Stomach Movement *Video*

[Bunnylady]

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.

 

[AmberLops]

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?

 

[Bunnylady]

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?

 

[B&B Happy goats]

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 ...

 

[AmberLops]

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!

 

[Bunnylady]

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.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

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

 

[B&B Happy goats]

@Bunnylady can they abort at will ?

 

[Buttercup]

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

 

[Buttercup]

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....