Doe Ignored Her Kits Who Later Died. Cull?

[markt1]

Yesterday morning my 15 month old 75% Giant Chin /25% NZ doe delivered 2 healthy kits after a 34 day pregnancy. Her 1st pregnancy after we obtained her. Allegedly she had an earlier one before we bought her. She did not pull any fur and delivered them on the wire instead of the nesting box. We put the kits in the nesting box. We did not see any interest by her by going into the nesting box. This morning they were both dead. I have no use for a doe who won't feed her kits. We are strongly thinking of culling her. Thoughts?

 

[MaggieJ]

Most people give a doe three chances before culling. There are any number of reasons why a first or second pregnancy may end with the doe not caring for her kits. I'd give her at least one more chance. Many does who seem like hopeless mothers in their first or second pregnancy go on to become excellent producers and good mothers.

 

[Zass]

I'm going to agree to trying her one more time...if you like her.

 

[markt1]

OK. She gets one more chance...

 

[akane]

If they died in 24hrs or less then they didn't starve. It was more likely to be exposure and second a health problem in the kits. Some does don't pull fur until after they give birth and some don't feed for up to 48hrs. As long as they are healthy and kept warm enough the kits will handle this just fine. It can cause problems during cool weather though. A new doe is also sometimes still stressed out by the move, as well as a different cage setup and possibly different type of nesting box, and end up making a mistake. Kits on the wire from an experienced doe can occasionally mean there were birthing problems. I watched a doe put all live kits in the box and hop out to deliver stillborns. She knew what kits would survive. It makes me wonder about those does who I have found several dead kits out of the box and a small number of live kits in the box.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

If they died in 24hrs or less then they didn't starve. It was more likely to be exposure and second a health problem in the kits. Some does don't pull fur until after they give birth and some don't feed for up to 48hrs. As long as they are healthy and kept warm enough the kits will handle this just fine. It can cause problems during cool weather though. A new doe is also sometimes still stressed out by the move, as well as a different cage setup and possibly different type of nesting box, and end up making a mistake. Kits on the wire from an experienced doe can occasionally mean there were birthing problems. I watched a doe put all live kits in the box and hop out to deliver stillborns. She knew what kits would survive. It makes me wonder about those does who I have found several dead kits out of the box and a small number of live kits in the box.

Yes, exactly. Kits don't die from starvation overnight. With only two in the box, they likely chilled.

 

[Comet007]

For me the bigger concern would be that she only had 2 kits. I don't know anything about Giant Chin's, so maybe that's normal? But a NZ should have many more than that.

 

[dayna]

Here is what I would do.

I would breed her again to the same buck. If there is any problems, kits on wire, not feeding kits, or a small litter I would breed one more time to a different buck.

If any of those three problems occurs on the that third breeding to a different buck I would cull her.

My thoughts on the third breeding is that it could be an issue of an incompatible pairing.