Female losing weight

Hi everyone, I know there are a lot of experienced breeders out there so I thought I would ask my question about weight loss during breeding. I have one female that was about 1480grams when I started pairing her (she has been refusing food since November). I have noticed that her body seems a lot more triangular recently and today when I went to look she looked lumpy. I have heard this happens sometimes before ovulation? My concern is I just weighed her and she is down like 250ish grams in weight. Is this something I should be concerned about or is this normal with breeding season? This is my first season breeding so may seem like a noobish question, but just want to make sure I take care of her. Here are a couple of pics from today.

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/s...5/IMG_4810.jpg

http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/s...5/IMG_4812.jpg

Thanks!

Alot of it depends on how empty she was when you weighed her. An adult can poop over 100 grams. So it could be she lost a bit and she was weighed with poop and now since she hasnt eaten in a while she is empty. I would go by how thick and solid she feels too. If she looks like she is loosing body mass then that is not good. Now after she lays she will look like a flat tire all streched out and will have lost considerable weight but other wise it is normal to flucuate a hundred+ grams depending on empty or full(when eating).

Hope this helps

Ok, so I looked at my records and she was at 1425 empty when I started pairing her. She was at 1180 today when I weighed her. I just offered her a small rat, but she showed absolutely no interest in it at all. She has passed very small amounts of urates and poop since November, but they were very small.

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Originally Posted by Lazarus09

Hi everyone, I know there are a lot of experienced breeders out there so I thought I would ask my question about weight loss during breeding. I have one female that was about 1480grams when I started pairing her (she has been refusing food since November). I have noticed that her body seems a lot more triangular recently and today when I went to look she looked lumpy. I have heard this happens sometimes before ovulation? My concern is I just weighed her and she is down like 250ish grams in weight. Is this something I should be concerned about or is this normal with breeding season? This is my first season breeding so may seem like a noobish question, but just want to make sure I take care of her. Here are a couple of pics from today.

Thanks!

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She should be fine. 250 grams is a little much for 6 months, but it is what it is. If she continues losing weight, then maybe this isn't the year to breed her. She could be stressed with the pairing and not mature enough to breed this year.

Good luck!
Jim Smith

Thanks. Any idea if the lumping in the pictures is a sign she might be about to ovulate? I know I ready about/saw that somewhere.

This is why I don't like breeding smaller girls. I do not like breeding girls that are under 2000 grams. A couple of meals can go a LONG way in a smaller girl. The way I see it.....better safe then sorry. In my opinion, 1425 is way to small. What happened to the 1500 gram rule, and why is everyone in such a hurry?

Patience grasshopper.......good things come to those who wait.

Jason

Not in a hurry. The reason I started pairing her is because she refused to eat for a while. Several breeders said it could be because she wanted to breed. I paired her and she was all over it. But thanks for judging my motives instead of actually addressing the questions I asked. I know I am new to this, and that's why I am asking questions. Many people are being helpful, but there are a lot of people that won't come to the forums because of people judging them instead of being helpful. Again I know I am new, but in this case I was actually following advice from a couple of much more experienced breeders.

Maybe I should talk to your breeder buddies, and ask them what is up with my 900 gram girls that quit eating when I cooled my room.....maybe I should have thrown a male in.........I'm done.

Jason