A bit of a weaning quandry

[TinysMom]

Well, my Valentine's day litter was 8 weeks old on Thursday and I'm getting ready to remove mama. BUT....here is my quandry.

Mama is still nursing - all 8 babies. I hate to take them all from her at once.

I thought about removing the three bucks and leaving her with the does (so she won't get pregnant) but - one of the bucks - Taylor - along with a doe Peanut - could really use a bit more time with mama.

So the options I see myself having are:

• Move mama and the boys out and let mama stay with the boys for 2-3 days and then move her out alone and have her milk dry up
• Move two of the boys to one cage and Mama and Peanut (a girl) and Taylor (a boy) to another cage and let her nurse them for a few more days
• Move all three boys out and let mama stay with the girls....but she may continue to nurse them.

Ohana nursed myLoki's Lily up until the day Lily left for her new home - and that was like 3 months. I remember that because the two girls were living together and I walked out to the rabbitry and was shocked to find Lily (almost as big as her mama) - nursing off her mama.

I know some does will nurse a long time and love to stay with their babies....I just hate to remove Mochi right now since she doesn't seem to want to leave them.

Thoughts and comments?

I hope to do something by tomorrow at the latest....

 

[RAL Rabbitry]

I would move Mochi, Peanut and Taylor to another cage and let her nurse

them for a bit longer. I wouldn't worry too much about her being with one

of her sons for another couple of weeks anyway.

Roger

 

[TinysMom]

Thanks Roger - I really hadn't thought of that until I was typing up the post....

The thing is.....I once had a doe who had her litter with her till like 9 or 9 1/2 weeks....when I was newly breeding. She didn't seem to want to let them go.

Imagine my surprise when 31 days later she had a litter....

There were no bucks on either side of her....she had not been around any bucks.

She was black - the litter were torts and in her last litter - she'd had a tort buck (I didn't know she'd carried the genes for that). The only thing I could figure out was that her buck matured VERY VERY early and got her pregnant.

She had them exactly 31 days after I moved the litter out too.....

So now I'm very very careful.

 

[RAL Rabbitry]

It sounds like the little guy we are talking about is not as mature as a

typical 8 week old though.

Roger

 

[Jenson]

My Lionhead girl Milly is the same, I think she'd nurse forever if she could. Maybe Lionheads just like being mama's? I usually take the biggest half of the litter out and leave the smaller ones for a little bit longer.

I have a buck right now who matured very fast, he started humping mama at 9 weeks, but I think you can tell when they start to get buckish. Mine certainly makes it pretty obvious when he sprays all over my shoes! :grumpy:

 

[TinysMom]

We moved Mochi today along with the two smallest ones - Peanut and Taylor. The bigger babies don't really know what to do right now....they're looking at me like, "Where's mom?"......but I know they're old enough to do ok.

Now they will live without her for a week (since they're only a little over 8 weeks old)....and then I'll take them to be rehomed. However, I try to make sure they go a week without mama to make sure they're ok before I let them go.