# preggo doe- day 28, belly moved? quick Q about fur pulling



## ohiogoatgirl (Mar 14, 2012)

i noticed this morning while feeding that my dutch doe's belly has kinda "dropped". as in its 

still her usual baby belly but it seems to almost like it had moved from looking like it was 

glued to her spine/rib area to now setting in the bottom of her belly. she seems kinda sunken 

in below her spine now, and then there is her baby belly.

today is day 28 for her. march 21st is her day 35. i was sure to write it down on my calendar 

when i bred her. now i know that with goats there belly will drop or move bit before they kid. 

anywhere from a week to a few hours before they kid. and you can feel the ligaments in there 

hip/tail area to see if they are getting any closer. and the mom's will usually start talkin 

talkin talkin at their own belly.

anyone ever noticed anythin like this with rabbits? i'm wondering because this is the things i 

see first since i already look for it with other animals. 

also i was feelin her belly. i have not been able to note anything until today that i felt that 

i thought was a kit. well today i was pokin as usual but then i stopped and just held her 

belly. and i felt 3 or 4 seperate kicks on my hands so now i am 

fairly confident that she has some in there. haha.    

now about hair pulling...

the weather is totally whacked this year. it has been about 25* to 45*F in february/march with 

a few days reaching about 60*F. the past few days it has been 60*F, 65*F,... and today it was 

44*F at about 8:30AM but it was about to hit 60*F already at about 10AM. 

so i am wondering if weather/temps have any role in the doe's fur pulling. do they tend to pull 

less in hot weather? if it gets warm fast will they not pull any fur? etc...

so far this doe has only pulled a few small tufts of fur. i realize that they tend to pull 

anywhere from a week before up until as they are actually kindling. plus i have plenty of 

different materials that i could add to the nest should the temps drop and she not pull much. 

so i'm not worrying about it yet.

sorry for the essay 

thanks!!


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## DianeS (Mar 15, 2012)

I have not seen any of the pregnancy changes that you're talking about with my own rabbits. The only symptoms I've ever seen are carrying hay/straw around in their mouths, building a nest immediately prior to kindling (which may or may not include pulling hair, sometimes that happens after kindling), and some of my does won't eat a meal if it's offered too close to the time they chose to kindle. 

Rabbits pull hair when they feel like pulling hair. I've had some pull a few hours before, some I don't think did so until after. Someone else on this board once had a rabbit pull hair for a solid week before kindling - poor bald rabbit!

But mostly when a doe is due I just give her a lot of extra hay/straw, and a nestbox. She fills the box when she wants to, and pulls fur when she wants to. With mine, I can check once and there is an unorganized pile of hay, and two hours later there is a beautiful nest with clean kits in it and a bunch of fur. Birthing is QUICK with rabbits. 

I have not seen a seasonal difference in the amount of hair pulled. When it's cold, kits will move down in the nest, and when it's hot they'll move higher in the nest. They regulate their own temperatures that way, since its warmer deep in the nest and obviously cooler on top. You should always make sure the kits have plenty of fur-like material to burrow in, and then leave it up to them as to how deep to go in it.

So with rabbits, just sit back and see what happens. Each doe has her own personality. You should have a fun story to post in a couple days, all about how quickly the nest appeared and you not realizing kits were in it until they moved.


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