Doe too Good of a Mother

[Hoosier]

Our oldest Californian doe will be eating and if one of her babies starts to eat next to her, she quits eating . It’s as if she puts her babies first. This happens whether she is eating out of a bowl, a feeder or eating hay :? . The doe is about 2 ½ years old and has kindled before we got her. She was skinny, had way overgrown nails and sores on her hocks when we first got her. The places on her hocks have healed up wonderfully and she was starting to put on some weight before she had her babies. Her backbone is bumpy and she needs to gain weight. Sadie had three babies on October 5th. The babies are doing really well, drinking out of the water bowl, eating hay, pellets, and grains (rolled oats, rolled barley, cracked pearl barley, oat groats, red wheatberries.) Any suggestions? How early can I remove her babies? Can I keep the babies in a separate cage during the day and put them with mom at night?

 

[dayna]

If they are eating solids, I would only put them in with mom once a day to nurse for like twice a day for a week, then once a day and wean them off.

 

[ladysown]

i'd simply move mom to a different cage and be done with it. kits are fine on their own at this stage.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I agree that at four weeks the kits are ready to be weaned. Moving the doe to another cage is less stressful to the kits, but I have moved kits without issue in the past.

I would check Sadie the day after the move to see if she is engorged with milk. If so you can either let the kits nurse once a day or give her some sprigs of mint for a few days to help her milk dry up.

She sounds like a sweet doe and a wonderful mother! I'm glad she is in a better home than her last one.

 

[Miss M]

I don't normally wean that early, but in this case, I would.

 

[AnnClaire]

You can also try installing a feeder for mom (those metal/plastic hanging trays would work) at a height that the babies can't get to ... this might alleviate her backing off when a baby starts in.

Personally, I bring the nest boxes into the house between feedings ... this gives me a head start on socializing the kits, and as the kits start opening their eyes, I start them on old fashioned oats and forage ... even dry grass in the winter.

 

[Hoosier]

AnnClaire, would you give me a link to those feeders? I did move her hay rack up higher, but the babies can still reach it. The wood nest boxes we took out of the cages once we saw that the babies weren't spending much time in them. I placed smaller cardboard boxes in the all of the cages so the babies still had a warmer place to go and to huddle together. I was going to use the scrap wood from the nest boxes, but my husband threw the scraps away. I was going to build just a tunnel basically.
Mama Sheepdog, She is really good natured and has been since we got her. We try to give the best care possible. I do think of her former home and wonder if she would still even be alive had she remained there. I remember the former owner saying "Rabbits don't do much. They pretty much just lay there," and I just shudder. When we were there both times, that is all her rabbits did. Well, all of our rabbits come to the front of the cage when we go in the stall and they MOVE in their cages. They get time out of their cages, though not as much as we want to give them. We give them apple branches to chew on and they will toss them around as well as the toilet paper tubes we give them and sometimes we stuff them with hay.
I think I still have some mint in the herb garden. I think we will take out 2 babies and then take out the last one in a day or two since the babies have to move and not Sadie due to our setup. We are working in the barn today so we may come up with a different cage setup.
Dayna, I like your idea and we will incorporate it into the process.
Thank you ALL for your help! We do appreciate it!<br /><br />__________ Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:28 pm __________<br /><br />Well, we have a four hole hutch that was given to us and a four hole hanging cage. We couldn't find a good place to hang the long cage and didn't want to cut it up so we're going to use the hutch. It is too big to get in the barn. Plan is to move the buck out to the hutch and put Sadie's babies in his cage and she will remain in hers. Later, we will wean the other babies. I figure keeping Sadie in her current cage is good for a few reasons. She won't be stressed by moving, her babies won't be as stressed since they will be able to still see and smell her, and the other babies will still have an adult nearby hich may help their stress as well.

 

[TwoAcreDream]

What if you add a second feed dish ?
So if everyone is hungary at the same time...more room at the table.

 

[Hoosier]

Two Acre Dream, There is a feeder, a crock that that is about 2" tall and 4" across, and another small dish about 2 1/2" across and 2" tall . There is a hay feeder and I also put some on the floor of the cage on top of a piece of cardboard.
I took the babies out of her cage about 9:00am, put them back in about 7:00pm, and then took two of them out about 8:00pm leaving only one with her for the night. I am happy to report that Sadie ate fairly well this afternoon and evening !!!! The two babies are in the cage next to her and they seem content, eating and drinking.