Doe chewing on nest box...

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C

cereshill

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I have a new momma chewing on her nestbox; the kits are a week old, well fed and covered. She pulled the most fur I have seen and is nearly bare around her tummy/chest. She has plenty of feed--isn't eating all of it though.

What could she use--obviously something is missing.
thx
 
she probably is bored and chewing is her entertainment im guessing its wood? Spray it with that bitter apple stuff and give her a tree twig to chew on like a maple or apple she will love you for it.
 
She needs a chew toy (untreated block of wood, stick from appropriate tree, etc). Doesn't always work though. Most of my boxes have been chewed so much that there isn't a straight line on them!
 
I agree with the others. Give her a branch from a safe tree such as willow, apple, pear, hard maple, elm etc. If it has nice tender bark on it, so much the better. In your case, CH, willow might not be the novelty that some of the other trees would be, since you feed it quite often. Look for something safe, but different.
 
All my cages have at least a couple of wood blocks in there to chew on but the nestboxes and shelves get chewed on anyway. I don't think I have a single nestbox now with a sharp edge on them, except where they can't reach!
 
Actually, no one has had willow in two months! Perhaps she is telling me something?!
I will find a few "chew" toys/branches tonight...
Perhaps a branch of blackberry is in order---I forgot to give them any for Christmas too...
 
I give them good branches to chew on when they are availabe. Rabbits chew on wood nest boxes. The edge is sitting right up there in a good position, and it is not like many branches that scoot around when they are trying to chew. I figure it's going to happen, and make the nestboxes out of wood that is OK to chew. They may do serious damage in a couple of years, but by then I am usually making new nestboxes anyway. I'm happy the are chewing on something, it keeps their teeth worn down. I have a piece of board on the floor (of the cage) or some other kind of wooden box with the rabbits without kits.

One thing I have done, in adition to cleaning out and disifecting the nest boxes with bleach between uses, is to have a specific nest box for each doe (name written on the front).
 
Some does just like to remodel their nestboxes. All mine are wood with metal trim. Yet they they still seem to be able to chew some! I have an assigned nest box to each doe, which they use for their lifetime. When that doe leaves the production line I replace the box. I clean the boxes between litters but also replace the nest boxes with a new box for new doe seems to work well for me with healthy litters. Knock on wood right now I have seven healthy litters only lost one litter due to the cold this round. We are forcast for freezing rain and snow tonight.
 
One thing I have done, in adition to cleaning out and disifecting the nest boxes with bleach between uses, is to have a specific nest box for each doe (name written on the front).
Click to expand...

That's a good idea! I don't have enough nestboxes to do that - yet.
 

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