Day 31 and still waiting

[kotapony]

Day 31 and still waiting. I admit farming got in the way and I didn't get my nest boxes in until day 29. Talk about last minute panic! I removed the buck at that time and thought sure one of the does was looking pretty restless. Went over all excited the next morning, and nothing. *sigh* They're both in and out of the nest boxes. I gave them an extra pile of loose hay yesterday. Overnight they cleaned it up and used it to work on a nest not in the nice cozy boxes I gave them but under their hay feeder. It looks like a pretty decent nest all the same. No fur pulling as yet. Given everyone has been together the last month I suppose it's possible they didn't take right away. But I take the nest building as at least a positive sign there will be babies eventually if I can just have a little patience. And in the mean time I'm obsessively checking the buns, hoping to find a pile of squirming little ones. :bunnyhop:

 

[ladysown]

keep checking on them, once they have their kits move the whole nest into the nestbox.

 

[SterlingSatin]

be careful, i have a doe thats very calm and has had many litters, but if i accidently walk into the barn while she is giving birth, she'll have that one on the wire. just be patient move the nest when the babies are born.

 

[kotapony]

I was gone all day yesterday and didn't get back till dark. Checked on the rabbits, and I had a pile of little pink kits in the nest under the feeder. Since it was getting cooler I left them alone until it warmed up today. I went ahead and moved the nest into one of the boxes. One doe keeps going back to where the nest was. Both have looked into the new box and sniffed, but neither has gone in yet. There are 11 kits who all appear wiggly and full. I don't honestly know if this is all the litter of one doe, or both. 11 seems big for a first litter, especially for Californians, but both does are from a litter of 11 and the buck was from a litter of 9. Only one doe is interested when I mess with the nest - not aggressive, just watchful. She's the one that keeps checking the old nest spot. The other doe hid in one of the empty nest boxes while I moved the nest this morning.

So... Now what? Is once a day reasonable to check the nest? I generally check the colony several times a day, but to actually get in the nest and make sure everyone is fed, is once a day about right? I'm curbing the impulse to check more. So far everything seems to be going as it should, and I don't want my interference to derail anything.

Any other thoughts/suggestions of what I should do from here would be appreciated.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Congratulations! Once a day is fine, you just want to make sure they are being fed. Check the nest thoroughly to make sure there are no dead kits that could decompose and foul the nest. 10 is great for a first litter of Cali's. One of mine had 10 the first time and my current doe, Roxie, had 9 with her first litter, so it is not unusual to have a larger litter the first time.

 

[MaggieJ]

That's the problem with adding the nest box late... The doe may already have chosen her spot and they are sometimes very stubborn about changes. Can you put the nest box where she kindled or at least next to the spot? She may accept it better that way... although as long as they are being fed and are warm, that is all the doe needs to do for them. Does do not hang about their kits between feedings. It's more like: "Babies? What babies? No babies here!" This is a prey-animal strategy to keep predators from finding the nest.