Woo Hoo!!! Another litter born today!!! Pic added...

[amandainohio24]

I am so shocked! Our doe Flower (a Siamese Sable Lionhead) was bred to our tort buck Theodore (a Black Tort Lionhead). I had thought she had missed as she was not showing any signs of being pregnant and I cannot palpate due to issues with my hands. So I picked her up about an hour and a half ago to basically love on her and to give her some treats of Cheerios, I just happened to glace down and she was in the process of having a kit! I am happy to announce she delivered 4 nice looking babies. Since she just had them I do not want to mess with her too much so pictures will probably be taken tomorrow at some point. :cheer2:



Update:
Here is a picture of her lovely litter. Everyone is nice and plump , and she is keeping them nice and warm. I cannot wait until more fur starts coming in so I can tell their colors.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Sheesh, Amanda-

I know we encourage each other to check those kits right away... but let the poor girl give birth first at least! :lol:

All kidding aside, I'm glad you caught her in the act so could save the litter. What a surprise that must have been though!

Congratulations on the babies. Can't wait to see them.

 

[amandainohio24]

I must say, she is an awsome mom so I have complete faith she would have been fine had I not been with her. I just cannot believe she had her litter with me watching her (and almost having one on me was even more shocking!).

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Ah, so she was in her nestbox at the time?

I'd say I catch 80-90% of my does in the act of kindling. The most interesting was when I saw one delivering on the wire. The babies are born without an umbilical cord, and the placenta (and cord) comes after.

 

[amandainohio24]

Yes, she had been laying/sitting in it for a couple of days so I just assumed she was still just laying/sitting in it. We are lucky and have only had 1 doe kindle on the wire, she technically had 1 in her litter box, 1 on the wire, and 2 in her nest. Still not sure what that doe was thinking at the time.
I have not had any does kindle during the daytime besides this litter now. Our does seem to like the time between 3am and 6am the best. Sneaky little ladies seem to know that everyone sleeping during those hours.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Our does seem to like the time between 3am and 6am the best. Sneaky little ladies seem to know that everyone sleeping during those hours.

I guess they like their privacy! :lol:

When do you breed your does? I breed mine either first thing in the morning or in the afternoon/evening. The morning bred does kindle between about 7 and 9 a.m., and afternoon/evening does go between about 6 and 11 p.m. Of course there is some variation- sometimes they have them in the middle of the day and rarely I will find a litter when I do my morning check.

When I am expecting litters I am constantly going out to the BunnyBarn to check on them, poor things! So they don't have much chance of doing their thing in private around here.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Congrats on the new babies Amanda! That's a nice January surprise!

 

[amandainohio24]

Our does seem to like the time between 3am and 6am the best. Sneaky little ladies seem to know that everyone sleeping during those hours.

I guess they like their privacy! :lol:

When do you breed your does? I breed mine either first thing in the morning or in the afternoon/evening. The morning bred does kindle between about 7 and 9 a.m., and afternoon/evening does go between about 6 and 11 p.m. Of course there is some variation- sometimes they have them in the middle of the day and rarely I will find a litter when I do my morning check.

When I am expecting litters I am constantly going out to the BunnyBarn to check on them, poor things! So they don't have much chance of doing their thing in private around here.

I typically do our breedings in the late afternoon or early evening. Mine sure do seem like they like their privacy. I do tend to check on them almost every hour when they are due up until I get tired and need to go to sleep.

__________ Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:23 pm __________

Congrats on the new babies Amanda! That's a nice January surprise!

We have 1 more doe due on Wednesday but that will be our last litter for awhile. We have our Lionhead nationals coming up in May so we will be getting everyone ready for then. In December we had 4 litters so it is like a baby explosion has gone off here right now, lol.<br /><br />__________ Sun Jan 12, 2014 6:49 pm __________<br /><br />She is doing a marvelous job with her litter. Everyone is nice and plump too.

 

[JessicaR]

Congrats on the litter!!
I just bred my tort doe on Saturday, hopefully she took this time. She was lifting so high my buck had a hard time mounting her :lol:

 

[amandainohio24]

Congrats on the litter!!
I just bred my tort doe on Saturday, hopefully she took this time. She was lifting so high my buck had a hard time mounting her :lol:

We have some that do that too, lol. I am just glad she had a normal sized litter compared to my litters of 7. We are up to 26 babies at the moment with another due in 2 days if she took.

 

[KKRabbitry]

Oh they are so cute!!
Do tell us when you know colors!

 

[amandainohio24]

Oh they are so cute!!
Do tell us when you know colors!

I sure will. They all looked great when I looked a little while ago too. She is a wonderful mother so I have no doubts they will continue to look great.<br /><br />__________ Tue Jan 14, 2014 7:07 pm __________<br /><br />I just did our nightly water/feed fill up and found that she has what looks like 3 torts and 1 blue.

On another note....our last doe that we had bred that was due tomorrow gave birth today again while my daughter was in the room with them. She did not even realize anything had been happening, lol. Our PW Lionhead Princess had 4 (1 DOA) with our PW Lionhead buck Prince. The DOA was a tiny little thing, kind of elongated looking. She is doing great with the 3 remaining babies though. This is her 1st litter with us so I am very excited about this litter. I cannot wait to see how they turn out. The breeder we got her from said her normal litter size was 2-3 per litter.