Help, Doe Building Nest Outside of Box (Sad Update)

First time for me & the doe. Last night was day 28 so i placed the nestbox stuffed with hay into the hutch along with an extra handful of hay so she can arrange the nestbox to her liking. She immediately started grabbing hay and shuffling it around which i thought was very cool.
This morning i checked up on her and noticed that she pulled almost all the hay out of the nestbox and made a nest on the wire. got to admit i was impressed with her nest making skills. so i grabbed the nest that she made and stuffed all that hay back into the box and then left to go to work. i'll see what she has done once i get home from work, but what should i do if she made her nest on the wire again? should i continue grabbing the hay off the wire and place it back into the nestbox? maybe even slide the nestbox to where she is making her nest? should i place a solid floor where ever she chooses to make her nest rather than it being on the wire floor? as i mentioned, this is her first time and mine as well so i have a lot of concerns. thank you.

Move the nestbox to where she is making her nest. On the night of days 30 and 31 I also completely cover their floors with a good amount of hay if I don't trust the doe - this way even if she makes outside the box it will be sort of more secure.

I would also put cardboard under the hay, just in case she digs to the wire when building a nest.

:good-luck:

thank you for the responses!
Just to give you a visual, the hutch is separated into 2 areas. a sleeping/hiding area and the caged/lounge area. The sleeping area has a wire floor with removable wood planks. the caged area is all wire. As of right now i have the wood planks removed exposing the wire floor. I'm now planning on putting the planks back in to eliminate any drafts in case she does have the kits out of the box. The opening into the sleeping area goes right down to the floor. There is no threshold to prevent any of the kits from wandering out into the caged area. I now plan on putting a 2"-3" high threshold at the opening. i will also cover the floor in the sleeping area with a generous amount of hay as well. i failed to mention that the bottom 2" of the nestbox is filled with pine shavings that the doe did not remove. she just felt that it was necessary to remove just the hay...... <br /><br /> -- Thu Oct 20, 2016 10:55 am -- <br /><br /> so i get home yesterday from work and go to take a look at the doe in question and to my suprise she had been busy putting together a neat nest in the nestbox!!!
other than a few pieces of hay on the wire, she made a burrow in the hay all the the way to the back of the box. all the extra hay i left her on the floor was gone which i assume she used for the nest. so i left her another couple of handfuls of hay and she when right back to work making bundles and carrying it into the nestbox. i was very pleased to see this! this morning i left her some more hay and instantly she went right for it. today is day 30, so hopefully tomorrow all goes well. should i continue giving her additional hay for her nest and stop once she starts pulling fur?

Thank you!!!

Sounds to me like she got her act together.

:good-luck:

Azorean Steve":2y28gjt0 said:

should i continue giving her additional hay for her nest and stop once she starts pulling fur?

Click to expand...

As I see it, there is no such thing as too much hay when she builds a nice nest.

*fingers crossed for kits tomorrow*

Nothing yet......
The suspense is killin me!

Azorean Steve":1a3bfci0 said:

Nothing yet......
The suspense is killin me!

Click to expand...

Soon... very soon! The suspense is awful though

Bad news. sometime between lastnight and this morning my doe had 3 kits but by the time i went out there around sunrise the kits were dead. all 3 were in the nest but only 2 were in the fur that she pulled. the largest of the 3, and it was huge, was on top of the fur. she made a great nest and pulled an insane amount of fur. when i first peeked in she was in the nestbox and i assumed she was nursing the kits. about 20 minutes later i returned and she was off. thats when i looked in the nestbox and found all 3 dead. they were all nice and clean and dry. they did not appear to be trampled. any guess to what might have gone wrong? and how soon can i rebreed her?

If one kit was quite a bit larger then it's possible it was stuck and born dead. If the large kit was also the first born, the others may have died as a result of delayed birth.

Sorry you lost them.

Sorry you lost them! May I ask what breed she is? I'm not bragging when I say this but I've not lost but 1 kit and that was my fault. I'm also curious as to what could cause large kits? Because one doe of mine had 1 kit 3 days late and it was huge! I'm surprised she managed to have it alive! Again I am very sorry for your loss and wish you better luck last time

She's a Silver Fox, roughly 7.5 months old. She had the kits on day 33. I'd love to figure out what it was that cause this just so that i can avoid this in the future or just chalk it up as one of those things that sometimes happens.

There could be a number of reasons for a failed litter - I had one doe that consistently had issues with large, stretched kits and whole litters being born dead (I go by the "3 strikes and you're out" motto) - when I opened her up I found a small cyst/tumor in her reproductive tract which I would assume was the cause of her reproductive issues. Other times it's just a fluke as they get things figured out. I would rebreed her (anytime is fine... some are rip, roarin' ready to go right after kindling!) and see how she does - maybe try a different buck if you have one. It's not always the does fault...

from what i saw, definitely not her fault. poor thing was even in the nestbox waiting for them to latch on so she can feed them. i'm planning to rebreed tomorrow in hopes that she will kindle on the weekend again.

Best of luck on rebreeding! I'm just getting started with Silver Fox. My 8 month old refuses to lift (I mean refuses, also shows no interest in being bred.. So I'm sitting there thinking great, just what I need) Not only that but my only proven breeder is traumatized because of the owner previous to me housing her with a buck who killed half the kits in her first two litters. She had 5 for me but was obviously very stressed throughout the entire thing, she's just now calming down since I've separated her from the kits (They are about 6-7 weeks and weaned) She has chronic health issues (constantly getting ear-mites, and I've been told she has intestinal worms from being bred, although I'm doubting the worms since she's putting on some weight again now, for about a week she was dropping but it was because she had hock sores and wasn't getting up to eat. I know have her in a cage on the ground full time, she will be sold as a pet once fully healthy.) I've never had issues with any of my rabbits until Silver Fox's I don't know if it's just the ones I got or what. But I really do wish you the best of luck on having litters from her, and I also sympathize because this breed is being a pain in my bum so far.

UGH! Sorry to hear that BP. hopefully your luck turns around with your Silver Foxes.
i just re-bred her last night. After 2 fall offs she started grunting at the buck and as soon as i went in to grab the buck he mounted her one last time and had his 3rd fall off. so fingers crossed!!!

this may be a silly question, when the buck mounts the doe and falls off, is it guaranteed that he "got it in"? or is there a chance that he was just dry humping her?

There is always a chance that he didn't get it done, but with 3 fall offs the chance is slight.

I have had a Buck who fell off all the time and never got it......its frustrating. I realized it when i could see wet spots all over the gals and then no babies.....

i've had a couple times where a buck fell off but i know he didn't make it in. one particular boy of mine gets a bit overzealous - he's fallen off when he was mounting her face before (poor doe.) watch the doe more than him - if she lifts up and he falls off there's a real good chance he hit the mark. if he falls off and she's still smooshed into the ground then nothing happened.