I thought I'd come back, and add an update regarding my issue with does not wanting to breed, just in case the info would help someone else. They'd clamp down, and refuse the buck, no matter how purple the vulva was. Even my best senior doe was giving me problems. I was also noticing quite an aggressive personality change in my juniors.
I bought some romaine lettuce, and some parsley, sporadically feeding that to my does. I admittedly wasn't real consistent with the greens, but they did get some while I waited for my mineral/vitamin block to get here. I special ordered it from the same place I order my horse feed. It got here two days ago. For two days now, they've had a chunk of mineral block, I did one feeding of pinch of flax seed last night, and two feedings of a tiny bit of oatmeal, along with two sunflower seeds.
Tonight before we cleaned pans, I thought I'd try two of my juniors. Well holy crap, before the buck was even ready, the does were standing, back end in the air! Finally! I kind of knew something was different already, the behavior when I reached in the cages today was just different, calmer already. Both does were so ready, and flirty with the bucks. They both took multiple breedings each time they were in the bucks cage, and I bred each girl three different times, an hour apart from the last breeding. Success.......finally! Woo Hoo!
So this has to have been a feed issue, and a mineral/vitamin deficiency of something. The only other thing I changed was to give them some alfalfa cubes starting two days ago. I'm very curious to see if this will solve the large kits dying as well, and how it will effect litter size in general.
Thanks for the suggestions..........they worked!!!
inkbunny:
I bought some romaine lettuce, and some parsley, sporadically feeding that to my does. I admittedly wasn't real consistent with the greens, but they did get some while I waited for my mineral/vitamin block to get here. I special ordered it from the same place I order my horse feed. It got here two days ago. For two days now, they've had a chunk of mineral block, I did one feeding of pinch of flax seed last night, and two feedings of a tiny bit of oatmeal, along with two sunflower seeds.
Tonight before we cleaned pans, I thought I'd try two of my juniors. Well holy crap, before the buck was even ready, the does were standing, back end in the air! Finally! I kind of knew something was different already, the behavior when I reached in the cages today was just different, calmer already. Both does were so ready, and flirty with the bucks. They both took multiple breedings each time they were in the bucks cage, and I bred each girl three different times, an hour apart from the last breeding. Success.......finally! Woo Hoo!
So this has to have been a feed issue, and a mineral/vitamin deficiency of something. The only other thing I changed was to give them some alfalfa cubes starting two days ago. I'm very curious to see if this will solve the large kits dying as well, and how it will effect litter size in general.
Thanks for the suggestions..........they worked!!!
inkbunny:
