They will start eating solid food around 3 wks. They start to snitch mom's food then.
It is not unheard of for a mother to wean a large litter at 3 wks.,especially if her nipples are sore or there are other problems. Ifshe's aggressive towards the kits (if they are in danger) and they areeating all solid food, you may want to separate them from mom at thattime. But leave all the kits together until eight or nine weeks unlessthey start picking on each other.
Early separation from the doe is not usually recommended. The onlyreason I mention it here is because this summer I had a doe that weanedvery early because the babies were biting and she was pretty sore. Shewas starting to trample the active young kits and it was hard for herto compete for food, so I separated her from the kits at five weeks.They all did fine.
Not something I'd do again unless it looked like there were problems.
Anyway, their eyes open at about 10 days. They begin coming out of thebox around 2 or 3 wks., and will sample solid foodthen.Sexual maturitybegins at 12 wks. so be sure toseparate boys from girls before then! I recently discovered that4-wk-old kits (boy or girl)will mount their siblings ofeither sex, which shocked me! But they can't "do" anything until 12wks. or so, so don't be alarmed.
If she's doing a good job, don't worry. You don't need to do much. Shewill wean on her own and pretty much do all the work.
Justkeep an eye on things and see that she has plenty to eat and drink.Nursing does consume huge amounts of water.
Rose
