Advice on skittish young doe

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alforddm

alforddm

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I have two young does that are litter mates. One of them is fairly mellow. One of them has always been skittish.

Yesterday when I tried to pet her she actually bumped my hand with her head. It wasn't in the "please pet me" kind of way either. She didn't bite thankfully but I'm a bit concerned. She is right about 4 months old. Today instead of trying to pet her I just put my hand in the cage and she did smell it a few times without acting aggressive.

My one grown doe is nothing like this so, I'm not exactly sure how to proceed. I'd rather not cull her if it can be avoided as my one producing doe is very small and I was hoping to use these two larger young does to get bigger offspring. However, I don't want to risk getting bit once she has kits.

Thoughts? Handling suggestions? Herbs to calm her down :lol: ?

Thanks so much for the help.
 
Is she grunting or boxing? Watching your hands a bit too closely while kinda slinking her head low?

Sometimes jumpy juniors turn into absolute nightmares after they popple, but I know others have had different experiences.

Changing her cage situation might help, if that is an option.
 
Is she grunting or boxing? Watching your hands a bit too closely while kinda slinking her head near the floor of the cage?

Sometimes jumpy juniors turn into absolute nightmares after they popple, but I know others have had different experiences.

Changing her cage situation might help, if that is an option.
Click to expand...

No to the first two; yes to the second. If she's nervous before having kits will she even been able to raise them?

I had wondered about changing her cage but wasn't sure if it would actually help. I will swap her out with my two fryers and see if it makes a difference.
 
I haven a couple of ones like that. you

it could be puberty. So you can try and breed her first so see if getting pregnant and having kits calm her down and ground her hormones. I once had a doe that was so afraid of me she would squeal/ grunt and down right scream at me if I even looked at her wrong, I didn't want to do her in because she had good blood in her and so I bred her (it has hard getting her to accept the buck she was so stressed) she ate that first litter, and I still didn't give up on her because I saw it kinda calmed her down some. She wouldn't screech at me as often so I bred her again and this time she accepted the buck sooner than before.

She turned out to be one of the best does I ever had. She had a litter of 9 and was better at it then some of the others!

it was like I had to give her a job, something to focus on and care for.

she never screeched at me again, and was the best doe I had for a long time. I have her daughter and she's a very good one too.
 
If I get a really high strung doe, I pull the nestbox and just return them for feeding time.
Especially if she's aggressive, because an aggressive doe will sometimes trample the kits when she's in attack mode, and often they become a LOT calmer if the nestbox isn't present.

Then...when the kits are weaned, I replace the doe, and don't save any of her babies.

I really don't want to fix it into the lines and deal with it every generation.
I guess, I view skittish behavior as "wild type" and I'm selecting for "domestic type".

My silverfox were all kinds of neurotic, I bred them to nicer animals in hopes of keeping the fur, but I am still dealing with the fallout each generation :roll:

One of the papers I was sent actually pointed out how the high-anxiety trait was dominant, which is consistent, since most wild type traits are.
(it's not as simple as one set of genes though, behavior is always complex)
 
Thanks both of you very much. I will swap out the cage she is in first and see if that helps. She is in a cage at the very back of the "rabbit barn" so it could be that being able to see things that are going on around her will help.

While we are on the subject of skittish rabbits, what is the best way to trim their nails without injuring them or getting yourself scratched to pieces?
 
if I have to trim nails then I put them on their back on my knees and trim. even the meat rabbits that I don't handle often don't mind it that way.
 
A quick update: I swapped her cage and was pleasantly surprised at how well she took being picked up and moved. She was a bit of trouble to catch but once but once I actually had her caught and in my arms she was fairly calm. I had imagined all sorts of scratching and clawing to get away. Maybe I should try to hand feed her treats to get her used to my being in her cage?
 
Yeah, I hand feed all my buns.

It doesn't always help tame the perpetually neurotic, but it can certainly help separate the crazies from those with hope.
Careful though, some of that type will try and bite to get you to drop the food.
 

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