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Those that have handreared baby bunny's

R

rngpwelfare

Mama Doe
I could do with some advise.

Just had a call from a small local pet shop(not the best in the world but we won't go in to that) they have a litter of 2 week old buns and mum has died this morning. I've been and picked them up, there's 6 of them very wriggly and warm but their tummies don't look very full.

Now I've only tried to rear baby buns once before and they where a couple of hours old and all died at 10 days. These where reared on kitten milk with avipro in it.
But most of you seem to rear yours on goats milk.
So my questions are is it better than kitten milk, how much should they be taking, how often, and could I start them on that and then change to kitten milk after tomorrow if that's better for them.
 
my mums hand rearing 2, 2 week old kits at the moment (well their about 3 weeks now) shes feeding them diluted goats milk with Bio-Lapis pro-biotic and feeding this every 3 hours the babies have now been on this for about a week now and are doing great. good luck with these babies hope they all make it. im sure others will be able to give you better advice.

xxx
 
I know when Jane and I tried unsuccessfully to feed the Bobleteenies we were descided at the end to feed frequently and small amounts to prevent any aspiration of the feed. We have always been advised to feed goats milk, just a bit of usefull information goats milk can be frozen easily. I was freeziing it in ice cubes which I then defrosted.
 
When I had baby rats to handrear I found an article that explained powdered kitten milk was higher in fat and protein than the mummy rat's milk so might be the case with rabbits too? Kittens are obviously meat eaters so I'd have thought their nutritional needs would be pretty different from rabbits even when that young :?
 
Ive only successfully reared buns with goats milk, I have tried cimicat previously but to no avail. But then, it may just have been a coincidence? I can only assume that maybe the dried formula doesn't have the natural goodness!?!?! I really don't know though :?
Its been YEARS since I last reared any rabbit kits though and so im sure formula has improved greatly! I swear by cimicat for feline kittens!
I fed little and often, every 2 hours, very slowly, just trickled into the side of the mouth to reduce the risk of aspiration - I generally feed amounts to the individual and just see how full their tums are. I use same principles for pups, cats and buns although with pups and cats bottle feeding is easy!
 
Ok thanks for your help everyone
Going to warm some goats milk up and see how we go with that.
Will they still need toileting at this age?
Because although he's told me that they are 2 weeks old none of them have their eyes open yet.
 
Oh and I only used a 1ml syringe and don't feed during the night unless they aren't taking much milk during the day!
 
Oh and also, you need to gently massage their genitals with warm water soaked (then wrung out) cotton wool for the first week or so to stimulate them to urinate, yum thats the best bit :lol:
 
Got loads of 1ml's so that's not a problem was going to do last feed at about 11.30 and then a feed before school in morning, another at lunch time and then one early afternoon. How does that sound
 
when i was 13yrs, handreared a litter of 10 dwarf lops.used kitten milk u can get from pet shops n fed them every 3hrs.all survived.was well pleased with myself.x
 
Hi:wave: I have just hand reared a litter of 6 wild rabbits and previously domestic rabbits. I use cimicat or lactol mixed with cooled, boiled water. To feed them I found the Mikki mothering kit teats (they already have a hole made in them) on the end of a 1ml syringe and very slowly push the plunger. They won't always suck the teat some seem to prefer to lap the milk of the end :D I feed them every 4 hours during the day as the milk isn't as rich as rabbits milk. It's also a very good idea to use probiotics, I was giving a small blob of Fibreplex 3 x a day, they just licked it of my finger. Make sure all the feeding equipment is kept in Milton sterilising fluid in between feeds :D You can start introducing Alfala hay when their eyes open, but they have to be weaned onto solids very gradually and I would continue with fibreplex until they are fully weaned at about 8-9 weeks.
Hope this helps, sorry thats it's so long :roll:
Emily
 
Mum's just fed them again
Two of them didn't really eat a lot
But the others were Ok i guess
The fattest little one took nearly 3ml!:D :D :D

I had to toilet them:lol:
Do they still need toileting if they are two weeks old?
If so how long for?
Thanks
 
Hello

I hand reared four wild baby bunnies in April, I too used cimicat and went by these guidelines.

A baby rabbit of 1 day old would consume on average 2 mls of milk daily. By 5 days the volume would increase to about 12 ml. At 10 days it would increase again to about 15 mls, by 15 days increasing to 22 mls, 20 days increasing to about 27 mls, 25 days to about 30 mls. By 30 days of age you will expect to see a decline to about 20 mls, and by 35 days a rapid decline to less than 5 mls or weaned altogether.

Although I lost 3 of them, 2 died on the same weekend at 3wks and one at 6wks. The other is now a healthy 8 month old bun! I actually kept her on cimicat until she was 8 weeks old. Although there are few that recommend this.

Good Luck!
 
If their eyes are still closed I would still toilet them. They'll start weeing on you when they can do it themselves :lol: Four feeds a day and from around 3 weeks they'll drink from a bowl :)

Good luck!

Tam
 
I agree! Mine just started doing it with no help!

By the way I did start feeding 4 times a day I think then gradually reduced it to 3 and then 2. Thankfully my o/h was trained to do it as he was at home during the day.
 
I usually use a 1ml syringe with feline kittens and put the teat from a nursing kit on it and that way you can control the flow of the milk and they learn to suckle, I haven't used it on rabbit kits though as its been years and years since I hand reared any.
 
DaisyMay said:
Hi:wave: I have just hand reared a litter of 6 wild rabbits and previously domestic rabbits. I use cimicat or lactol mixed with cooled, boiled water. To feed them I found the Mikki mothering kit teats (they already have a hole made in them) on the end of a 1ml syringe and very slowly push the plunger. They won't always suck the teat some seem to prefer to lap the milk of the end :D I feed them every 4 hours during the day as the milk isn't as rich as rabbits milk. It's also a very good idea to use probiotics, I was giving a small blob of Fibreplex 3 x a day, they just licked it of my finger. Make sure all the feeding equipment is kept in Milton sterilising fluid in between feeds :D You can start introducing Alfala hay when their eyes open, but they have to be weaned onto solids very gradually and I would continue with fibreplex until they are fully weaned at about 8-9 weeks.
Hope this helps, sorry thats it's so long :roll:
Emily
Click to expand...

Oops just seen its already been suggested :oops: :lol: *read posts first Leanne*
 
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