Are My Does Pregnant?

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Are there any good indicators that a doe is pregnant other than her getting larger? I breed mine last week, and the suspense of knowing is driving me nuts.
 

lilhill

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Sorry, posted and neglected to see "rabbits." I'm not a rabbit person, so hopefully somebody on here can help you there.
 

trestlecreek

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Not really! Some people palpitate and have good luck.
With it just being 30 days, I hold my breath and assume it.....
 

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trestlecreek said:
Not really! Some people palpitate and have good luck.
With it just being 30 days, I hold my breath and assume it.....
I'm not a very patient person. 21 days for chicken eggs seems like an eternity sometimes, so 30 days will seem like an eternity and a quarter. lol

What does palpitate mean? Can you usually judge by their belly size in a few weeks if they are expecting?
 

()relics

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I would assume that your doe is expecting if you saw her and a buck "do the deed"...I would treat her as if she IS pregnant...Put the nest box in on the day you would usually...if the expected kindling date comes and goes with no kits..set up to breed her again and count it as a miss...I doubt you will be able to see her getting bigger durring her gestation period....The only way I know for sure any of mine are ever pregnant is they get grouchy and eat less a day or two before they kindle...
as far as palpating. It means you feel the does belly after 14 days after conception, the kits feel like very small marbles...I think that this process stress' the doe too much and stopped doing it several years ago; besides I was never sure anyway about what I felt....I use the "hands off and wait" method....JMO
 

trestlecreek

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Yes, you feel for "marbles" during different time periods through the pregnancy.
I'm not patient either, but after trying it a few times, I found it's not worth the stress. The rabbit hates it and you really can't tell much.
My son puts the doe into the "momma cage" at around 25 days and when he does this, he feels as he carries and makes his prediction, but that is as far as we go with that.
 

miss_thenorth

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I don't palpate either. I just make sure the buck "falls off " twice, and then I assume she is pregnant.

What's really helpful though is to write down the day they do the deed (that which I forgot to do last time I bread my one doe--so my nest box is going up earlyish)
 

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Well, I don't think they are pregnant. Today is day 30. I put the nesting boxes in Monday, and they haven't done anything in them except eat the hay. :hit I'm very dissappointed. It feels like having a clutch of eggs not hatch. Seeing as it is October and I am in Ohio, it's probably not a good idea to try and breed them again right now. I guess I will have to wait until it gets closer to Spring. It seems odd that neither one of the two was succesful. I would have thought at least one of them would have had babies. :dunno
 

()relics

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Oh well...soon you will be a professional...Now you know what you have to do? Change your signature line from breeding pair to "just friend" pair....Sorry
 

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()relics said:
Oh well...soon you will be a professional...Now you know what you have to do? Change your signature line from breeding pair to "just friend" pair....Sorry
LOL. That would be a much more accurate statement at this point.
 
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