature and did not have to split their energies between their own growth and the growth of their babies.

Ad libitum fed does inseminated at 14.5 week of age, gained weight in the first gestation and first lactation period. Competition for nutrients between body growth and production must have occurred, and resulted in smaller litters and lower milk production than restrictive fed does inseminated at 17.5 week of age. It was concluded that young does should have a body weight around 4 kg at first insemination to optimize litter size.

The long term applicability of this study is stated as

Rearing strategies only affected body weight development, feed intake in the first parity. Long term effects over three parities were absent and culling rate of does was not affected.

The authors suggest that the reason they did not see an effect on the second and third parities could be because they didn't have a large enough sample size, or because there is no affect on the later parities. There is a small increase in culling rate with does bred younger, but it is not enough to be statistically significant with the sample sizes that they used (it was a small enough variation that could have been due to random chance).

Proceedings - 8th World Rabbit Congress –September 7-10, 2004 – Puebla, Mexico Invited Paper. BREEDING OF YOUNG FEMALES DOES. ROMMERS J. M. web link

I have not found any research discussing waiting longer than 17.4 weeks.