Rebreed?

[Peach]

Normally, I like to give some time to rebreed, but I have a really nice doe ,2 1/2 years old, I know I will be retiring...thing is she has some stellar lines.

Problem?

She makes a nice nest and such BUT she looses a majority of her litter.

With her previous breeder only 1 out of 5 lived

With me only 3 out of 9 have lived so far

She makes a nice nest and isn't aggressive in any way. It's just I'm concerned with the survival rate of her litters aren't that great. I'm thinking of getting a litter out of my second herd sire before I officially retire her. I have another doe that can take on her babies, same age (3 1/2 weeks). To breed or not to breed?

 

[skysthelimit]

If you think the fault is in her rearing style rebreed, take the kits and foster them. But if she had the same problem with the breeder and now you, I would not want to keep a kit from a does like that. Asking for perpetual problems. I'm culling my herd hard, I'm tired of sore hocks, enteritis, dead litters, does that go four days over, stuck kits, does that don't built nests, culling for anything and everything. _

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Was the doe started late? In other words, did she have a show career, and start breeding afterwards at 8 or 10 months?

Pure speculation here, but maybe she just never quite "got it" because of a late start. I would keep two does out of her- one as a show prospect, and the other to be bred as soon as she shows signs of readiness. If the breeder doe does well, continue the line. If not, cull.

 

[Peach]

She was bred at 2 years old because she was a very nice show doe. Nice,big,and wide. She looks like the ideal show and brood mini lop doe. They didn't want her to loose condition, so I think it might have something to do with the problems with her litters. She won her 3 legs no problem, but started getting stressed at the shows and couldn't do more than a class before she got into a mood swing and lashed out once spring came this year. Otherwise, I can't complain about her temperament. She's perfectly sweet tempered and just sits with me to watch TV. I'm actually retiring her to a friend nearby that has a strict doe only policy colony setting and has the 2 of my other retirees. I just wanted to keep them in visiting distance and in excellent care.

I think I'm going to try the foster and I really like your suggestions MammaSheepdog and skysthelimit. I think I'm going try out Mamma's idea and go from there as far as culling goes. The weather has been nice here. Hopefully the buck I want to breed her to will be able to breed!

 

[grumpy]

You may be continuing a problem...But then again, you may not. It depends on the purpose of the doe to begin with. For a meat producer, she'd have been gone a long time ago.

Purely a personal call on your part. Did she have a "previous" owner and did she save only one out of five litters?

grumpy.

 

[Peach]

She was actually traded as a junior for a dwarf hotot at nationals to the person I bought her from so I know she had no previous litters before hand. The breeder also kept the one baby that survived. So far, the almost 4 week olds look very promising. So her quality might be the same,if not better than her. She's taken home BOVs and BOBs. Only time will tell. I like to keep a booklet of my observations with each doe and litter and note it on the pedigree.

 

[skysthelimit]

Sounds like the doe I just culled. She was shown a lot, then sold and for some reason, never bred. I got her at 2 1/2, and only got one live kit from her, which died last month. After five tries, I culled her, and you would not believe the amount of fat inside of her body.

From the rest of your story, if she was just bred at two, she probably has a lot of fat around her ovaries, something I have always been told and can now personally attest to that fact. I hope you do get something out of her. Give her as many tries as you can stand. Mine's got pregnant, and kindled, but only 1 live out of the 6 kits she had.

 

[Disney]

If she is fat, you should try exercising her daily and maybe give her less pellets, let her 'work' her body to get in good shape and then try breeding her again.

My does are in a colony pen, they move around a lot and got a nice lean body with big live healthy litters.
Honestly i never experience any of these problems, from my countless breedings over the years i only had 1 stillborn out of them all.

 

[skysthelimit]

If she is fat, you should try exercising her daily and maybe give her less pellets, let her 'work' her body to get in good shape and then try breeding her again.

My does are in a colony pen, they move around a lot and got a nice lean body with big live healthy litters.
Honestly i never experience any of these problems, from my countless breedings over the years i only had 1 stillborn out of them all.

Even if she is overweight (but probably not as a show doe has a weight requirement), once that fat starts packing around the ovaries, it's not going away. My doe met the weight limit, at the higher end, but the fat accumulates as females get older, and even if they don't "look" overweight, it's still there around those ovaries.

 

[Peach]

She was 1/4 over her weight limit at the last show so I've been managing her food intake,minus with the kits. I free feed when they are on litters since they eat from the bowl too. Her kits are already eating pellets.She also get time out in the play pen much longer than everyone else to help manage her weight. I've just been on vacation for a week and it was a downpour the week before so now play time I tipped their nestbox around 2 weeks because they were so fat with milk (I noticed as the litter died slowly, they just weren't drinking milk. They also seemed like they were lacking in some ways.Only the 3 survivors were big,healthy, and plump. The others were just inferior) I've noticed my Mini Lop does don't produce well after 2yrs old. Around 2 1/2 I've noticed that the litters seem to have still borns more often. I have yet to really breed anything younger because the does are all that are for sale at the time.I can't complain with the quality I receive. I haven't really had a problem with nest building or caring for the litters.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I thought that the issue with overweight does is that they had trouble with conception, not raising their litters.

 

[skysthelimit]

I thought that the issue with overweight does is that they had trouble with conception, not raising their litters.

Now. I'm confused, I thought maybe she was having a lot of stillborn, and a few that lingered on but didn't survive. But if she's got kits past a few days old and they slowly are dying off, that does not seem right. I have does that are three producing litters of nine and weaning them.