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Hand rearing...when to stop feeding?

abbymarysmokey

Wise Old Thumper
I'm hand rearing some baby buns who were rejected by their mum. They are supposedly about 4 weeks old, but are very skinny and small for their age. At the moment I am still hand feeding them roughly every 4-6 hours with goats milk from a 1ml syringe.

The largest baby is drinking less and less each feed because he's starting to eat junior excel pellets. The two smaller babies are drinking about 8mls each feed

They have a bowl of milk in their cage, but don't really drink much of it.

Finally the questions.......When do I stop hand feeding them? Should I be letting them feed themselves by now? Should I be doing something to wean them onto pellets?
 
They should be able to drink from a bowl now. They will bale in though so best to hold a small bowl for them one at a time. It will disappear in seconds ;)

Keep feeding for the next week or two and they should naturally decrease. If they haven't by 5/6 weeks or so you can start cutting out feeds/watering down milk.

I take it they've got hay available? They usually start on that, pellets might be a bit hard so you could try soaking them slightly to start with.
 
Cheers Tam

They won't really drink from a bowl...which puzzles me :?

They've got a choice of hay, soaked pellets, dry pellets and milk available.

Perhaps I'm feeding them too much? :?
 
Echo Tamsins advice..and are you leaving them with a normal rabbit bowl?
If so the high sides could put them off..try a shallow one to encourage them..

and well done!:D
 
I wonder if they might be a bit younger than you were told as usually they'd be well into solids by now :? They usually start about 3 weeks. You could try them on the bowl your filling the syringes from. That's how I did it as they were bailing in after the syring cause I couldn't fill quick enough :lol:
 
I'm feeding them from hamster bowls and also from disposable plastic drinking cups with the high sides cut down to a couple of cms.

How often do you think I should be feeding them? Shall I leave longer intervals between feeds to encourage them to feed themselves?
 
As Tam will know I had big problems weaning my little ones.

At 7 weeks they where still taking 10ml of goats milk each feed from a 1ml syringe, 3 times a day. I couldn't get mine to drink water out of a bowl or a bottle and was worried that they wouldn't get enough fluids if I didn't keep giving them something.

They where eating pellets, readigrass and hay in huge amounts though.

Once they decided that they'd drink from the bottle I finally stopped feeding them milk at about 8.5 weeks even though they begged all the time. I did it by dropping a feed every 3/4 days.

I continued giving avipro in the water for weeks though,:oops::oops: maybe I'm just to soft hearted :oops::)
 
Tracey, how many feeds per day should I be giving my 4 week olds? At the moment they get 4 feeds...perhaps I should cut it down to 3 (which would be better for me because I won't have to go home at lunchtime).
 
Have you tried putting the milk in a dish and then sloshing the milk about with your fingers as the Babies look-on ?

Do you warm the milk? It'll make it smell more so may tempt them :?

ETA I also found that whilst my Babies would not eat dry pellets they would eat a mush of Critical Care/A+P/Fibreplex and warm water :)
 
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Yes, I warm the milk and hold it temptingly under their noses...but nothing! :shock: :?

I can't get Critical Care here, but they won't eat the SS recovery (and actually pooped in the dish to let me know how disgusted they were :roll: )

Big baby will eat pellets (even dry ones) but the others are more interested in hay and milk. Their bellies seem full (hopefully not bloated) so perhaps they're sneaking a quick meal when I'm not looking :lol:

I'm knackered because I've been staying up late and getting up early so they don't have to go more than 6 hours without a feed...now I find out they should be feeding themselves...Perhaps the little :censored: are taking the pee out of me??! :lol: :lol:
 
I'm knackered because I've been staying up late and getting up early so they don't have to go more than 6 hours without a feed...now I find out they should be feeding themselves...Perhaps the little :censored: are taking the pee out of me??! :lol: :lol:

:shock: You could gradually adjust the feed so you got more sleep too, the longer period without milk might help the process. Maybe bring the first feed back an hour and the last feed forward an hour :D
 
I was feeding every 6 hours as in 6am, midday,6pm and midnight.

I looked and felt like I'd had a new human baby.
Not just 5 hungry rabbits:lol::lol:

Mine where 10 days old when I started looking after them.

I dropped their 6pm feed first and moved the midday one back an hour or two and the midnight one forward an hour to start with then dropped feeding them in the day, followed by the midnight feed when they where about 8 weeks old and the 6am feed once they where around 9.5 weeks.

From around 7 weeks I was getting fed up with them not drinking water so I was giving 10 ml of milk and then as much milky warm water as they wanted from the syringe.

Be careful though I couldn't bear to let mine go and so I kept all 5 boys and they still live together as a group:love::love::love:
 
Yay!!!!

How are the two smaller ones doing.....still being dwarfed by big girl? ;)

xx

Yep, she's massive compared to them :shock:

I've named the littlest one now. I've called him Piglet because his nose is turning white and looks like a little piggy snout...I think he's going to have some otter markings like dad.

Laura, how are the tiny babies getting on?
 
Yep, she's massive compared to them :shock:

I've named the littlest one now. I've called him Piglet because his nose is turning white and looks like a little piggy snout...I think he's going to have some otter markings like dad.

Laura, how are the tiny babies getting on?

Piglet :)......I like it!! I'll pop round soon if you're free and we'll see if we can sex the two smaller ones yet.

Bless, I bet it's a weight off your mind now they'e feeding themselves from the bowl....big well done :)

As for the smaller babies, well....all seems good so far. One of the babies was out of the nest the other morning, but we popped it back in and they're all lively and seem to be feeding and all have the Dutchie markings as far as I can tell :)

I'll try and get some piccies xx
 
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