My adventures in rabbit breeding

[balloonflower]

Day 32. Still no sign of fur pulling, though the nestbox looks good otherwise. I check on her, and she just looks back before begging for more food.

But I have taken advantage of our nice weather to get the kindling cage done so I thought I'd show off. It's a bit longer than was necessary, but I went with the 48" so that I can add more stacked and split them into paired 24x24 cages for grow-out.

 

[DutchBunny03]

Day 32. Still no sign of fur pulling, though the nestbox looks good otherwise. I check on her, and she just looks back before begging for more food.

But I have taken advantage of our nice weather to get the kindling cage done so I thought I'd show off. It's a bit longer than was necessary, but I went with the 48" so that I can add more stacked and split them into paired 24x24 cages for grow-out.

That's are really nice kindling cage! Don't worry, she will probably kindle within the next couple days.

 

[balloonflower]

Day 33 and still nothing but a hungry bunny. Apple girl is gonna drive me nuts! But I keep trying to tell myself that I'm really not that overdue from what I've learned of silver foxes.

Now I'm making soups for the cold week coming and had carrot ends and peels and celery trimmings for the buns. But, I only gave Apple a few peels, figuring that I didn't want to bug her system. Is that right?

 

[balloonflower]

Today is day 35 with nothing to show, so I'm kinda taking this round of nesting as a false alarm. Now, from what I've learned, I would normally rebreed Apple right away. But, she was bred a second time 12 days after the first oopsie. That puts the 28 day mark for that one at next Monday. So, I'm thinking just hold tight and leave her nest box in until then? She has shown no signs of pooping in it, and still adds a bit of hay here and there.

 

[Bunnylady]

IME, If a doe is still adding nest material to the nest, she thinks she is pregnant. While I have seen does add fur up to a week postpartum, the hay gathering generally stops once the babies are born. If there's a decent chance that your doe is still pregnant, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, particularly since she doesn't seem to be soiling the box.

While there are a range of behaviors that one might expect to see with a pregnant doe, until you have experience with a particular doe, you can't be sure what she will do. I have had lots of does that started nest making a week or more before their due date; giving a doe a handful of hay and watching to see what she does with it is one of my favorite ways of figuring out who needs a nestbox when. On the opposite end of the spectrum have been a few does that do absolutely no preparation until just minutes before the kits start to arrive, but you kinda have to know she does that to know what it means when she does that . . .

As I said, nearly all of my live litters have been born on day 31-32. I had one doe that always gave birth on day 30; that was just her way of doing things. I have had a handful of really large litters (12 to 14 kits) that were born on day 28, and one surviving litter that was born on day 27. In my rabbitry, 28 days is the exception rather than the rule - so much so, that I really only make sure that the does have a box before then on the outside chance, but if babies arrive before day 31 I am very much surprised. Which I guess is a roundabout way of saying that if you think your doe might still be pregnant, I would wait at least until what would be day 31 or 32 to pull the box.

 

[BantamLover21]

Today is day 35 with nothing to show, so I'm kinda taking this round of nesting as a false alarm. Now, from what I've learned, I would normally rebreed Apple right away. But, she was bred a second time 12 days after the first oopsie. That puts the 28 day mark for that one at next Monday. So, I'm thinking just hold tight and leave her nest box in until then? She has shown no signs of pooping in it, and still adds a bit of hay here and there.

While some does do deliver after day 35, I would probably assume that she didn't take on the first breeding. However, I would keep the nest box in until Day 35 of the second possible breeding date.

Most of my does deliver from day 30-32. I did have one doe go to day 36, but that was a strange case and I actually ended up inducing her into labor with Oxytocin--for some reason, the birthing process just didn't start on its own, and the kits inside of her began dying. While nest building does often mean a doe is pregnant, that isn't always true. Just recently, I bred a Mini Rex and she built a nest at day 31, but never had any kits (I then rebred her, and she has a healthy litter of six right now).

 

[balloonflower]

So, you're saying wait til we're past the second date as I was thinking? My homework on sf's is that 31-33 is average for the breed. I'm mostly positive she is pregnant--the second breeding 12 days after the first had four successful "falloffs", so it was just a question of first oopsie that I interrupted (which we're 35 days) or that second where we put her in w the buck to see if she growled at him. I haven't bothered her to pull her out and weigh her this week. This is all very interesting for me--her first time, my first time. At some point we'll get it all figured out.

The other question I have would be about the larger cage I just finished. Could I move her now, or am I still better off leaving her in her smaller one that she's used to and avoid unnecessary stress.

 

[FoodFreedomNow]

X2 on the recommendations to wait until the 35th day after the second breeding date before "calling" it as false pregnancy. My SF doe that kindled in Nov was a first-timer and went 33 days (the poor girl had a huge stillborn kit that may have held up the birth of the other kits).

I try to avoid changing the expectant doe's environment close to kindling time, but it sounds like she's at least a full week out, so you could try it and see how she reacts...if she seems stressed, you could put her back in her old digs.

Hoping the second time's "the charm" for your doe.

 

[balloonflower]

Thanks again for the support and tips I get from here. It is truly appreciated!

 

[balloonflower]

Finally! Woke this morn to a nestbox full of fur. Mama Apple did great there. There were four kits in the front of the box that didn't make it, but I also have 4 that were where they should be buried under fur who seem wiggly, fat and healthy. So, I'm taking this as a very successful first time kindling, even though I'm feeling bad about not checking during the night. I don't think two of the four lost were viable--not peanuts, but looked as if they wouldn't have made it if they weren't stillborn. It was probably in the 30s in the garage, so I wasn't too concerned but will probably keep closer watch next time now that I know when to expect.

When is it best to get some weights on the kits? This morn, I removed the nestbox from the cage entirely to get rid of the messy hay, and only had the live kits out long enough to count and ensure they had been fed. Apple didn't seem to mind me pulling the box out and then replacing it.