litter of 12 - what to do?

igotrabbits · Feb 12, 2013

Doe's first litter, born 2/11 around 6:00pm. They seemed to all be nourished this morning. Debating what to do:

A) Keep a close eye on them and cull runts
B) Split into 2 boxes, one feeding in the morning, one at night - (I need more specific information on exactly what to do)
C) Trying to find a litter close in age I can foster to, but so far I only know someone with a litter due 2/19

Any input? Other options? Thanks guys!

Demamma · Feb 13, 2013

I think I would watch close. If the Doe is not able to care for them all foster the runts. That is what I would do. I had a doe who had 9. The runt was not thriving. I fostered it to another doe who had 6 kits that were about 4 days older. The run ended up thriving and doing great. The foster kits were two times the size of runt.

skysthelimit · Feb 13, 2013

I have not had to foster anyone, with litters of 9-12 reguarly. Somehow the all got fed. none looked different. now the overall size of the kits were smaller, I have a feeling they would have grown faster if there were less of them. I just let nature take it's course unless all else fails.

grumpy · Feb 13, 2013

Twelve's a hefty drag on the doe's milking abilities. You're guaranteed to have a smaller avg. weaning weight. Plus more time to get weight on the litter. I've never tried splitting a litter: one for a morning feeding and the other for an evening feeding.

What's the litter for? meat production, show production, what?

For show....you should probablly cull the litter to 7 or 8. Some cull show litters to 6.

For meat.....(If it were my litter) I'd cull to 9 or 10 since you don't have the option of fostering any to another doe.

OR::::::: you could just leave them alone and let mother nature take its course. You may be surprised.

grumpy.

TerriG · Feb 13, 2013

I have a doe that had her 2nd litter 2 weeks ago. She had 12. The runt died yesterday after deciding to wander around the cage. We kept expecting him to not make it, but somehow she fed all 12. I had the same questions you had when she kindled. I did have another doe that kindled the same day, but she had 9 of her own, so I didn't feel like I could move any of the 12 over to her. We've lost 1 kit from each litter on the wire, but that is it.