get off me

[magic_girl]

hi

my doe has 3 kits there 4 week's old friday they will be 5 weeks old she try's to mount them like a buck would a doe.:? there eatting on there own and drinking too i think she might hurt them but are they still to young to take away from there mom why is the mom acting like this. i never seen a doe do this before.

 

[aurora369]

She's making sure they know who's dominate. She may also be wanting to mate again.

One of my foster mom's did that to her babies. She would mount each baby once, maybe twice, every play time. She wasn't aggressive about it, just a friendly reminder that mom was the boss. There was no fur pulling, and the babies didn't seem upset by it, they would just sit there until she was done. Then once all the reminders where handed out, she would go back to the cage.

If you think she's going to harm them, it be able advisable to remove the babies from the cage and only bring them back for feeding. You can wean them a bit early around 5-6 weeks. Just be very careful with their diet and stress levels. Make sure all the siblings stay together until they are 8-10 weeks old (I would leave them together for 10 due to the stress of early weaning).

I am sure more experienced breeders will have some excellent advice for you soon.

--Dawn

 

[TinysMom]

Sounds like she is wanting to mate again - and I've heard of does even killing their male kits if the kit refuses to mate with them.

When this happens, I do take the litter away from the doe and then bring them to her once or twice a day to see if she wants to nurse them....

I have also been known to breed the doe (if she's in really good condition) and then let her go back with her litter for a week or so and then take them away when they're a bit earlier.

I don't like breeding the doe at that age - but I did this with Girly Girl's litter before this - she was only fostering one baby - a buck - and she'd started attacking him at about 5 weeks of age. So I bred her...and she was fine - she just had her litter last week.

But I didn't like to breed my girls very often...

Peg

 

[MsBinky]

I'd do what Peg says.

I only had one experience with a litter but the doe just got so annoyed with the babies by the time they were 3-4 weeks that she was getting aggressive. I made her a shelf in her NIC condo so she could escape them and she loved that. Soon enough they figured how to get to her so I separated them and let her relax. I'd bring her back, let the babies feed, and take her out again. They were all fine.