Can it be? Pregnancy *improves* Doe Personality?

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TF3

TF3

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I *think* Crazy Moona is getting nicer...
If she took, she's due October 16.
She didn't take in her first breeding.

But the last few days she has gone from reactive scary doe
That I didn't put in a hand without protection,
To meeting me at her door :p
I can touch her through the wire and she looks askance but doesn't freak out.
I reached in tonight to get sonething and she touched my hand by choice.
She ate out of the food scoop while I held it.

She must be pregnant-- because something has really changed in her.

I'm not pushing my luck... But I like what I am seeing!
Could this be a result of pregnancy? I've only heard mean does get meaner...
 
I haven't seen this during pregnancy, but I swear that just going thru it even just once so far has totally mellowed our doe out. I keep watching for her to get really mean again, hoping shes prego, but I think she might be and just not going to have the extremes this time around. We shall see-she is scratching her cage a lot and doesn't growl but hunkers down when we approach her....... keep this post updated because if what you are saying is true it will give the rest of us something to watch for!
 
I've seen does go both ways after a litter , from mean to nice and crazy to sweet.

Just like women of the human type ..... they are all different & any time we think we have them figured out ..... we're fooling ourselves.
 
Ramjet":lmamb10i said:
I've seen does go both ways...
Click to expand...

Yeah, what Ramjet said.

I've got one doe that's only happy if she's pregnant or nursing. Just loves being a momma.

I've also come to believe that - as my does get older and have more litters behind them - the get more mellow. Or maybe they're just exhausted! (That was just a joke. Our does only have four litters a year - pretty easy schedule for meat rabbits.)

But, just to echo Ramjet, each doe is different.
 
yep it goes both ways. my first doe I ever bought I was scared of the first week! first time I heard a rabbit growl and it was loud and clear meaning. she had a litter on her too and I had to toss a carrot piece into the corner and quick as I could grab the food and water bowls from the other corner without her seeing me in there! but after she settled in I learned that she is just a protective momma and was doing her job because I was a stranger. but darn if she wasn't still a bit crazy, I named her BP short for bipolar ;)
even when she was used to me and all I learned she was a crazy hormone momma. if you took her litter from her and weren't breeding her right now... ohh you would hear about it from her! only rabbit I've ever had that had such outright temper tantrums!
 
Just a case in point -

My first two does (NZ Blacks) were siblings and both sweet as can be as juniors.

As soon as they were bred one of them went absolutely psycho & would growl , lunge and bite if you got anywhere within 10 feet of her cage. She even bit my son when he was feeding her. This one went to the freezer camp the same day I dispatched her litter .... I just don't tolerate rabbits with bad dispositions.

The other one is still just as sweet as can be , she's now 4 years old and I still have her even tho she has no place in my breeding program I let her have a couple litters a year just to keep her fit.
 
My main concern with this one is how her kits will be.
She has been on borrowed time for behaviour but she is gorgeous, so I'm sure hoping she chills out and I can let her stay (she is one of my pedigreed Rex does... Otherwise she would already be gone!).
 
My one doe is merely kosher when not pregnant and has young. When she does have babies she's a very nice doe. She doesn't have to be nursing to be nice, she just likes her babies around. Once the babies a weaned out of her cage, kosher doe comes back.
 
Interesting thread because I was having the reverse situation. Nice to nasty. I WISH it was nasty to nice.

Went to check on the Hollands last night and was petting my one doe (who is usually nice). As I swooped from head to tail petting her, she reached around and bit the inside of my arm just below the wrist. :x Hurt like stink and I was worried she hit the vein....near miss.

We like her but I don't feel comfortable with a sketchy doe in the rabbitry. I hate to send her to freezer camp but I don't feel like a trip to the ER for severed anythings.

Do you generally wait it out and see if she improves or take this as a sign that she shouldn't be here?

(Not trying to hijack the thread, just tailgating on the topic)
 
I think it depends on your patience and goals. I will say that our Holland was exactly like that, and one litter has totally straightened her out. And I have heard that high hormones like that mean strong mothering instincts. She was an AWSOME 1st time mom! So I am thrilled I kept her but we have yet to see what litter 2 will be like....
 
Tiny Buns":3ma183t2 said:
Do you generally wait it out and see if she improves or take this as a sign that she shouldn't be here?
Click to expand...

I personally do not bother to wait them out anymore, because it's not fun for me to get bitten. I've sent FAR too many NICE rabbits to freezer camp to worry about a biter.

macksmom98":3ma183t2 said:
And I have heard that high hormones like that mean strong mothering instincts.
Click to expand...
My high hormone does we OK mothers, but my BEST does have always been the mellow ones. I do not believe that high hormones have anything at all to do with nesting, or kit care. Seen too many examples of good mothering on both ends of the spectrum.

The only association I've ever made with high hormones and mothering is that the high hormone does were more likely to trample their kits being "over protective," and they were more likely to wean and want re-bred earlier, which works for production lines, but not so much for my laid-back breeding style.

Akane says that some amount of protectiveness is good for colony does, since they need to be able to defend their nests from the other does.

In caged does, I feel it's a massive hindrance to have my hand mistaken for a kit-killing rival doe..
 
Rabbits are kind of like people when it comes to breeding. Sometimes we want to, sometimes we don't. Some people think getting a doe fixed will solve their problems, but many find it causes more. If you take out a persons uterus, it doesn't stop us from wanting to have children. This is why I don't take foster rabbits who have been fixed. Every doe I've had that has been altered I have had problems with. They get aggressive and demonstrate false pregnancies.
My husband likes to chalk it up to God made them that way because they are such a fragile species it is the only way they would carry on existence.
 
That makes so much sense. I always relate female things to people. That's why when I have a hormonal doe who gets mean while prego it doesn't bother me too much. I have been there and totally understand! I wouldn't tolerate any of them being mean to their babies, or nasty to me after. So this gives this whole scenario another angle to look at. I probably would do a lot of research first. But if spaying my rabbit is going to prolong my rabbits life but create confusion and the desire to still mother is there, I cant say I would do it. All of our Does are here to be mommas, so its not something I am looking into right now anyway, but I could see us wondering about it for the future or foster situations too.....
 
macksmom98":1p316heh said:
That makes so much sense. I always relate female things to people. That's why when I have a hormonal doe who gets mean while prego it doesn't bother me too much. I have been there and totally understand! I wouldn't tolerate any of them being mean to their babies, or nasty to me after. So this gives this whole scenario another angle to look at. I probably would do a lot of research first. But if spaying my rabbit is going to prolong my rabbits life but create confusion and the desire to still mother is there, I cant say I would do it. All of our Does are here to be mommas, so its not something I am looking into right now anyway, but I could see us wondering about it for the future or foster situations too.....
Click to expand...

I've had friends whose senior does had a few litters, then got fixed, and were just fine. I imagine they reach a "retirement" point just like we do. I've never had a doe around long enough to find out :-/ The problem with foster bunnies is that I've no way of knowing what they are coming from. I do still take rescues though. Currently I have 2 that were in the worst shape I'd ever seen when I got them. I cried and cried while I was cleaning them up...But now they look fantastic and I plan to show them in a few weeks :D Good things can come out of rescues/fosters but with fixed bunnies, and having small children, there is too much gamble for me.
 

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