Nature or Nurture? And Cleaning Tips?

[PatS]

I have two does, one a mutt and one a purebred. Both have good sized, healthy litters, and both take good care of their kits.

But they are like the Odd Couple. The mutt is just like Felix Unger, tidy and fastidious. The purebred is pure Oscar Madison. The mutt's cage is always clean and tidy, she has a potty corner and would die before she pottied in her wooden hidey-house. The purebred is, well, not fastidious, and when she has nine or ten babies is gets ugly quick, especially as they grow up thinking the world is their toilet.

Is "tidiness" inherited or taught by the mom? I would like some babies to raise from the purebred, but not if they are slobs! If both does are bred at the same time and I switched the babies at birth, would Fastidious momma teach neat habits to the purebred's babies? Ot would they be sloppy little kits who would frustrate her attempts at a clean cage?

I had the honor of scrubbing clean the sloppy mom's teenager's cage today. It is MUCH better, but is there some secret to getting residual hair and crusty urine build up off? I got 98%, but that last little bit will torment me!

Thanks!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The crusty buildup is calcium. Try vinegar or CLR.

My does are nice tidy angels, :roll: so I am not sure if it is nature or nurture. Probably a little of both. I would try the switch.

 

[LeAnn24]

I think that part would be nurture. They learn from watching their mom. Sure wouldn't hurt anyways. Good luck and let us know how it went!!

 

[PatS]

Thanks! I will try the old switcheroo. Think the does will notice if I do it the first day? Should I try any smelly tricks? (I remember a Leave it To Beaver episode where they put vanilla on a mother rabbits nose...) Once DH put the wrong youngster (3 or 4 weeks old) in with a mom, and she knew he was an interloper.

I did try distilled white vinegar, I guess I need more elbow grease! As for the little bits of hair, what? A Creme Brulee torch? (I can just imagine my gourmet cooking club fainting dead away, "You used the torch for WHAT?!?") I was able to get most of it, of course, but some little bits wound around the bars and I'm not as good at picking and pinching as I used to be. I want a spankin' clean cage for next time my does get in a family way.

 

[boundarybunnyco]

use the torch. I do.

 

[3mina]

My does don't seem to care either way

 

[Miss M]

You can do the vanilla on the doe's nose thing, but it's rarely necessary. If you take the nestboxes out, and switch the babies between boxes, wait a few hours, and then put them back, the babies will have time to take on the smell of the new nest they're in before she checks them out.

I use a torch too... I could use it for Creme Brulee, but it's my hubby's shop torch. It gets used for all sorts of things.

I believe it is mostly nurture. Our first doe taught her babies to keep clean. We have a buck and a doe from her. The doe teaches her babies more or less, depending on the litter. One litter will be clean, the next will be not so clean... the litter from her we're about ready to send to freezer camp has been absolutely awful! She didn't teach them anything!

They're so bad, my hubby said if her next litter is like that, she's retired.

Meanwhile, my other two does raise clean kits.

 

[akane]

Before 2 weeks old you can usually switch them around and the doe doesn't know the difference. Just put it in the nest awhile before they are going to be fed so it has some scent of the others on it. I've got a doe who is famous for fostering kits of all ages and sizes and I do nothing special when I give her a kit. I've tried it with a few other and never did anything special. However I usually lost some kits including the own doe's kits back down to the number born because they just couldn't care for more. I don't foster too often for that reason. Usually only if I'm doing an even switch to have an experienced doe raise important kits from an inexperienced doe.