Help Me! Breeder Has No Clue When This Doe is Bred?!

Rabbit Talk  Forum

Help Support Rabbit Talk Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

OldEnglishSilvers88

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 5, 2016
Messages
76
Reaction score
0
So today I bought another Silver Fox doe. She is beautiful and pedigreed. :D . She is 10 months old and this will be her first litter. The breeder had a Silver Fox buck living with her, so no doubt the breeder says she is pregnant.

I set up a nest box with hay for her because for all anyone knows, she could be due tomorrow or in 5 weeks. How do I know for sure? Should I attempt palpation? I've done it before and even found the exact number of kits but maybe that was pure luck. What would you guys do in my situation?
 
Definitely give her a nest box. I'm assuming she'll be in quarantine since you just brought her home. Do you know how long she'd been housed with the buck. If it had been more than a month and she's 10 months old but hasn't had a litter, I'd wonder about her as breeding stock.
We don't palpate. Seems like it's not easy to do successfully and we just try not to handle our does too much during their pregnancies. In this case, you new doe already has the stress of the move, so I'd suggest you give the nest box, then wait and see if she kindles during her quarantine. At the end of quarantine, if she hasn't kindled you could try breeding her then.
 
Actually, you have another 2 weeks to go before you can be absolutely sure she isn't bred at this time.

If you want, you could try palpating.
 
The same exact thing happened to me haha. It was a silver fox too. I made the mistake of going off my palpation skills and lost one kit on the wire because of it, but saved the rest of them. Let's just say I'll never trust my ability to palpate again and if I don't know if they have or haven't been bred, I put a nest box in just to be safe.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top