Can they feed them too much?

[dayna]

So my first time mother doe Checkers is feeding her babies like 10 times a day.

Their bellies are SO FULL. Every time I check on her, she's feeding those babies.

I'm getting worried. I know this seems a strange thing to worry about, but I thought it was supposed to be once or twice a day?

 

[caroline]

I'd say it depends upon how many she's feeding. If it's 8 or more I wouldn't worry. If it's only a few I'd take the nest box out and only give it to her twice a day

 

[grumpy]

She's sending you a very important message.

I'd bet a dollar to a donut that she's an outstanding milker.
Does nurse their young...only to relieve the pressure from their udders.
Odds are...she's producing quite a bit of milk.

You should have an excellent growth weight on those youngsters.
BTW: How my youngsters did she have? How many are still alive?

I've never taken a box away from the mother.
Removing it will exacerbate her problems of excessive milk production.
She may well end-up with mastitis if the young aren't allowed to pull off the extra milk.

Grumpy.

 

[squidpop]

How many babies did she have? What breed are they? I asked the same question here and someone said that if there is only 1 or 2 babies the mother can actually feed so much milk it the babies can't digest it fast enough and it can cause gut problems- but I got the impression that it only happens with newborns when there is only 1 or 2.

 

[grumpy]

There's two things we need to consider.

The value of the mother versus the value of the kits.
If she's an excellent milker, the mother is worth her weight in gold.
If she's got only a few kits, fostering more kits to her would help.

It's a coin-toss on a personal level.
Myself, I always place more importance
on the doe than I do the youngsters.
But, that's just my own personal preference.

A first time mama is always a dicey situation.
She may have lost part of her litter due to
clumsiness in and around the nest box.

If that's the case, then Checkers will
become better with consecutive litters.
If she consistently has 'small' litters
while still overproducing milk, she may
become a problem. But, it's rare that these
two situations go hand in hand.

Heavy milker w/small litter numbers.
These two features aren't usually connected.

grumpy

 

[dayna]

She had only 4 babies. And all are alive. She made a beautiful nest (I mean it, it's really nice) and gave birth to the kits in the nestbox and nurse them right away (most of my does wait a while). About an hour after nursing them and giving birth, she went in to check on them, licked them a little more, sniffed and hopped back out.

She checks on them anytime they move or make a squeek! lol

I do have a doe that only had 2 babies that I could foster over, but she also is a good mother/milker so I don't want to give her any breast problems.

Checkers is a NZ/Checkered giant mix. Heavy on the NZ coloring from the CG.

 

[annie]

Wow, sounds like a good problem to have, those will be some fat babies! She's nursing all the time like a primate not like a typical rabbit.

 

[ckcs]

I just had a Holland Lop / Lionhead cross that had 2 babies. She fed them so much. They were so fat I was surprised they could roll over to drink another drop. I suspected that the doe was producing a lot of milk and was in constant need of relief. Things started leveling off when the babies could drink enough. I want to say that was around the second week. Both babies ended up being regular size.

It was so bad at one point I was near the cage filling bottles and I heard someone say "Uncle", I turned and noticed a baby on it's back rubbing it's belly.

 

[dayna]

Here is her nest and the growing babies. They are doing really really well!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

OMG! That fifth picture made me lol! It looks like a little piglet, not a bunny!

They are darling. Especially that first broken kit.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

they don't look over fed to me... I think she just keeps on checking on them and licking ..but not really feeding them... there bellies would be more full than that

 

[Miss M]

They look well-fed, not over-fed, to me.

Nice and healthy.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Do they pop like popcorn? My overly-mothered kits were always too fat and full to pop. :lol: Those kits look great!!!!!! She's taking excellent care of them, nice nest too.

 

[dayna]

No popping!

 

[Miss M]

I usually have one or two kits in a litter that are little Mexican jumping beans, and the rest are more laid back. It hasn't had anything to do with how much they were eating, though.

 

[carolnoel50]

I recently had a doe who seemed to be overfeeding her kits. All that changed when they reached 3 weeks of age and she decided that she'd had enough and refused to nurse them. Since they hadn't yet started to eat pellets or drink water I had concerns but it has all worked out and they are healthy and very friendly due to all the human handling while they transitioned to solid food. I have to show you a funny picture of one of them after a particularly large meal. I can't see it in the preview but I'm posting this anyway so here goes...

 

[beckyhuff314]

I had a doe that was in the nest with her one baby every time I looked in there. I had to start taking him out and only put him in there twice a day. He could hardly turn himself over LOL.

 

[Lastfling]

Kinda looks like me after Thanksgiving dinner. LOL.

 

[Miss M]

WOW! That is one well-fed kit! :lol: