Thorn
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- Mar 9, 2018
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:lilbunny: So last year my American Chin doe was looking really stressed out with her 11 babies. She was constantly running from them, hoping in the nest box,hoping out as they chased her. Well I wanted to move them away during the day, but also wanted to keep them close to her so she and they didn't panic. She was in a corner cage of a four door hutch. The cage next to her housed the Chin buck, the kits father. I didn't really want to move him, but I wanted to put the kits in that cage during the day. So I shrugged my shoulders and put them in their with him. (At this point they where about four weeks old.) So he checked them out a bit,and they sniffed at him and explored the cage. And they all settled down nicely. I housed them with the buck every day and put them with their mother at night. This went on until they where weaned, and seemed to reduce weaning stress. The buck, who has always been laid back, never bit them or even pulled out hair. He seemed to enjoy them and got more active. Im not certain this would work with a more aggressive buck, or with a buck that was not house next to the doe and her litter, and got to know them through the wire.I found this little experiment to have interesting results and decided to share it as food for thought. Will definitely do it this next year as well.