doe building nest outside of her nestbox!

[kwilds]

My mini rex doe is due today. She started pulling fur yesterday but it was outside the nest box. She is in a wooden hutch with solid floors and bedded with pine shavings. Yesterday evening I put her little pile of fur into the nest box that is lined with fresh, clean hay.) This morning I could tell that she had been in it but no more fur pulling. When I checked on her a few minutes ago she had pulled her pile of fur back out of the box and was reconstructing her nest in a corner of her hutch! When I bred rabbits years ago for meat I had my two does in a large horse stall with a cement floor, bedded in shavings. I always let them build their own nests wherever they wanted (I usually had a few different cardboard boxes for them to use if they wanted too.) They did very well like that and I can't remember ever losing a baby that wasn't dead to start with (and very few of those too.)

Should I take her nest box out and just let her do her own thing? Should I try and move her nest back into the box or maybe leave the box in but let her decide if she wants it in there or outside it? My gut is saying to just let her decide where she wants her nest but I am concerned that she will make a habit of nesting outside her box and I plan to move her to a wire bottomed cage after this litter. Ifit became an issue I guess I could just keep her in the wooden hutch when she is due to have a litter and keep her in the wire cage when she is not pregnant!

This doe is2yrs oldand has hadseveral litters before but this is her first with me - I don't know what her habits were with her previous litters.

Karin

 

[bunnybunbunb]

I have two three week old litters that were raised in solid bottom hucthes. One I put up peices of wood for a small contained area, the other one had nothing. I only lost one baby and it had nothing to do with the nesting arangements. I perfer that the does use the solid bottom hutches without nest boxes, but that is me.

I would not worry, let her do her thing.