• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

help... hand rearing 3, 5 day old kits!

Hi all, not sure if I'm posting in the right section here! But anyway...
This morning a very good friend of mine rang me in distress. She took on a 7 month old conti giant about 2/3 weeks ago. On Wednesday she gave birth to 6 kits. 1 sadly passed away last night. Her friend is a trainee vet nurse and came round to have a look why the baby died. She said it was dehydrated and so were 3 of the other kits. She suggested they needed to be hand reared as due to the mom being so young she's unable to produce enough milk. She asked me to hand rear the kits for her as iv reared kittens before.
Anyway, what is the best milk to give them and what from (syringe or bottle?) The kits are quite strong and bounce around every time I open the box. They are very wrinkly and their fur looks to be smothering there bodies!
The vet nurse said to use half evaporated milk and half boiled, then cooled water?

Please help if you can x
 
Don't use evaporated milk, rabbits can't have cows milk. If you do want to hand rear them you'll need esbilac, cimicat or lactol kitten gold formula (it needs to be a very rich kitten formula). If you can't get kitten formula easily, then full-fat goats milk will do temporarily.

You'll need to do 3 feeds a day at this stage. The easiest method is a 1ml syringe with a catac ST1 teat on the end (see here: http://www.catac.co.uk/shop/product.php?productid=172 ). Never re-use formula, always throw away any un-used after each feed. Remember to sterilize or throw away feeding equipment after each feed.

I found this web page useful: http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/handrear.asp

Be warned that rabbits are one of the most difficult animals to hand rear, and almost always die, so the babies are better off taking their chances with mum if possible...even if that means holding her down so that the babies can feed.
 
Thanks a lot for your help.
I have some cimicat from rearing the kittens but its been open for a while now. Any idea how long it stays fresh?
How much at a time should I feed and at what times?
 
Maybe try Jacks Jane, she hand reared 'the pet shop 5'
hope the babies pull through :wave:
 
I would suggest finding a breeder and a foster mum for them.

I don't think the doe is necessarily too young, but she may not understand and may need help to feed. Have you tried standing her over the litter? Or turning her over and holidng a baby to her nipples?

You need teeny tiny teat things to handrear but that really needs to be last case scenario because most hand reared bunnies die, especialkly from so young.
 
I have some cimicat from rearing the kittens but its been open for a while now. Any idea how long it stays fresh?

I'm afraid I'm not sure...does it say on the tin?

How much at a time should I feed and at what times?

When I've headreared in the past, I've had to fit in feeds around work so approx 7am, 5pm and mid-night.

The web page I posted should tell you how much to feed at each stage of development. At 5 days you will probably only get them to take about 3mls per feed if I remember rightly.

At 5 days they should have started to toilet for themselves, so shouldn't need help (usually done with damp cotton wool), but do check that they are definitely able to go themselves.
 
Thanks everyone. We haven't tried to turn the doe over to let them feed. Being a conti she's very big and strong and is still nervous. I will go over in the morning and help her try that.

I don't know of anyone who breeds rabbits to foster them onto another doe.

We've already given them some evap milk. Will this be bad for them?

Two of the kits are very fat and healthy were as these 3 are like skeletons!
 
If two are healthy then mum is feeding, so I would suggest giving them extra feeds. Stand the mum over the nest and take out the healthier ones, so that the others get a chance to suckle.

Try to keep mum there with treats. Really, there is no substitute for the mum's milk, nothing comes close, so if you can get hers into them, that would be the most ideal.

Are they in a nest box?
 
I agree that it would be better for mum to feed them but if you really do need to hand rear then you will need to add probiotic to the milk, (I actually had better results with goats milk than kitten milk) feed them very slowly and don't forget to toilet them after a feed with some damp cotton wool.
 
She's already seperated the 3 smaller ones into another box and bought them indoors.
She had them in a banana box (the ones you get on a fruit n veg market stall!)
 
That's ok, you can put the box in and try and get mum to feed them still. That's good, they need an open topped box that is big enough to mum to get in and turn around in, and lots and lots of hay and her pulled fur.

I would say put the box in with mum to see if she will feed with encouragement. I know of several breeders who have done this and managed to raise kits this way. It has a far higher success rate than feeding them yourself.
 
The only thing I'm worried about is if wills hasn't got enough milk to feed them all?
Is this a possibilty? Why are 2 ok and the others not?

Sorry 4 asking so many questions
 
I agree that it would be better for mum to feed them but if you really do need to hand rear then you will need to add probiotic to the milk, (I actually had better results with goats milk than kitten milk) feed them very slowly and don't forget to toilet them after a feed with some damp cotton wool.

Oops, totally forgot about probiotics :oops:

I think the babies should toilet for themselves at about 5-6 days? :?
 
It can take a couple of days for the milk to come in, so it may have taken longer, and if the kits are not all nestled together then three possibly missed a feed or two, or maybe even just the most recent feed. Have they been checked from day one? Having a ping pong belly shows a well fed baby.

If she was struggling for milk then she probably wouldn't fully feed any kits. The fact three have been missed out implies that it was probably just that, that they missed out, for whatever reason. It may be she had two nests or something and she didn't realise.

Once they catch up they could go back in with the others hopefully. Sometimes some extra feeding can be all they need.


ETA- what AMS said is very possible too. It may be they are not going to thrive no matter what you do. If you don't know their heritage then that is a bigger possibility because potentially they could be inbred or something.
 
Would it be ok to do two feeds a day putting them onto mom and making sure they feed?

Can they go back into the nest or will they need to be kept seperate from now on? think I confused myself, wills actually gave birth in the banana box and kits are now in a seperate box with me. With the intention of hand rearing

What should she do about feeding them tonight? I have the babies here with me! Will they be ok until the morning as iv fed them once already
 
I would say keep the babies separate until you can see they are thriving, but would suggest putting them in with mum at least twice a day (but mum will naturally feed at dawn and dusk, so try to stay away from at least one of those to ensure the other two are getting enough).

After they have been with mum they should have full ping pong bellies. As RNG said, you may need to help them toilet unless mum is doing it. Mum will only take about 5 mins or so to feed them, and will stand over the nest box to do so.

I can't say if they will be ok overnight. If they were mine I would probably try and get mum to feed them, but if they are with you and mum isn't, then that's a slightly tricky issue.

I wouldn't give them anymore milk though, to be honest.
 
Thanks so much for your help,

Its a bit of a tricky situation to explain. She just knows I love rabbits and would do anything to help.

would you not give them a bit of lactol later tonight? (Thought it was cimicat sorry)
 
If you feel the rabbits would do better with you, could you have them all? Until the kits are older?

I personally would take the bunnies back, but understand that's not going to be an option for everyone (especially at this time of night). I wouldn't feel ok giving lactol but that's because I know how inappropriate those things are. Someone who has done and has not had problems with it may be able to advise you better on the supplements.
 
Back
Top