Worried About My Doe in Labor? Drinking A Lot of Water?!

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OldEnglishSilvers88

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My Giant Chinchilla doe might be in labor now with her first litter. Tonight marks 31 days post mating. She is not eating and is drinking a lot. I refilled everyone's water about an hour ago and had to fill up her bowl (about 8 oz bowl) again. Is this normal to drink a lot of water prior to giving birth?

Right now she is sitting in her nesting box grooming (maybe getting ready to pull fur?) from her dewlap and undersides. She seems freaked out and jumpy at every sound (not like her normal self). Will she have kits tonight you think? Is her behavior normal for a first time mom? I'm worried about her. :(


Thanks! :bunnyhop: :pancake:
 
This seems like normal behavior, just keep an eye on her, so that you can help out if anything goes wrong. Try not to bother her or get her out of the cage though, and reduce loud noise or other distractions.
 
SableSteel":3gchyrl9 said:
This seems like normal behavior, just keep an eye on her, so that you can help out if anything goes wrong. Try to bother her or get her out of the cage though, and reduce loud noise or other distractions.
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I'm guessing you meant "try not to bother her," right SableSteel?
 
Nymphadora":1cdoyia4 said:
SableSteel":1cdoyia4 said:
This seems like normal behavior, just keep an eye on her, so that you can help out if anything goes wrong. Try to bother her or get her out of the cage though, and reduce loud noise or other distractions.
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I'm guessing you meant "try not to bother her," right SableSteel?
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Yeah, Ill go ahead and see if I can edit that lol
 
Our doe, who just kindled on Saturday, went on day 32.
She looked HUGE to me !
But only 4 kits, and she did beautifully :D

I wouldn't worry just yet. Someone much wiser told me to just let mine be alone, and she'd likely birth at night - and that's exactly what she did <3
 
31 days is just a general, average guideline... it could be a little sooner, or a little (maybe even a lot) later. Keep the nest box in and keep going on as usual :) . If she hasn't kindled by day 45 (I think that's the general recommendation) then you can pull the box and try again. It amazes me how fast they can have litters, so there's a good chance one visit to her will show nothing, and even as short as 30 min. to and hour later there could be kits! Each doe is different... i have had them stretch out kindling (usually not for good reasons... b/c of a large stuck kit or something) over 24 hours or so. Some pull fur long before, others wait until the last minute. There's no way to tell, unfortunately.
 
Thanks everyone!

Still no kits :( I'm getting worried? Day 33. I've never had a doe go this long. Should I try to rebreed her again? Someone told me that it will induce labor but I'm not sure. What if she gets pregnant twice? Or should I just leave her alone? No fur pulled and she used it as a litter box last night (changed hay) but she does spend lots of time in there. :roll:
 
She can't be pregnant twice, that's impossible.

I've heard that breeding can induce kindling too, and last year when I thought my doe isn't pregnant after all I put her to the buck, she was very vocal and not happy about it, I was almost surprised that she had her litter the next day without problems.

Some give their does a Tums (fruit flavoured) to prevent calcium deficit which can cause problems. ( search for "Tums calcium" for more info about that)
Since I can't get those here I use eggshells, ground to powder, and put that on her pellets (after mixing them with a few drops vegetable oil so that the dust will stick to the pellets). Not sure if rabbits can absorb this calcium, dogs can, and my bunnies start ti eat the plaster from the walls when they think they need it...

:good-luck:
 
UPDATE:

She had kits about 6:00 ish central time tonight. She had them in the nest box, ate all the placentas, got rid of most of the blood, and cleaned them all. She had 9!!! :p This is her first litter. One was still an embryo though :( But the other 8 are great! She pulled no fur though. I have baby towels and hand picked cotton that is de-seeded (is that a word?)


I'm sooo excited and happy!! I hope they live. Any advice on how to keep 8 alive with a first time mom?
 
OldEnglishSilvers88":2634j1lw said:
UPDATE:

She had kits about 6:00 ish central time tonight. She had them in the nest box, ate all the placentas, got rid of most of the blood, and cleaned them all. She had 9!!! :p This is her first litter. One was still an embryo though :( But the other 8 are great! She pulled no fur though. I have baby towels and hand picked cotton that is de-seeded (is that a word?)


I'm sooo excited and happy!! I hope they live. Any advice on how to keep 8 alive with a first time mom?
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Yay! Congratulations!!

Sounds like she's doing just fine... keep an eye on her if/when she does pull fur - I had on that was caught off guard (I assume) with kits and was still making her nest with them in it :x . That would be my main concern (seeing that you have given them something for warmth). Over the course of the next 48 hours or so you will be able to tell if she is feeding them well or not - fat, smooth belly = full of milk (sometimes you can see the white through their skin!), skinny and wrinkled = no milk. It might take a day or two for her milk to come in so don't panic if they are still skinny tomorrow... no way of knowing! Just like with humans, they are all different :)
 
Congratulations on the litter!

You should be able to gently pull fur from under her neck and her belly and use it to cover the kits. It tends to get loose around kindling time to facilitate the doe pulling.
 
Thanks everyone! You're all a huge help! :)


I have them inside in a big dog crate because when I checked on them all tonight (when I found the kits) there was a possum on their hutch!! :angry: So now they're indoors and Sugar Bean (the mom) is sleeping in her nesting box with them all. She isn't squashing any. Is this good?
 
OldEnglishSilvers88":hst8dp6m said:
So now they're indoors and Sugar Bean (the mom) is sleeping in her nesting box with them all. She isn't squashing any. Is this good?
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No, it's not usually a good thing. It could lead to the doe peeing on the babies which usually doesn't have a good outcome. It's possible the nestbox is to big? You generally want a box that is just big enough for the doe to get in and out of without getting on the kits but not big enough for her to comfortably rest. 18"x10" is the standard size for meat rabbits so from around 8lbs-12lbs.
 
She is a huge Giant Chinchilla :) I wanted a bigger than average nesting box. She hasn't used it as a litter box and they all made it through the night. She had blood in her urine. Is this okay after birth? I'm worried again.
 
OldEnglishSilvers88":if0yd05s said:
She is a huge Giant Chinchilla :) I wanted a bigger than average nesting box. She hasn't used it as a litter box and they all made it through the night. She had blood in her urine. Is this okay after birth? I'm worried again.
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For sure blood? I had a doe that peed scary looking colors after kindling (and other times as well, depending on what she ate)... I thought for sure it was blood. Nope. It wasn't. She just had a weird system. She passed it on to one of her kits and I had to forewarn the feed and seed that sold them that it wasn't blood... it had peed all over it's litter mates in the crate on the way there :roll: and then of course you can see it under the hutch as well.
 

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