First Litter worries

[shicat]

I bred both of my does a month ago. The brown doe is due tomorrow (13 October) and the white doe is due on the 17th. I put a nestbox in the brown doe's cage a few days ago. She's been carrying around her haystache and trying to set up a nest.

The part that concerns me is that she isn't trying to nest in the nestbox and she hasn't started pulling fur. Is there a time that I should be really worried? We are starting to cool off here, so I don't want the kits to freeze. :shock:

How far before the doe's target due date should I be putting the nestbox in her cage? Is 4 days good?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Rainey]

I put the nest box in 28 days after breeding (because it's easy, just move 4 lines down the calendar) and my does have always kindled on day 31 or 32. And mostly my does pull fur just before kindling. If she's making a nest somewhere that is better than no nest and you can move them into the box after their born. Or sometimes moving the box to the part of the cage where she's making the nest will get her to use the box. Are these experienced does or is this their first time? They can be a bit clueless the first time around.
Hope all goes well with both of them.

 

[shicat]

We're all first-timers here. That probably doesn't help...

She started to try to build a nest under her shelf in the far corner of her cage so I moved the nest box to there. She has managed to take about 80% of the hay out of the nestbox. Most of it fell through, but she spread a nice layer on her shelf .


She pulled some fur last night, but no baby buns yet.

 

[ButtonsPalace]

It could be anywhere between 31 to 35 days. I had one of my smaller does (Long story behind why she's undersized) wait until day 34 to kindle, I was starting to think she wasn't pregnant so before I took her box I palpated gently and felt a big kit. I figured it would probably be still born due to size. To my shock, she had a kit sometime after 1 am on day 33-34. The kit came out looking like a 2 or 3 day old kit. I still have the baby and she's doing wonderful! 3 months old now and almost bigger than mom. Words of advice I myself have a hard time listening to would be leave her alone as much as possible, does can hold back labor for up to 24hrs if I'm not wrong because they don't want to be seen having babies. Good luck to you and I hope to see pics of the babies soon!

 

[shicat]

I've been hovering a little bit more (checking 4-5 times a day instead of 2), but I'm trying to curb that.

I will say that Clementine has been acting pregnant much more than my white doe, Bess. From what I understand, that's not something to worry about because it's really a case-by-case situation.

 

[Homer]

My experience with my Flemish Giants is they seem to pull a little fur like yours has 1-2 days before they kindle. About 2 hours before they actually have them they go into overdrive and pull a bunch. Take a little break then jump in the box and have them. It sounds to me like you're really close...go check them again.

:good-luck:

 

[SarniaTricia]

I think the waiting is the hardest!!!

Just be patient... and keep checking... but try and be stealthy... or casual... I can't decide which works better.... OK, so I have not fooled anyone, including my does.... They come when they come...

Your doe looks like she knows what she's doing.... looks normal to me.

 

[shicat]

Homer,

It looks like you were pretty spot on with the timing. She pulled a little bit of fur on Wednesday evening and sometime Thursday night/Friday morning she had her litter! :wr_special:
I was a bit suprised at how much fur she pulled off without looking like she was half bald. The fur bundle looks almost a big as she is!

On to answering the important question: When I looked this morning there were 5 kits, 2 pink and 3 black.

 

[Easy Ears]

Yay! Congrats!

 

[FourRingCircus]

Yay! Congrats! The waiting is SO hard - it doesn't get much easier, even with experience :lol: I think there will always be a tinge of anticipation... I have does build nests 2 weeks in (as soon as I see them gathering hay I stick a nest box in), others wait until the last minute. It's amazing how much fur they have to spare, isn't it???

 

[ButtonsPalace]

The only doe I've seen build a nest really early is my Lionhead. With her last litter she worked on her nest from the time she got pregnant on. I'm still not quite sure of the exact birth date of the kits because she had them buried under her bedding. She never looked pregnant either because of all of the fluff. I believe she's pregnant with just one this time, I'm pretty excited because I know she's getting close. She's been taking her hay and trying to build a nest with it even though when I gave her a nest box she just threw it over >3<

 

[Nymphadora]

:congratulations:

Hurrah for popples!

 

[shicat]

Thanks everyone!

From what I've read, once she's given birth, I should give her as much food as she'll eat. Is that right? She's eaten about the same amount of pellets, but way more hay than normal.

How often should I expect her to feed the popples, once or twice a day?

I don't want to put her off the kits' care by checking too often. Do you think twice a day is too often?

 

[Marinea]

I free feed nursing does and I handle/check the kits daily to make sure all are well and getting fed.

 

[shicat]

The kits have become cuter with time.

I ended up with 2 whites, 2 blacks, and one multicolored kit.

My second doe hit day 30 on Monday, but hasn't done anything to show she's ready to have kits. She investigated the next box when I first put it in her cage, but hasn't done anything with it other than use it as a litter box (twice! :evil: ) Today is day 34 of her pregnancy. IIRC I should leave it in her cage until day 40 just in case, right?

 

[MaggieJ]

Yes, leave the nestbox in the cage. Think how awful you would feel if you removed it and the doe had to kindle on the wire, just because she was "late". I have heard so many laments: "But I didn't think she was pregnant after all!"

 

[shicat]

Doe 2:
I've pretty much given up on getting a litter out of my white doe this go round. We're on day 39 and she hasn't even really looked at the nest box. I'll leave it in until the weekend just in case...

Doe 1:
All five of the kits are alive and well. They've all opened their eyes, but they haven't been trying to leave the nest box. I left the front of the nest box down to aide in their worldly explorations. So far they've been more interested in naptime with the sibs. One of the black ones ventured out onto the folded down portion.


The white ones are the biggest and the smallest of the litter. You can really see the difference in one of the pics.


The ones that I thought were black have different colors emerging. Any idea what to call these colors?
B1:
B2:
Brown:

 

[SableSteel]

What breed are they? The color names differ between breeds.
Normally I'd call the dark ones "gold tipped black steel" or just "steel", and call the brown one "chestnut".

 

[shicat]

Their mother is a Texas A&M Composite (http://users.tamuk.edu/kfsdl00/rabb.html) and their father is a New Zealand White (also TAMUK). I was wondering if they were steels. I was a bit confused about it because they both have brown and grey in addition to their black (one more than the other).