Problems with a nestbox...Overstuffed?

[brucesquatch]

This seemed strange to me, so naturally, this seemed like the place to bring it up...

One of my does was late by about 4-5 days when I go out to the hutches and find her with a huge furry handlebar mustache...it was hilarious...it looked like it was cartoonish...and I thought she didn't take when I bred her...

So, I spring into action, grab a nestbox, stuff it with straw and some shavings and give it to her. She goes to town and proceeds to pull enough fur to stuff a queen size mattress...seriously, I thought she must be bald on her belly...

She produces 6 little kits and is doing fine until about day 10-12, when they start to move around more, open their eyes, etc...they start rolling out of the nestbox. Some land on the ground and I rescued them a few times (yup, working on the baby catcher...), but I lost a kit that got squished between the nestbox and cage and another rolled out and died from exposure last night...

I have been pulling out fur, tossing babies back into the back of the nestbox and I am wondering if I need to help her 'clean her house' a bit and remove some material from the nest to keep them in? Any thoughts?

 

[faiththequeen]

I would definitely clean out the box. I usually do a nest box clean out on day 10. Then just save some of the fur and put new hay in and you can put in as much as you want. Good luck! Sorry about the lost kits

 

[cudaman68]

Yes clean it out and with the weather being warm they don't need as much fur as they would have during the winter. How tall is you front side of the nest box? once the kits get to moving around I put a 2X4 in front of the box on the outside so they have a step to get back in if they roll out or hop out.

 

[Whipple]

I cleaned mine out to almost nothing. I have pretty tall boxes to begin with, but with no baby saver, as you know, its better to be extra cautious.

 

[Miss M]

In these temps, I'm still generous with the nesting material until the kits are born, but when I pull the nest to check the first time, I'm already pulling material out. I leave some fur and plenty of hay, but not enough to keep it totally stuffed.

A few days later, I'll usually take it down to about two inches of hay in the bottom of the box, and spread the fur out so that the whole thing will be pretty soft and help hold in their heat. But it's so warm, they don't need as much heat held in as at other times of the year.

 

[SuburbanHomesteader]

Just had a doe kindle last night and this morning took about half the hay and fur out. Supposed to be in lower 90's here tomorrow and I don't want the babies over-heated.

After 10 days, I actually clean out the entire nest box, leaving only a little hay. 5 - 10 days after that, depending on how they're doing, I remove the nest box completely.

I leave the nest box in longer during the winter and remove it more quickly in the warmer months.