PALPATION
Checking for pregnancies in rabbits by feeling the stomach
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| palpating a rabbit |
Palpation is possible from 10 days and onwards after mating. Place the doe facing you on a table, a bench or the floor. Put both hands on the sides and a little under the belly, gently pressing them towards each other and upwards. Of course, you can feel a lot in the belly. Amongst others, right behind the left ribs you can feel the liver; all the way up in the abdomen on both sides and just under the spine, halfway back you will feel the kidneys.
You may also feel the small fecal pellets and the guts. If she is pregnant after two weeks, you will start to feel hard things like marbles, also in the upper side of the abdomen. These become progressively larger until you might even be able to feel the form of an embryo.
Do not worry if you cannot feel all these things at first. After some practice, you will be able to identify the embryos with little effort. If this sounds too difficult, it is also possible to check for pregnancy by putting the doe with the buck again 12 days after mating. If she refuses, the first mating has almost certainly worked out well. If she is willing again, the buck can repeat his work. This method has the very small risk that an already pregnant doe gets mated again with the possibility of starting another pregnancy halfway through the first. This super-pregnancy occurs occasionally.
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