Some people will tell you dont touch the mother be very careful etc in the beginning after she has mated, HOWEVER, there IS a surefire way to tell if there are babies, and in my experience, but only in 7 years here, I have been able to tell with all of my breeders except for 2 how MANY to expect. It has helped many times.
Obviously the plug is the ideal thing to find that gives you a heads up but it doesnt mean shes pregnant. If they sucessfully bred and fertilized an egg or two does not DEPEND on seeing a plug or does it guarentee anything, although most of the time in general you can be optimistic that she is probably pregnant or will be.
Anyways, I was shown a way to "palpate" or feel out for the babies. I was also shown other ways to tell but they are not ways that just anyone should go and do you need to know what your doing.
You do have to be gentle with her. If you have an idea of when she has mated, even a general idea, if she is pregnant, IN MY EXPERIENCE, I have always known by the 6th week at latest. You GENTLEY pick her up like you normally do. Hold her against your chest, or you can make a harness of sorts with your hands and cup her so her tummy is covered with your hands where her belly will be right on your palm. Using both of my thumbs, I VERY slowley ( and I close my eyes when I do this and concentrate on only what I am feeling.).
I start with my thumbs and place them at the base f where each lef joins on the lower abdomen, following the natural formation of her stomach. You gently apply pressure, and you basically massage them. You feel in certain places, and do not mistake a kidney spleen or other organ on the left uterine horn for a baby which is many times mistaken. In my experience, with my breeders, at this early stage in pregnancy, if they take, I will always find what is just s round and as big as a marble and it will connect to another one. You CAN easily feel which ones are connected and are not, without causing her ANY HARM AT ALL, and it takes a LOT of practice you do not ever press more thanyou normally would say if you were massaging her normally ( I massage their backs and chests a lot from the time they are born, they love it.) These have ALWAYS been in the same place, but different sides obviously depending on the female and which horn she is pregnant in, sometimes both will have what feels like "4 marbles" but it is two babies in one horn. I have identified twins, the third time I ever breed, I knew it from the first month because I noticed only three marbles, not 4, in the same tube. At birth what came out were and still are identical MALE and a FEMALE who shared a placenta. Only one placenta came out when they were born, and they followed each other within seconds. Both I have kept, and although now that the female has had some babies and looks different as she is a BIT bigger than her brother, they are the same otherwise physically, and I knew this because you will feel it.
It will be low at this time, sitting RIGHT ABOVE where the "cone" is tht she pees from. You will also experience, or I have, initially after sucessful fertilization, a change in her cervical mucous, either she will produce what seems l;ike she is in heat and she isnt, or she may completely close up, but if you pay attention closley, you will notice a difference, but the best way has been feeling, by far.
I am not sure what the above replies werre if someone already suggested this sorry about that! I also know that there may be people who read on the internet and probably picture this as squeezing or are getting ready maybe to tell me I am crazy, but for me this has been a tried and true method.
I have lost babies like anyone else who breeds, but if you do this right, you will find this and SWABBING are also ways that ranchers, vets, and long time breeders do to ensure pregnancy.
I have never swabbed and am not interested in the practice. I see no benefit when this can all be done like a massage. It litteraly feels like a few marbles. Then, in a month, you might think you imagined them, because the fetus is changing shape and may seem to not be there. It will move, go up and down, and eventually you will see it moving outside when mom is napping on her side when she gets ready.
