We have a kit in the colony!

[GBov]

After a very long time of not much of anything going on I noticed one of the totes had the hole to get in stuffed full of hay. I had a look and there was an empty nest inside but she had used nasty dirty hay so I took it out and put fresh in.

That was yesterday.

Today there is one nice fat little kit in a proper nest with a nice amount of fur pulled.

And she had stuffed the way in full of hay again.

Will she only visit it once or twice a day? And will that help it to not get over fed?

I will check again tomorrow for more kits so fingers crossed she gives us a few more. She is a large mini rex but the buck is a standard so this is looking like my only way to get anything like a standard rex in my neck of the woods right now. Real ones cost the earth :roll:

 

[Secuono]

Real rexes are MIA here.
Did she have more?

 

[GBov]

Real rexes are MIA here.
Did she have more?

Mini rex are thick on the ground here but Standards are real hard to find.

She only has the one but it is doing really well, fat but not over fat, if you know what I mean?

I have learned that plastic totes do NOT make good nest boxes in our climate, they get hot really fast and the humidity condenses really bad on the inside.

As soon as this one is big enough to not need the shelter of the nest box it (the tote) is coming out of there.

The pattern is really disappointing, all white with dark ears, a snip on its back and a butterfly on its nose. But we shall see how it develops, size wise. It might redeem itself that way.<br /><br />__________ Thu Jan 24, 2013 12:25 pm __________<br /><br />Just checked on it and boy oh boy, I am GLAD I DID!

With the cold snap the doe had packed the tote with the nastiest hay she could find so it was a stinking mildewed mess.

Took it all out, washed it out, drilled lots of one inch ventilation holes all round the top, put lots of fresh hay into the big cage, put the extra fur one of our other does had pulled that we kept back for this kind of thing and then put a little opthalmic ointment on one of its eyes that didnt look bad but did look a hint off and put it back.

I love she is such a good mother to have taken steps to keep her singleton warm but yuck!

 

[Truckinguy]

My doe had three kits a month ago and one got out of the nestbox and froze so I modified the nestbox so it was hard to get out. The two others survived fine even though it got to -26c here a couple of weeks ago at night. The doe also completely covered the entrance of the nestbox up each time she fed them.

My nestboxes are 3/4" plywood with cage wire bottom. Maybe plywood nest boxes would handle the moisture problem you're having and maybe insulate them a bit from the heat. Even in the cold temperatures we had here the two kits were snug and warm in the nest. I was concerned because it was just the two of them but they did just fine. Plywood might handle extremes in temperature better than plastic.

 

[GBov]

My doe had three kits a month ago and one got out of the nestbox and froze so I modified the nestbox so it was hard to get out. The two others survived fine even though it got to -26c here a couple of weeks ago at night. The doe also completely covered the entrance of the nestbox up each time she fed them.

My nestboxes are 3/4" plywood with cage wire bottom. Maybe plywood nest boxes would handle the moisture problem you're having and maybe insulate them a bit from the heat. Even in the cold temperatures we had here the two kits were snug and warm in the nest. I was concerned because it was just the two of them but they did just fine. Plywood might handle extremes in temperature better than plastic.

I drilled LOTS of one inch holes all around the top of the tote, about a hundred - well, my arm felt like it was a hundred :lol: - of em so the nest is now nice and dry.

Heat is always my problem but the deeper the litter gets around the tote the cooler it stays inside. The best ever reason not to clean a cage :lol: