Factors That Affect Kit Survival Rate
📝 Summary
The period right after weaning is critical — kits switch from milk to feed and start independent life, but their systems are immature and they are naturally timid, making them prone to stress and death. Here are the key factors affecting kit survival.
1 Environmental Change at Weaning
Just-weaned kits face big changes — milk to feed and independent life — needing time to adapt, but their digestive organs are not mature, so weather swings or poor feed formulas easily cause illness and death.
Before weaning kits live with the doe; after, alone. The change brings loneliness and anxiety, poor appetite, indigestion and slow growth, even death in severe cases.
2 Unbalanced Diet
Immature digestive organs but fast growth create high nutrient demand. Some farmers push high-energy, high-protein, low-fiber feed and larger amounts, overloading the gut, shifting its flora and causing diarrhea or death.
If feed quality is poor and needs are unmet, kits become malnourished and weak, and any environmental change then causes death.
3 Overfeeding and Disease
Fast growth spikes nutrient needs, making kits greedy. Without timed, measured feeding, overeating causes gastroenteritis and death.
Coccidiosis is common in weak kits and fatal once contracted. Without cleaning, ventilation and prevention, kits die of coccidiosis.
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