Rescued baby buns - Feeding help?

I've just rescued 3-4 week old baby bunnies.. They have been away from their mum for a whole week and have been being given cows milk, bread and musli food :shock:

I'm unsure what to do about feeding.. Can I just switch from cows milk to goats milk or can it cause digestive issues? :?
I've contacted an experienced rescue for help but while I'm awaiting a reply, I wanted see if anyone on here has advice?

I would suggest none of those milks are appropriate at all.

I would give them their muesli and loads of hay, and when they are a bit older you can slowly switch their muesli to dwarf pellet food.

I read on here before kitten milk? Maybe you would be best contacting a vet to see if they can provide you with something?

Sky-O said:

I would suggest none of those milks are appropriate at all.

I would give them their muesli and loads of hay, and when they are a bit older you can slowly switch their muesli to dwarf pellet food.

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Yes a few years ago I hand raised a baby hare (it was laying next to it's dead mother's body) and our vet said once they've been off milk it's better just to start weaning them very slowly.

He still had little amounts of baby milk though.

chloemurray said:

Yes a few years ago I hand raised a baby hare (it was laying next to it's dead mother's body) and our vet said once they've been off milk it's better just to start weaning them very slowly.

He still had little amounts of baby milk though.

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*nods* reintroduction of milk can do more harm than good in the majority of cases, especially milks that are not appropriate for their tummies.

What is their poo like? If they have runny poo then they need to be rehydrated with either WARM sub cut fluids (Hartmanns or similar) or WARM oral rehydration fluid (something like lectade). Cows milk has too much lactose and will most likely cause diarrhoea and most goats milk from supermarkets has no nutritional value. They should be starting on solids at that age. They also like warmth so I give them a heat pad with fake fur on. Baby buns are very, very fragile and can go down hill very quickly. They also need somewhere very quiet and a little bolt hole where they can go if frightened.

I wouldn't feed any milk either, they naturally begin decreasing their milk at about 4 weeks and although they are a little early I think it would do more harm to swap them to another form of milk for a week or so than to go without.

I would feed hay and their current dry food. It's not ideal food but best not to change too much at once. The higher protein in muesli foods (which is usually bad) might actually be doing them a favour as it will be helping to replace the lost milk. Rather than increasing the muesli as they grow, gradually add in pellets, pick a high protein one for youngsters. If they are reluctant to eat the dry foods, you can soften them with boiled water that's been allowed to cool.