Buck never fell off--was it a fail?

Treelove · Mar 30, 2023

Yesterday I attempted to mate my doe with our one year old buck. Doe was cooperative, I thought. Buck mounted her like 10 times, her tail was lifted, it looked like they were doing everything right. With each mounting, buck would vigorously go for a while, and then they would stop for a bit, and he'd go at her again. Repeat x10. By this time I thought she must be pregnant and took her out. But then later I remembered the buck wasn't done until he fell over. He never did that. Does that mean I need to try again? He's been unusually chill since the attempted mating.

jaxmarblebuns · Mar 30, 2023

Not all bucks fall off, but that doesn't mean the doe isn't bred. One of my best bucks was a "gentile breeder" as I like to call them. If the doe lifted well, she should be good as bred. You can wait a week and put her back in, if she doesn't lift, grunts, is aggressive/agitated those are a tell tail sign she is bred. If you trust your abilities, you can also palpate her after day 16 (days 12-16 are when the kits are at their most fragile so it isn't recommended to palpate, and before that you really can’t feel much).

Scooter1A · Mar 31, 2023

My guess is she's bred. But yes put him back in and if she has nothing to do with him she's good to go.

Cindy in SD · Apr 1, 2023

Scooter1A said:
My guess is she's bred. But yes put him back in and if she has nothing to do with him she's good to go.

HER... Put HER back in. I'm sure that's what you meant, but just in case someone reads this and gets confused...

Or maybe I'm wrong. Everything I've read or been told says to always bring the doe to the buck, as she may attack and injure a buck that "invades" her house.

Scooter1A · Apr 1, 2023

The lady I bought my doe from said always take him to her so that's what I do. I know most people do it the other way. I think mine do better just running free to mate. If she doesn't stop running from him I put him away and try again another day. It seems it brought her into heat this winter when I did that. Then I took him to her. They are side by side in the hutch.

daniiwicked · Apr 8, 2023

honestly i would count her as bred just to be on the safe side i had a do that didn't have any fall offs and she was pregnant, I've also had a doe have 1 fall off and fell pregnant