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How much to feed new mum - New question and pix

YorkshireJumbo

YorkshireJumbo

Young Bun
How much food should I be giving to a new mum with 4 babies? She's getting about twice the amount of Excel as normal, a large handful of hay, and I've just attached the run to her hutch, much to the disgust of her friend who's locked up for the night. It's the first time she's been on the grass for a couple of days and she's eating for England at the moment.

Should I try to limit the amount she eats? (I don't want overeating to cause problems) Or should I just leave her to it for the next few weeks? I've had a browse around but can't find any information...
 
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:wave: You need to feed her as much as she will eat as she will be feeding the babies for quite a few weeks yet.
 
sazzy said:
:wave: You need to feed her as much as she will eat as she will be feeding the babies for quite a few weeks yet.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. So I just keep topping up her food. I just wanted to make sure that she knows when she's had enough.

When we first got rabbits a couple of years ago, we had a problem with an overweight rabbit who couldn't keep herself clean, and I didn't want to cause problems for her or the babies.
 
My mum's could eat for the world for the first 4 weeks, as in their bowl was always empty no matter when I filled it, and poor tinkers still looked at thin as ever!! Then one day it just wasn't being eaten, so i cut the food down a bit, if the babies get to 5 weeks and are eating mums food, and mum is still stuffing her face, then you can think about limiting the food a bit.
 
yep as everyone else sayd, unlimited for mummybun right now. Then as kits get to 5/6 weeks or so and are weaning then start maybeto cut down on hers, though they'll be eating more :?
Just make sure when they leave her you reduce gradually. I must admit I wasn't careful enough and my doe that had 10 babies all in one litter became a right porker :oops: for a whil and had to go on a strict diet :oops:
So just keep an eye really but definitely unlimited for now, she'll be using alot of energy making milk.
How are the littlies doing?
 
Mum & babies are doing fine. Mum's become very protective of them, so I have to be careful when checking as she lunges towards me - the problem is they're so difficult to see wrapped in the nest of mum's fur. Checking that all four are fine is tricky - it's almost impossible to see which bit goes with which head without moving them. It must have been a nightmare with 10! I haven't noticed too much change yet, except they've grown!

The babies seem to want to throw themselves out of the nest when I open the door. It was a bit of a shock stopping the first one trying to escape out of the door :shock: - at least I'm ready for it now. They wouldn't have come to any harm as the run is just underneath, but my heart skipped a few beats.

Now the girls are back, we've got our camera back too, so I can post a few photos (if mum will let us....) Needless to say, they're thrilled. They had no idea when they left - mind you, neither did we :roll::oops:
 
Aw bless her, I'm sure she's doing a good job if she's so protective over them.
We had our mumbuns run separate from her hutch so when we popped her out into her run we'd then rub our hands in her bedding to make us smell bunny then checked through the babies. I must admit because she had 10 and after the 1st week we also had to supplement her milk for a couple of the smalst ones, I did check them morning and evening. I think with having 10 we were expecting a loss along the way so we wanted to make sure we didnt leave a dead one in the nest that would have made the other babies cold. But as it was they all survived :D We have 4 of the babies still with us, They'll be 2 on october the 2nd :D
Good luck with them. Sounds like its going well and she's doing a good job :)
 
Yes, I managed to put the front wire door we removed from the hutch in between the hutch and the run, but she got quite agitated. Maybe we should attach the run to the old hutch that she used to time-share, and put her in that... I need to do that anyway, as the older doe is stuck in quite a small hutch at the moment. We need to sort out the accommodation before the youngsters get too big!

Lovely photos - I'm hoping to be able to do the same. Tamlin looks like our mum (not sure of her name, as the girls seem to change their names every couple of weeks. I think we need to get firm on one soon ;)) We were told that she was a black rex, but she looks so like Tamlin, if going a bit grey underneath the black at the grand old age of 1. We're no experts - the girls just chose a couple of sisters from Sue's Rabbit Rescue in Dewsbury 2 years ago. When one died the day she was due to go the vets to get her tear duct sorted out, they got another from a friend's litter that looked the same.

I was wondering what our babies will turn out like, with a wild bun for a dad...
 
Photos sorted..

Well, here are a few photos as promised.

Here are 3 of the babies uncovered, while a fourth decides to go exploring...
BabyRabbits001.jpg


Here are all four of them jumping around - not sure why but they seem to do this when mum's not around and we open the door:shock:
BabyRabbits002.jpg


Our eldest was trying to stop them escaping
BabyRabbits004.jpg
 
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Funny Poos

Just been to check on the family, and I noticed that mum seems to have some funny poos in the corner of her hutch. Instead of the normal, dry poo, she's done long, moist poos, which seem to be made up of balls of poo. I've looked round, but it doesn't seem to be associated with eating fur. Sorry to post it, but here's a picture to make things clearer. Some of her normal poo is in the picture too:
Poo001.jpg


Not sure what might have caused this (apart from the obvious :roll:) as she's not changed her diet too much, just the quantities...
 
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Hi,
These are 'normal' poos too. The are called caecotrophs and rabbits generally nosh these straight from their bottom so you wouldn't normally see them! By doing this a rabbit gets maximum vitamins etc from their food. If there are a lot present then it may well be that something your bun is eating is causing her to produce too many but I think most of us will see the odd one on occasions.
What pellets are you feeding your bun, sometimes the pellets that are higher in protein can cause excess caecotrophs.
 
Thanks for that. I'd guessed that's what they were (without the proper name :oops:), but we hadn't seen any of these from her before, so I was just a bit uncertain. After seeing a few of these, yesterday, there weren't any this morning, so it's hopefully a one-off as you suggest. It's no surprise that things are different at the moment: I just wanted to check that I wasn't missing anything important.

At the moment, she's on regular Excel pellets, along with hay and grass. Since we gave her access to the run, her consumption of pellets has gone down significantly. We were moving the run daily to give her fresh grass. Would it be better to restrict the amount of grass by moving it less often?

A couple of quick updates: the babies are doing fine, and are starting to look a bit like miniature rabbits. And I've just been informed by the girls that the final, official names for the rabbits are "Choco" for the new mum and "Cuddles" for the older doe. Cuddles's sister died and Choco was bought as a replacement companion. Sadly we hadn't been able to get them to socialise, and I guess we won't now...
 
Hi again,
A few of us members have had problems with excess caecs and Excel so bear that in mind should they increase. It may well be tho that if Choco has not been used to eating grass that this caused them. Although grass is a natural bunny food it still needs to be introduced gradually so maybe move her run less often.
If she is not eating veg at the moment you may want to start to introduce this - particularly for when the babes start to wean. Introduce just small pieces at first to let her tummy adapt and to ensure there are no problems and wait a week or so before trying something new. Bunnies will benefit froma selection of veg in their diet - spring greens is a good veg to start off with.
 
Thanks Vanessa.B.

Her diet hasn't changed very much since the babies arrived - apart from the quantities, that is. :shock: They've always had the odd piece of veg, too - things like broccoli stalks, radish tops, a very occasional carrot. We've got a veg patch, so they do fairly well at this time of year.

There hasn't been a recurrence, so I'm thinking it's just her body coming to terms with feeding and looking after the babies.
 
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