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feeding 3 week old babies

lottielouise

Wise Old Thumper
the babies have all tumbled out of the nest this morning, and are everywhere!!

They have been chomping on hay the past few days and have jumped in the pellet bowl this morning :love: Do I need to increase the pellets now that babies have started to eat them too? I have been giving a small rabbit bowl of pellets daily since mum kindled, slowly moving her over to excel from A+P. Today is the first day of all excel and the babies are eating it too.

Is this the start of the weaning process?? Mum is less interested in giving them milk and flicks them off, or was in the 5 minute I have just seen. She has a couple of high spots where she can go to to escape them.

Also, the babies seemed quite shocked by my presence this morning, and all went into hiding, is this normal? do I just keep going with handling them?

Also are the babies allowed on the grass, I normally let mum out every day, but with babies out and about moving, I don't think this is safe because of their size, but also because they have not had grass before. But mum has been...
 
Mum needs to be on unlimited pellets to ensure she is making enough milk, so its just a case of increasinf the volume so they remain unlimited. The babies will have been chewing hay since a few days old, you're just likely seeing it now.

There would be some debate about the grass because some people say mum's milk provides immunity to whatever fresh she eats and is used to, but its not something I personally would risk. When they get to about 4 weeks you could let them run on the patio though, if there is a way for that to happen.
 
When I had babies here last summer with one of my fosters. I let them out on the grass most days. All are healthy bunnies now.Foodwise I increased there food and they were eatting unlimted most of the time at 4 weeks I started putting extra veg ect in with them also.I handeled them all most days also I let my next door neighbours wee boy handle them so they got used of kids holding them.I dont say I am a expert on babies but its what worked for us here and I would do it the same way if it happened again,
 
Thank you both, it really helps, I just feel a little blind in doing things, but really want to do my best for them.
 
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