This post is more venting/sharing than anything, I thought it might be useful for others to hear about this sort of behavior.
So, yesterday morning when I went to do the morning chores, my expecting Champagne d'Argent doe had one kit waiting for me... on the wire. She had not tried to build a nest or anything, despite this being her second litter after a successful first. Luckily it's been warm, and the kit was still alive. I gathered it up, stuck it down my shirt to warm up fully, then ended up stashing it in a spare nest I filled with straw and fur my husband plucked from the mother. Again, it's warm so the little one was fine in one of our warmer rooms during the day. I left the mother with her ignored nest box.
By evening, no action from mom, but one of my Americans had kindled so the little guy went with her litter for the moment. But the Champagne doe was finally nest building, and this morning I found a complete nest with 6 more live babies and 2 dead ones (including one that looked funky and deformed). All of the Americans and their foster sibling are looking fine. I have one more doe to kindle tonight, and once I see the final distribution of kits, I will then cross-foster around to equalize kit load - assuming the Champagne is feeding hers. We currently have 12, 9, and 6-kit litters.
The moral of the story is, have some patience with does who might be having issues, and try to always breed in pairs, if not groups!
- Jessi
So, yesterday morning when I went to do the morning chores, my expecting Champagne d'Argent doe had one kit waiting for me... on the wire. She had not tried to build a nest or anything, despite this being her second litter after a successful first. Luckily it's been warm, and the kit was still alive. I gathered it up, stuck it down my shirt to warm up fully, then ended up stashing it in a spare nest I filled with straw and fur my husband plucked from the mother. Again, it's warm so the little one was fine in one of our warmer rooms during the day. I left the mother with her ignored nest box.
By evening, no action from mom, but one of my Americans had kindled so the little guy went with her litter for the moment. But the Champagne doe was finally nest building, and this morning I found a complete nest with 6 more live babies and 2 dead ones (including one that looked funky and deformed). All of the Americans and their foster sibling are looking fine. I have one more doe to kindle tonight, and once I see the final distribution of kits, I will then cross-foster around to equalize kit load - assuming the Champagne is feeding hers. We currently have 12, 9, and 6-kit litters.
The moral of the story is, have some patience with does who might be having issues, and try to always breed in pairs, if not groups!
- Jessi
