Fat or pregnant?

[Secuono]

Between the back legs and hips, is this where you check for kits?
If they are round and hard in the rib and right below the ribs, does that meat they are fat or pregnant?
Two of my does ~should~ be bred, but I'm seeing and feeling "fatness" under the lower ribs and right behind them, not any lower in the gut/waist area.
Testing them w/a buck won't work because they always refuse them, no matter what.

Ideas?

 

[curlysue]

Actually I can usually tell by the firmnes if its fat or pregnancy.fat is softer.thats the place too check.cross my fingers they are prego.

 

[akane]

Either. Firmness says nothing. I have a fat doe who feels firm all the time and you can't tell if she's not pregnant or carrying 8 until the day she drops them. You have to be able to feel the balls that are the kits. Not everyone can and it's generally only possible at around the 2 week mark.

 

[Secuono]

But wouldn't the round fatness be only under the ribs? Where are the kits, lower down in the waist?

 

[akane]

Most of a rabbit comes behind the ribs. If you butcher one you can see it. The ribs take up little space with mostly only the respiratory tract, heart, and stomach there with some liver around it. All the intestines (which is alot), kidneys, reproductive organs, and so forth are beyond the ribs. The liver and stomach just barely fit against the end of the ribs before they hit what I'm guessing is the diaphragm but might just be a membrane (my pig dissection anatomy class is failing me) separating the respiratory tract and heart off.

 

[Secuono]

Here's a pic I got off the internet.
Where the thumb base is and towards the rabbit's head, ribs and fat/round and hard. Everything else is thin and nothing in there.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

With mine, when it feels fat, round and hard it is because they are too tense. You need to lift up her hindquarters until she relaxes. Her whole abdomen should soften up and allow you to palpate correctly. Your thumb and fingers on the hand that is palpating should be able to 'touch'.

 

[skysthelimit]

I just did my holland, and I think I felt something. I felt one right at the end of the ribs, her left, and two more on the right side about an inch from the rib. They were firm, about the size of a chocolate covered cherry. She's about 17 days. Would that be right?

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I just did my holland, and I think I felt something. I felt one right at the end of the ribs, her left, and two more on the right side about an inch from the rib. They were firm, about the size of a chocolate covered cherry. She's about 17 days. Would that be right?

Firm, but not hard? Then that sounds about right. The poops feel like hard pea-sized balls and the kits feel firm but a bit squishier...if you are really close to the ribs you *might* be feeling a kidney, but since you felt more than two she is likely bred. I usually start from the groin area and feel my way toward the ribs.