# Stomach Movement *Video*



## Buttercup (Apr 10, 2019)

can anyone tell me if this looks like baby movement or digestion? 
Thanks!


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## B&B Happy goats (Apr 10, 2019)

My guess...kits are on their way


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## AmberLops (Apr 10, 2019)

It looks like babies to me!! Congrats


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## Buttercup (Apr 10, 2019)

I have no idea when so I’m watching her everyday! Thanks for the replies.


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## AmberLops (Apr 10, 2019)

Buttercup said:


> I have no idea when so I’m watching her everyday! Thanks for the replies.


Did you breed her? Or did you recently get her and you're not sure?


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## Buttercup (Apr 10, 2019)

I got a mom and her baby when baby was 8 weeks. I kept them together knowing it would happen eventually and when it did I’m gonna have him neutered. I keep a very close eye on her so I can take him out... but they still love on each other constantly.


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## Buttercup (Apr 26, 2019)

I separated them except when I’m with them... still no babies! Any clue how far she would be for that much movement?


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## AmberLops (Apr 26, 2019)

Usually at around 2 weeks after being bred is when you can see the movement...so i'm not sure. It could be any day now if she is pregnant


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## Buttercup (Apr 26, 2019)

AmberLops said:


> Usually at around 2 weeks after being bred is when you can see the movement...so i'm not sure. It could be any day now if she is pregnant


It’s driving me nuts! Thank you


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## B&B Happy goats (Apr 26, 2019)

Don't  let it drive you crazy, i had one kindle on day 35, just leave her alone and she will have her kits


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## AmberLops (Apr 26, 2019)

Buttercup said:


> It’s driving me nuts! Thank you


Just be patient! It'll happen


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## Buttercup (May 5, 2019)

Started to wonder if those were actually pregnant movements... taken on the 9th of April... still no babies


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## B&B Happy goats (May 5, 2019)

Have you gone past 35 days yet ?


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## Buttercup (May 5, 2019)

B&B Happy goats said:


> Have you gone past 35 days yet ?


Not sure, she was with  8 week old buck till he was 15 weeks.... so I’m in the dark


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## B&B Happy goats (May 5, 2019)

Is she any bigger?


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## Buttercup (May 5, 2019)

I feel like she is... also flopping more.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 5, 2019)

Sounds like one of thoes situations you just have to wait out...if she is pregnant,  she should go really soon


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## Buttercup (May 7, 2019)

It’s hard to believe that all that movement might not be babies.... but on the 9th it will be 30 days since I took that video! So even if she went 35 days, that would mean she was only 8 days there... could movement be seen that early?


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## Buttercup (May 7, 2019)




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## B&B Happy goats (May 7, 2019)

@AmberLops .....help, i have no answer


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## Bunnylady (May 7, 2019)

Buttercup said:


> could movement be seen that early?



No. In fact, you are unlikely to see movement at all. When a baby rabbit is born, it is only as long as your thumb, with  paws half the diameter of a pencil. You know how fast they grow after they are born; they grow at a similar pace before birth, too. A fetus just one week before birth is only about half the size it will be when it is born; roughly the size of a newborn rat. Any movement from something that small would look like a pencil pushing against the mother's skin, and would be quick and jerky. Clearly, what you have on video is peristaltic movement.


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## AmberLops (May 7, 2019)

That new video definitely looks like she is pregnant...there's no way that's just digestion.
About movement being seen that early...I've had that happen for the first time last month when my doe had movement 10 days after being bred. She ended up aborting her babies at 20 days pregnant though and the babies looked full term so I don't know what happened but I have the one baby who survived that ordeal.
So I do believe movement can be seen that early but it's not normal.
I can't remember who said this, but someone on here said if you put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the nest box, the doe will kindle in a few hours. But not knowing exactly how many days pregnant your doe is makes that difficult! Give it a few more days though, she looks huge and what's moving around in her looks big so I would say she's ready to kindle soon. Did she make a nest?


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## Bunnylady (May 7, 2019)

AmberLops said:


> She ended up aborting her babies at 20 days pregnant though and the babies looked full term so I don't know what happened but I have the one baby who survived that ordeal.



I don't know what happened, either, but if_ any_ of the babies survived, that doe must have somehow gotten bred before you thought, since babies of only 20 days' gestation do not look anything like full-term, and cannot survive.

Think about it - when people palpate a rabbit, they do it at 10-14 days' gestation, and what they are looking for feel like grapes. That's because at that stage, the fetus is floating around in a pocket of fluid inside the fetal membranes (which is also why you can palpate without harming the fetuses). How are you going to see movement from a tadpole inside a fluid-filled ball?


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## B&B Happy goats (May 7, 2019)

AmberLops said:


> That new video definitely looks like she is pregnant...there's no way that's just digestion.
> About movement being seen that early...I've had that happen for the first time last month when my doe had movement 10 days after being bred. She ended up aborting her babies at 20 days pregnant though and the babies looked full term so I don't know what happened but I have the one baby who survived that ordeal.
> So I do believe movement can be seen that early but it's not normal.
> I can't remember who said this, but someone on here said if you put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the nest box, the doe will kindle in a few hours. But not knowing exactly how many days pregnant your doe is makes that difficult! Give it a few more days though, she looks huge and what's moving around in her looks big so I would say she's ready to kindle soon. Did she make a nest?



@GypsyG  said lavender  oil , I believe ...


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## AmberLops (May 7, 2019)

Bunnylady said:


> I don't know what happened, either, but if_ any_ of the babies survived, that doe must have somehow gotten bred before you thought, since babies of only 20 days' gestation do not look anything like full-term, and cannot survive.


Well I had her 2 months before that happened and I did not breed her the first month.
There is no way she was pregnant when I got her! Or else she'd have to be 50 days pregnant...which isn't possible!


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## Bunnylady (May 7, 2019)

AmberLops said:


> Well I had her 2 months before that happened and I did not breed her the first month.
> There is no way she was pregnant when I got her! Or else she'd have to be 50 days pregnant...which isn't possible!



Actually, it is . . . .

One of the weird tricks that rabbits can do is called "delayed implantation." A doe's eggs get fertilized, but don't implant and don't develop, and just float around until conditions get better, or whatever, at which point they do implant, and develop at the normal rate. The longest documented case of delayed implantation is something in the neighborhood of 6 months (source - Rabbit Production) . When I read that, my first thought was, "if we use more than one buck, how can we ever be sure about 'who's the daddy?!'" 

We had someone posting here a few years ago, that had a doe that apparently managed to give birth to a few kits once a month for something like 3 months after being bred (we have only the poster's word for this, and while I freely admit it could have been an elaborate leg-pull, keeping it up for 6 months or more seems like an awful lot of effort on the poster's part). Not sure I believe it, just throwing it out there.

Also, if your doe was housed in a cage beside a buck, there is always the possibility of breeding through the wire. I don't know how they do it, but it happens; as someone likes to say, "nature finds a way."

But I have seen aborted fetuses of what I knew were 20 -22 days' gestation. They are thin-skinned, red, clearly and unmistakably fetuses, and simply not developed enough to survive. The earliest "preemies" that I have had survive were about 27 days' gestation, and they were clearly not _quite_ full term as far as development.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 7, 2019)

Now i have to worry about delayed implantation ?  Rabbits sure are pretty creative critters !


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## B&B Happy goats (May 7, 2019)

@Bunnylady  can they abort at will ?


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## Buttercup (May 7, 2019)

Bunnylady said:


> No. In fact, you are unlikely to see movement at all. When a baby rabbit is born, it is only as long as your thumb, with  paws half the diameter of a pencil. You know how fast they grow after they are born; they grow at a similar pace before birth, too. A fetus just one week before birth is only about half the size it will be when it is born; roughly the size of a newborn rat. Any movement from something that small would look like a pencil pushing against the mother's skin, and would be quick and jerky. Clearly, what you have on video is peristaltic movement.


Is this something to be worried about?  Thanks


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## Buttercup (May 7, 2019)

AmberLops said:


> That new video definitely looks like she is pregnant...there's no way that's just digestion.
> About movement being seen that early...I've had that happen for the first time last month when my doe had movement 10 days after being bred. She ended up aborting her babies at 20 days pregnant though and the babies looked full term so I don't know what happened but I have the one baby who survived that ordeal.
> So I do believe movement can be seen that early but it's not normal.
> I can't remember who said this, but someone on here said if you put a few drops of lavender essential oil on the nest box, the doe will kindle in a few hours. But not knowing exactly how many days pregnant your doe is makes that difficult! Give it a few more days though, she looks huge and what's moving around in her looks big so I would say she's ready to kindle soon. Did she make a nest?


She didn’t make a nest... I put a box in and keep giving her extra hay. She did tear up her fleece though....


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## AmberLops (May 7, 2019)

Bunnylady said:


> Actually, it is . . . .
> 
> One of the weird tricks that rabbits can do is called "delayed implantation." A doe's eggs get fertilized, but don't implant and don't develop, and just float around until conditions get better, or whatever, at which point they do implant, and develop at the normal rate. The longest documented case of delayed implantation is something in the neighborhood of 6 months (source - Rabbit Production) . When I read that, my first thought was, "if we use more than one buck, how can we ever be sure about 'who's the daddy?!'"
> 
> ...


Well....I contacted the breeder I got her from because she was making a nest the night I brought her home and the breeder had sold her last male over a month before I got the doe...she said there was absolutely no chance.
And when I went to pick out my does I asked if she had any bucks for sale and she had none...
So I don't know but that would make months of keeping those babies inside! It's a very interesting thought!


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## AmberLops (May 7, 2019)

Oh and I don't have my buck next to my doe...he's in another room!


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## Bunnylady (May 7, 2019)

B&B Happy goats said:


> @Bunnylady  can they abort at will ?



Not really. The few cases of spontaneous abortion that I have witnessed have been the result of a serious stress - an injury, or ( as in one case) getting moved from one rabbitry to another via an hours-long car ride; that kind of thing. Rabbits that are experiencing long-term stresses like starvation can absorb their litters, but I don't know just how far into a pregnancy that remains a viable option for the doe.


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## B&B Happy goats (May 7, 2019)

Bunnylady said:


> Not really. The few cases of spontaneous abortion that I have witnessed have been the result of a serious stress - an injury, or ( as in one case) getting moved from one rabbitry to another via an hours-long car ride; that kind of thing. Rabbits that are experiencing long-term stresses like starvation can absorb their litters, but I don't know just how far into a pregnancy that remains a viable option for the doe.



Thank you for answering my question,


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