GRASSCUTTER PARTURITION

Parturition simply means the process of giving birth. The process of giving birth can also be referred to as to litter. The gestation period of grasscutters is averagely one hundred and fifty five days (155) that is approximately five months. After mating is comprehensive and has resulted in pregnancy, the doe begins to show physical signs of pregnancy from three months upwards. At this stage is when slight protrusion can be noticed in the stomach of the doe. The protrusion at this stage is usually convexed downwards. At four months upwards the belly signs of pregnancy becomes more obvious and a side bulge can now be visible.

The doe may also show signs like excessive sleeping, laziness in getting up from its sleeping or lying position etc. At the point where the pregnancy is advanced, if a buck is in the cage it is unlikely the doe will allow any mating though it is recommended that the buck be removed from eight weeks of been with the doe.

Once the grasscutter carries the pregnancy to term, it will litter in the cage and can litter even safely litter in the presence of other does. The process starts with the doe doing a slight push, when the birth sack appears it bends its head towards the anal region and pulls out the baby. Once the baby is out it usually looks dead or unlikely to survive but that is not a problem. The mother first eats and relishes the umbilical cord after which it then has time to give attention to the new baby. The doe licks the birth fluids off the baby until it springs to life, starts getting up and is able to stand erect. When another one is due to come out the doe repeats the same process and may even abandon nurturing the new cuttling to give birth to a new one.

A grasscutter giving birth and eating the umbilical cord

Some does are fast and do everything in a brisk and crisp manner while other could be clumsy and slow. The doe then pulls out other debris of birth remaining inside it out including the placenta and eats them all with relish. It will also lick up all the blood if the cage is a flatbed cage. Once all the cuttlings are out, the mother resumes nurturing them by licking the birth juice off them until they are neat and dry.

The whole process takes about an hour to an hour and a half to litter 4-5 grasscuttlings.  First litter usually gives 3-4 litters, litter size increases with subsequent deliveries and the grasscutter can litter as much as 7-11 cuttlings. The cuttlings are born fully haired and immediately start searching for the mother’s breast even as soon as they can stand erect.

The sucking of the breast by already born cuttlings sometimes gives the mother a hard time bringing forth the remainder. The babies are a small replica of an adult grasscutter and can run around from a few hours after birth.  The average birth weight for grasscutters is 120gm with a range of between 110-140gms. Some could weigh as low as 80gms and as much as 150gms depending how many cuttlings in the litter.

A grasscutter and her cuttlings

The doe has three pairs of teats so special care should be giving to mother and children if it litters more than six cuttlings. The doe should be well fed after parturition to avoid any transfer of aggression to the cuttlings. In the case of large litters supplementary milk should be provided or a multivitamin solution.  Powdered milk dissolved in water with glucose and a pinch of salt added to help the doe. A surrogate mothering system should also be adopted if there is another breastfeeding mother on the farm. Some of the cuttlings of the large litter are removed and transferred to the surrogate mother for nurturing.

Grasscutters have a strong sense of smell so the surrogate mother can sniff out her cuttlings from the lot. It is therefore advised that transfer of the cuttlings is preceded by masking for both the new babies and her original babies to prevent her killing them.

The cuttlings can be sexed from a day old and will start trying their teeth on forage fed to the doe from a day old too. Weaning is after a period of 4 weeks and can extend to 6weeks in the case of large litters. The doe can be reintroduced to a buck after a rest period of 7-14 days post weaning.

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See uncensored grasscutter videos including a grasscutter giving birth at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAP8XnVNvcjGA56iQpFe2tQ