Nest boxes

Like most everything else, we made our own nest boxes (or my dad did anyways), but he forgot the measurements I gave him for the door and ended up making them a bit to tall, so to get them in the cage, I have to turn them sideways - which means I can't take the nest box out of the cage to check on the kits but I have worked around that little snafu.  I just pull the box to the door of the cage and check on all the kits.  I forget the measurements of these boxes but will measure them soon.  The front is about 3 inches high, it keeps the little kits from crawling out but low enough for the doe to easily get in and out and the babies, when they are older, can easily get in and out of them.  The babies also like to sit on top of the boxes when they are older :)  They get a little stained but they are throughly cleaned when the babies are older and the box is removed and I change the bedding and clean out the box every week or more after the babies are born.  How often I change the bedding depends on how many kits there are and how old they are.  They make more of a mess the older they get and of course with a larger litter there is more feces and urine to be concerned about.  The picture above is a pic I just took of the empty nest boxes, but below is a picture of a nest box in use.  I put hay and shredded paper in the boxes and the does pull their hair to make the nest.

And a picture of momma Jeneva checking on her babies.  I also have a video of one of my does pulling hair, I will have to post that when I work on videos.