False Pregnancy?

[LizzyMayHarvey]

I bred my FG doe on the 12th of April and today is day 16 of her pregnancy. When she was bred there were 5 falloffs but the buck isn't mine and lives at another place so I didn't try again. Anyway, Today she has been haystaching, plucking LOADS of fur, ad building a nest. I know that this early in her pregnancy it probably means that it is a false pregnancy but is there any possible way that she could just be an early nester? Does her nesting really well mean she will be a good mama (something I am so worried about)? If it is a false pregnancy when should I rebreed her? Should I wait till her due date just in case? And can I palpate her? I have never palpated and am a little worried about hurting her or the babies (if there are any...), what is the best and correct way to palpate? I am DYING to know if she is pregnant or not! Sorry for all the questions and I really appreciate all answers!

-Lizzy

 

[Preitler]

Well, it could be a sign for a false pregnancy, but with 5 fall offs quite unlikely. I'm not a fan of palpating, I suck at it and can't tell anything conclusive early on and later most times it's obvious anyway, but I stopped trying years ago.
One way to get a hint if the doe is pregnant is putting a buck next to her cage (or with her if you have one you want to breed her with), pregnant does can get pretty vocal with a buck close by. I would wait with that until this nesting frenzy is over.

Once she loses interest in the nest, save the fur for the real thing. A nest building test run imho isn't a bad thing to happen.

 

[LizzyMayHarvey]

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate any and all help. So do you think she could be pregnant even with early nest building? Is it normal? I also thought 5 fall offs would do the trick but she is a first timer and the buck was also unproven and it is Autumn here if that makes any difference. I am defo gonna keep the fur. Do rabbits normally make their fur into cotton ball like clumps? I saw her biting the fur and sorta making it into balls then spitting it out. Super cute!
Thanks again!

 

[zuppa]

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate any and all help. So do you think she could be pregnant even with early nest building? Is it normal? I also thought 5 fall offs would do the trick but she is a first timer and the buck was also unproven and it is Autumn here if that makes any difference. I am defo gonna keep the fur. Do rabbits normally make their fur into cotton ball like clumps? I saw her biting the fur and sorta making it into balls then spitting it out. Super cute!
Thanks again!

No they don't do cotton balls. Nesting around day 17 is usually a sign of a phantom pregnancy, when a girl met a male and got an impression she could be pregnant, it can happen even if they never had sexual contact, she can get impressed by his scent, even if she was in his area and found some fresh markings there, she can start nesting. This usually lasts just a couple days and then she will lose interest in the nest, you can safely remove it. Given circumstances and that it will be her first litter (if she is indeed pregnant) it could be a sign of early nesting, but there's no point in leaving the nest until day 30, it will get soiled and she can start eating hay from it so will get fur into her stomach, it is best to remove and if you want to keep fur for a few weeks in case she won't be nesting before her real due date.

 

[LizzyMayHarvey]

Nesting around day 17 is usually a sign of a phantom pregnancy, when a girl met a male and got an impression she could be pregnant, it can happen even if they never had sexual contact, she can get impressed by his scent, even if she was in his area and found some fresh markings there, she can start nesting.

So she could she have a false pregnancy even if they actually mated? Also today (29/4) she has not eaten her pellets. I feed her 1/3 of a cup in the morning and a 1/4 or less in the evenings when i put her away and she normally gobbles them up while still eating lots of hay and greens through the day. But this morning she still had left over pellets from last night and only wanted to eat a few BOSS. She is still eating hay but just wondering if this another false pregnancy thing like how they go off their food when they are about to give birth or if it is possibly GI statis or something. She has never had GI statis and has been hopping around and acting her normal self so I'm thinking its something to so with her being pregnant? Sorry for asking all these questions, I'm just so excited for her litter (if she has one)! And thankyou for taking the time to answer them.

 

[zuppa]

It's not that easy. 5 fall-offs is a lot, but yes it can be a false pregnancy or she can be pregnant but can absorb fetuses, also happens sometimes. If she is pregnant her body is changing, she can be moody or can change her habits. If it is false pregnancy it's stress too, stress makes us more vulnerable, it can weaken our immune system. When Smokey had her phantom pregnancy first time she was very sick after that, honestly I thought she will die.
I see you are so excited about her having babies and looks like you are taking very good care of her, built her new place etc, why did you want to breed her? Are you planning on breeding her regularly? Have a plan what you will be doing with the babies?

 

[LizzyMayHarvey]

Thankyou for that info. So I suppose the best thing for her right now would be to keep her stress free and let her do her thing? She is still acting as normal as one can be while pregnant and shes a very relaxed bun that doesn't normlly stress easily.
I know people's concerns with breeding for the wrong reasons but I am trying my absolute hardest to do everything right. I have done tons of research and am still learning now. I have absolutely fallen in love with Flemish Giants because of their size and personality but most of the FG breeders in my city/region have small, Vienna marked rabbits that are super cute but I wouldn't want to buy or breed them. Although I am not a shower or I'm not really aiming for that side of things I am still trying to produce big, healthy, friendly, purebred Flemish Giants. I am planning on getting a couple litters out of her depending on if she's a good mum and maybe keep one of her babies to use it for breeding as well. The last thing I would want was to have one of my babies end up in a rescue or be called a "backyard breeder". I am confident that I will be able to sell all the babies and if there is any difficulty selling them at all then I will stop breeding and keep any unsold babies. I have been saving for awhile now so if anything goes wrong or I have to keep any bunnies then I can fully support them so my parents aren't bothered. They already have 7 kids and 8 pets to pay for so I don't want to chuck more on them. I also know that breeding rabbits is not a good way to make money so I don't care if I make no profit because if I did then it would all go back towards rabbit food or vet bills anyway. Thankyou for the concern though and I hope I am doing everything as good as can be done and I appreciate constructive criticism. All my animals are my babies and I love them to bits. One of our pet chickens passed yesterday and I never thought I would cry over a chicken but it's amazing how animals creep into your heart and leave with a piece of it when their gone.
Sorry for rambling but the one thing I could talk for ever about is animals.

 

[zuppa]

So I get you are going to use one of her babies for breeding, and I get you are going to breed her to her baby, since as you said there's no good FG's around. Please do some research about inbreeding, yes sometimes breeders can breed rabbits from the same line for getting specific qualities but remember they also keep only successful baby or two and will kill all others in most cases.

 

[LizzyMayHarvey]

Oh sorry. I think I worded that wrong. I was hoping to keep one of her daughters so I could have another breeding doe. There aren't many good FGs around within reasonable driving distance but I have found a breeder that I'm interested in talking to that has some beautiful Flemish buns but they are really quite far away. If possible I would like to get a buck from them as they use a PetBus and I'm keeping an eye out for a good buck somewhere. The buck I bred my girl with is very nice but the owners aren't breeding him yet because they cannot find a suitable purebred doe yet. I would not want to inbreed as I am not that experienced and wouldn't want to have those possible problems from that.