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handrearing?

S

sidsmum

Young Bun
hi i have a litter of kits 5 days old one is considerably smaller than the others and seems to be getting pushed out the nest.should i be hand rearing at present im rubbin my hand in mums poo and putting him back with the others.any advice welcome x
 
Hi Ive had kits before and one or two have looked a lot smaller than the others they caught up in the end.The baby could be poorly or just the runt.I would let him stay in the nest with the others and see what happens.Hes five days old so he must be getting some of mums milk.
 
is the baby pooing ok? any mucous at all in it? you could try supplimenting the baby's feed by holding mum and latching the runty baby on a couple of times per day... this is normally the next step before trying to hand rear. :)
 
How many babies are there?
I've had several runts dying on me previously from a doe that delivered a far too big litter:cry: (12:shock:)
But if its an average sized litter he'll have a bigger chance,
 
this mornings developments

thanks for your replys:)
there are 8 in the litter, i went out this morning to have a good look and pick the kit up to try and see whats what.i havent been picking them up (only to put back in the nest).what i found was quite weird it appears we have 2 runts one that ive been putting back in and another one who appeared to still be attached to his umbilical cord and a placenta bag in the nest!!!!! is that whats been feeding the poor lad all this time? or has it stopped him getting to reach up for his feed?.ive bred a litter before with nothing like this and i thought i was doing right by not disturbing things.anyway i cut the cord and put him back he is active and i dont think there is any obvious deformity ,the other 6 look fighting fit! any experience of this would be greatly recieved thanks all x
 
I definitely wouldn't take them away they'll probably die, handrearing is very difficult. If they are definitely not getting fed enough you can try holding them to the doe to feed if she's a pretty relaxed mum. Otherwise I would let them get on with it. If they are healthy they'll catch up - they'll be eating solids in 10 days :)

Tam
 
I've never seen a 10 day old rabbit eat solids...That's when they normally get their eyes. I'm pretty sure mine were at least 2 weeks before I saw them eat.

I find it disturbing if the umbical cord is still attached though, never experienced that with rabbits but one guinea pig at school used to have that after a particularly difficult birth... My friend cut it of with a clean scizor (SP? I never get that right..) If it's a smart thing to do I must admit I don't know, but the guinea piglet did fine at least.
 
babys are 5 days old so in ten days theyll be 15 days .
im kinda confused as to whether this lil guy has been getting any milk or just from whats left of the placenta i really dont know but he is tiny although developing downy fur like the the others.
 
well we lost one found him at the back of the nest last night :(
got 2 tiny ones still but they do look like theyve been fed at least! and 5 big strapping babys left too so heres hoping for the best .
 
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