Well....you can palpate the belly after a few weeks and feel some individual "marbles" in there. Chances are if she's old enough and was with a buck, she's bred. Put a nesting box with hay in there around day 27. She will pull hair for the nest a day or 2 before she has babies. My 2 does just delivered.
From where I sit they are raising doe rabbits. Just be patient and look for the doe pulling fur and making a nest. The gestation period for a doe is 31 days so you won't have long to wait....Topside
ok, we have put the nesting box in already (it is day 20ish) bc of the wind and cold. another question should I do that in the future ( put the nesting boxes in)? and I rise both goats and rabbits but I'm talking about my rabbits.
Nest box placement depends on the rabbit. I had one that built a nest one week after breeding. Some does will use the nest box a litterpan if it is put in too early. If your doe is not peeing in the nest box and is nesting in it then you put it in at the right time.
Hay or straw? Rabbits eat hay, straw is most often used for nesting material. But rabbits eat straw too. So yes, it is normal for a pregnant doe to eat a lot of hay. Have you increased her food ration any?
OMG!!! You guys will NOT believe this! My doe deliver sometime in the last hour and she has 9 babies! Yes, 9! We had to bring them inside because they were cold and since it's below freezing and it's her first time we are going to keep her in here till it warms up 😁. as of right now all 9 are warm and kicking😁.
That's great, congrats! There was a lady who breeds meat rabbits I follow on Facebook and one of her does had 15. Luckily she was able to split some to another mother who had far fewer.
The mom doesn't stay on them and keep them warm. She makes a nest and the babies snuggle together to keep warm. She feeds the babies twice a day and ignores them the rest of the time.
Did the doe make a nest in the nest box? Did she pull fur to fill the nest box? Did she cover the babies with fur? Are you disturbing the nest by constantly checking the babies?
she made a nest, pulled some fur (not a lot though) when we went out to their cage there was 3 or 4 near the front and then the rest near the back mom was in the middle. I was concerned that they weren't in a ball like you said. I think we did stress her out moving her. Once kits and mom were reunited inside she moved them back to that position. I learned lots of good lessons this time that I will be able to use latter
Are you using a nest box? Sometimes the kits hang on when the doe is done nursing and they get pulled out when she jumps out. In their wild state, rabbits dig burrows and kits are born in the underground burrows. The kits don't have enough strength to crawl out of the burrows until about the time they open their eyes.
Just wanted to let you guys know that the first litter all died, but she has another now who is 1 week old!! Also, we have some 5-week olds from another momma. 😁 I'm so happy!
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