Is my surprise doe actually pregnant?

So a little back story here.

I am a first time rabbit owner and we ended up with four French/Satin Angora mixes. 3 were juvenile litter mates and another is just over 1 year old, presumably the father of this surprise litter that the owner was selling. They were all bucks according to their previous owner.

Anyways, we got the bunnies in on June 10th and the young guys were almost 4 months old. We routinely let them socialize and run around together. We even tried to socialize them with our older buck Marshmallow but he was just too aggressive with the little ones. Around July 1st I noticed our most submissive guy Jiraiya was noticeably rounder round the middle and was acting weird. I panicked, looked up how to sex rabbits and yep Jiraiya is a girl!!!

So, we now have Jiraiya in a separate area. It has now been almost 3 weeks since I noticed her stomach getting big, she has continued to get bigger and is now at the point when she tries to stand on her hind legs to look at something, she'll almost fall over. She is also now heavier then our adult buck while being much smaller then him, at least length wise lol. She swings between making little noises at me and insisting on cuddles and aggressively grunting and defending her territory from everything, including her veggies.

However, I cannot feel babies or see movement in her belly, but she's super protective of it so I don't bother that too much. She has a nest box and materials but has shown absolutely zero interest and I'm getting a bit tired of cleaning it out all the time. I'm starting to question if she really is pregnant since I noticed her belly getting large 21 days ago. Everything I've read said they usually don't show until about two weeks in. I'm also worried that she is pregnant since she is so young.

Could this be something else besides a pregnancy? She is been eating more then she used to (and pooping enough for two to three bunnies) but it's not significantly more to explain the weight gain.

If she is pregnant, with being so young are there specific problems I should keep an eye out for if she successfully kindles?

Also, since the babies are most likely inbred, what should I watch out for with them?

Oh my gosh, a surprise doe has made my life more then interesting!!

Thank you in advance for reading this novel of questions lol.

Rabbits usually don't look visibly pregnant until the last week or so of pregnancy. Definitely not within the first week (and their gestation is just over 4 weeks) so if its been getting bigger for three weeks, that might be caused by other problems. She might be pregnant, too (if she's been in contact with those other bucks, that's pretty likely), but worms or other problems could be causing her potbelly. Rabbits don't usually have too many problems with having babies too young, esp in breeds like this (dwarf or small breeds are more of the problem rabbits), nor do they have too many problems with inbreeding

There are sometimes false pregnancies, when a doe has contact with the buck but no fertilization occurs. Typically, however, such does begin nesting behaviour around the 2 1/2 week mark.

I agree with Sable Steel that rabbits do not typically show until much later in the pregnancy than a week. and many don't show at all.

The mood swings do sound like pregnancy behaviour, however, so don't take the nest box out, just in case. To try to minimize soiling in it, try moving it to another place in the cage. If you chose what she regards as her potty spot, she will see the nest box as a potty.

Typical rabbit gestation is about 30-31 days, but it can vary so I would consider her possibly pregnant until around August 5.

Thank you both of you for your replies. Everything I had read about rabbit pregnancy also fell in line with what you said about the pregnancy showing, which has started concerning me since it has been so long now. I had originally assumed that she was due to kindle soon after I had noticed.

Should I wait until August to worry about deworming? Would that process have any negative effects on her or the possible kits if she is pregnant or while nursing?

I did make sure that I put the nesting box away from her potty area, it just seems like sometimes she is testing it out as a new potty area. It has been happening less this week but I'm assuming that since she hasn't shown any interest in building a nest, she has thinks that I'm giving her options lol.

Sounds like the sex change fairy has struck again! Does this mean we'll be changing the name from Jiraiya to Tsunade? :mrgreen:

All jokes aside, I wish you both the best of luck and hopefully she has a nest full of kits for you soon. I don't have any experience to share, personally, but I will be keeping you in mind with positive thoughts.

Nymphadora":ifxk0klk said:

Sounds like the sex change fairy has struck again! Does this mean we'll be changing the name from Jiraiya to Tsunade? :mrgreen:

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Ha! My oldest son who named Jiraiya, since she has long white hair, has actually been petitioning to change her name to Tsunade. He said it bothered him to call a girl Jiraiya. We have since convinced him to keep it by claiming the pervy sage would probably enjoy being a girl lol. :lol: The funny thing is the other three were named unisex names like Cinnamon, Marshmallow, and Fluffybutt.

And thank you! I'm honestly ready for this to be over one way or the other at this point lol.

I vote for it to be renamed Tsunade too lol

Well she is now nesting!!!! When I checked on her tonight she'd created a nice little area of shredded bedding, paper, and hair. I feel like it could use some work, but she's definitely feeling the drive to create a nest. So maybe I do have kits in my future!

Baby pictures will be a must

Well, still no babies and the need to create a nest has left as she's completely destroyed it and is apparently considering it her new litter box :x

I'm going to be really happy at the end of the week one way or the other at this point. She is still super territorial about her stuff though and before everything she was such a laid back bunny. Maybe it's puberty, maybe it's pregnancy hormones but it is getting a bit old having to worry since she tries to attack anything that goes into her area right now.

I'm still pretty concerned though about how fat she looks Her diet hasn't been crazy and she has plenty of space to run around since i converted an out of use bathroom into her pregnancy penthouse. I compared her tonight using a visual aid to her brothers and she is SIGNIFICANTLY rounder. She doesn't seem to be in distress or uncomfortable but the shear weight gain/roundness going on is becoming concerning.

Is she pooping and peeing as per usual? I know you mentioned her changing the nest box into a litter box, but I figured I had better ask. And how much is she eating? Rabbits don't need to eat that much at all. My biggest eater is a flemish giant, and she only eats, free fed, about a cup of food all told in a day. 4 full grown adult bunnies and a ton of babies mean about 2 lbs of food a day, give or take how much hay they decide sounds good to go with it. And I suggest lots and lots of grass hay. Pellets and seeds are way more expensive than hay, plus it will help move along anything she may have eaten that wasn't healthy.
Also, check out the health forum, or do a search for 'fat rabbit' here, and browse for ones that aren't pregnant. If its coming up on over a month, she may have something else going on.

Soooooo.... Anything?

No babies or any nesting behavior.

And yes, she is peeing and pooping normally. I normally feed her a small scoop of feed per day in addition to her timothy hay and a little bit of fresh veggies every other day or so. Although lately I have been feeding her raspberry leaves in the hopes it would start anything that needed to happen but with no effect.

Her eating and bathroom habits have not changed since she started getting bigger.

I have also felt her body to check if she is overweight and all the weight seems concentrated in her abdomen, which is kind of firm to the touch. The rest of her body feels like it should and not too padded. I have to say it is kind of difficult to tell since she is an angora and her coat is crazy thick.

I am now concerned that this may be retained kits or an intestinal issue such as worms. I tried palpating her and I though I may have felt some things in her abdomen but no movement whatsoever. <br /><br /> -- Tue Aug 08, 2017 9:48 pm -- <br /><br /> And the problem has been solved, at least for her behavior. Poor girl has quite the fur mite infestation She has begun treatment and her attitude has DRAMATICALLY improved!!! No babies which is a bit disappointing, but not much since I wasn't trying to breed her. But I'm super happy we figured out her problem and she's obviously feeling better!

That is great news! So glad you got her sorted.

Well this girl is going to drive me crazy! At almost 35 days from being separated from the bucks, she goes and gives birth to 6 live kits and seems like there may be more on the way.... But seriously, this girl is going to drive me crazy. Once I think I have it all figured out, she goes and changes everything on me lol. Her brothers are nowhere near as exciting!

On the plus side I actually got to see her give birth which was super awesome! I will totally upload pics once I am able to get a few. Mama's still a bit antsy.

She is just a roller coaster of interesting isn't she. So many things going on with her. Can't wait to see your kit pictures though!!

Here are our babies! Mama is a bit of a protective mess at the moment but I was able to convince her to let me in and examine the babies. All six look like their doing well but two of them have extremely round bellies. Is that a normal thing?

they just were recently well fed, very very well fed. You can tell its milk by the whiteness you can see through the skin

AWWWWW! I love it! Surprise popples <3 Surprise, well-fed popple Good going, mama.