Agitated Doe

[JG3]

Has anyone experienced a doe getting agitated when weaning her kits? Last night I took half of them and put them in their grow out hutch and planned to take the other half in a couple days. This morning, she’s very alert and running in circles. This doe is usually super calm and collected. I’m not exactly sure why she’s doing this. She runs a bit, smells her kits, runs again, smells her kits and repeat. Is she noticing some are missing and is worried? I’ve taken them all out before, for a day, when it was really hot, a few times and gave them back at night when it was cool. She was fine then.

Edit to add: this is her first litter.

 

[Preitler]

Not that I have seen such behaviour, but I would check her nipples if one is inflamed and might cause pain when a kit tries to nurse.

How old are the kits? I don't really notice when they get weaned. For the first week when they leave the nest they bother the doe where they find her, then gradually learn that they only get fed in the nest box. I'm not sure if my cureent 8 week old litter still gets fed because i would need to be there when they disappear into the nestbox for a few minutes.
Also, I only remove the bucklings at 10-12 weeks, doelings stay with mom. Never bothered any of them, they actually seem more relaxed then.

 

[JG3]

Not that I have seen such behaviour, but I would check her nipples if one is inflamed and might cause pain when a kit tries to nurse.

How old are the kits? I don't really notice when they get weaned. For the first week when they leave the nest they bother the doe where they find her, then gradually learn that they only get fed in the nest box. I'm not sure if my cureent 8 week old litter still gets fed because i would need to be there when they disappear into the nestbox for a few minutes.
Also, I only remove the bucklings at 10-12 weeks, doelings stay with mom. Never bothered any of them, they actually seem more relaxed then.

The nest box was removed at 2.5 weeks because they kept jumping out and wouldn’t stay in it anyway. They’re 5.5 weeks now and quite big, they’re getting crowded so need weaned. I haven’t seen the kits trying to nurse for a week or more. Where I would see them try often when the nest box was first removed and mom would hop away. All are eating pellets and drinking water. It’s only been 12 hours so I don’t imagine her nipples would be bothering her yet if they were going to. She still has half her kits to slowly wean her supply down but, like I said, I haven’t seen them try to nurse for quite awhile so I don’t even know if she still is. But I’ll check.

 

[JG3]

So just an update. She calmed down and then we took another one away a couple days later and the next morning she was back at it running around and sniffing. So she’s definitely noticing her kits missing and a bit agitated. It’s her first litter, so maybe next time it won’t happen. It’s all new to her.

 

[ladysown]

she also might want to be bred.

 

[JG3]

she also might want to be bred.

Oh, really? I never considered that. Our rabbits are housed outside and its been hot, I didn’t plan to breed for july/august due to the heat and stress of that, but spend the summer switching them to fodder before starting again in Sept.

 

[Buknee]

I have a doe that begins to feel crowded as her kits grow. Her first litter was really bad. By 5 weeks she was growling and chasing them away from her. Mainly when I came around. She almost went in the stew pot she was so bad. She would even lunge, growl and bite at me.

She just weaned her second litter of 12 kits. This time she nursed them until 7-9 weeks old. (I started removing a few at a time.)
By the time the kits were about 3 weeks old I began to take mommy out through the day and put her back in with them at night. She was very happy with this arrangement as it gave her space and a food dish to herself.

 

[Rabbits by Accident]

I have a doe that begins to feel crowded as her kits grow. Her first litter was really bad. By 5 weeks she was growling and chasing them away from her. Mainly when I came around. She almost went in the stew pot she was so bad. She would even lunge, growl and bite at me.

She just weaned her second litter of 12 kits. This time she nursed them until 7-9 weeks old. (I started removing a few at a time.)
By the time the kits were about 3 weeks old I began to take mommy out through the day and put her back in with them at night. She was very happy with this arrangement as it gave her space and a food dish to herself.

That's probably the more 'natural' way to do it, I don't think the does hang around the kits at all in the wild.

 

[JG3]

Mine isn’t aggressive and loves her kits. They cuddle and lay all over her and she doesn’t move away or get annoyed at all, and licks and cleans them still, so that’s not why she’s agitated. I think she actually misses them and is concerned they’re missing. She was 100% fine until I started taking them away. The last two are leaving her tomorrow. So I expect the next morning she will be a bit uptight again and we’ll see how long it lasts and how it goes. I can’t rebreed her now because we’re heading into the worst heat of summer soon, hopefully she gets over it quick and we’ll breed again in Sept.

 

[eco2pia]

It is possible. She will get over it. But I am up with the "wants breeding" thought. The timing checks out. It could be that removing some of the kits cooled her off enough to trigger hormones. If I have a doe cycling that is how my buck acts, and I know it is time to breed if I want a litter.

EDIT: ok, "cycling" is the wrong euphisim. maybe a better term would be "receptive" since does don't have the same kind of cycle as a human. but still, they usualy rebreed at 4-6weeks post litter.

 

[JG3]

It is possible. She will get over it. But I am up with the "wants breeding" thought. The timing checks out. It could be that removing some of the kits cooled her off enough to trigger hormones. If I have a doe cycling that is how my buck acts, and I know it is time to breed if I want a litter.

EDIT: ok, "cycling" is the wrong euphisim. maybe a better term would be "receptive" since does don't have the same kind of cycle as a human. but still, they usualy rebreed at 4-6weeks post litter.

So, it’s heading into the heat of summer in our area, I didn’t plan to breed in July/August, we are very hot and humid in these months, even reaching 45°C (113°F) with the humidex. If it’s because of wanting to breed, will this behaviour calm down or is she going to be pretty uptight for two months?

 

[eco2pia]

So, it’s heading into the heat of summer in our area, I didn’t plan to breed in July/August, we are very hot and humid in these months, even reaching 45°C (113°F) with the humidex. If it’s because of wanting to breed, will this behaviour calm down or is she going to be pretty uptight for two months?

Mostly I see a week of activity and they calm down again.