Runt of the litter

Hello all,

This is my first post on the forum despite joining some time ago.

On 13/12/12 we rehomed a male and female rabbit (I've named them Pongo and Perdy). They are about 11 months old. Pongo and Perdy were not treated very well in their last home and were kept in the same cage despite not being neutered or spayed. They had never had hay or veges. We had them checked by a vet, separated them, and had Pongo neutered.

Unsurprising, Perdy gave birth on 31/12/12. She has had a litter of 5 kits, has pulled fur and made a beautiful nest. We were advised by our vet not to handle the babies until at least the 6th day. Today upon checking today, there are 5 kits. 4 appear perfectly healthy , have grown fur and have little round bellies. However, there is one kit who has not grown as much fur, is much smaller and has a flat belly. He looks exactly the same as the other kits just so much smaller. I have read some other posts on here and tried to give him some one to one time with mum but she pulls away each time the kit feeds.

Perdy was not treated very well in her last home but I have really bonded with her since she came to us and she appears to trust me and will now let me stroke her, come and give me little nudges and take food from me/ However, I don't want to push her to feed the kit.

Should I leave the kit as he is? Get some kitten milk? I have also read goats milk can work as a substitute? I would be really grateful for everyone's thoughts.

Thank you.

x

Aww bless, poor baby! I really dont have any experience of this situation but wanted to bump this for you. I hope you get some answers.
I would have thought that the kit could do with some help but like I said I have NO experience with this.

Thank you rachylou! Very kind of you. x

Have you tried either putting mum on her back (she will go into the 'trance') and then popping baby on, or putting a towel on your lap with a sort of 'hammock' shape, then putting mum on your knees with the hammock bit under her tum, hold her in position straddling the towel on your knees, and insert baby under her (kept safe by the hammock of towel).

If neither works then you will probably haveto start supplementary feeding for a few days at least. We used powedered puppy milk made up double strength. However you will need the special very very very small teats for wildlife (not kitten teats) placed on end of a 1ml syringe.

These are the smallest mikke teats.

Thank you parsnipbun, I hadn't thought of getting perdy onto her back. She's not too happy about being handled yet but anything is worth a go so long as I don't stress her out. I'll give it a try. Will let you know how it goes. x

parsnipbun said:

Have you tried either putting mum on her back (she will go into the 'trance') and then popping baby on, or putting a towel on your lap with a sort of 'hammock' shape, then putting mum on your knees with the hammock bit under her tum, hold her in position straddling the towel on your knees, and insert baby under her (kept safe by the hammock of towel).

If neither works then you will probably haveto start supplementary feeding for a few days at least. We used powedered puppy milk made up double strength. However you will need the special very very very small teats for wildlife (not kitten teats) placed on end of a 1ml syringe.

These are the smallest mikke teats.

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Hello again,

Thank you parsnip bun, I managed to get the kit to suckle a little milk with mum on her back which is fantastic. Thank you so much for your advice! I'll see how the kit is doing in a few hours and will try to get him to feed again. I'll also get some puppy milk tomorrow just in case we need it.

Thank you so much for coming to the rescue and thank you rachylou for bumping! xx

Ruby and Archie said:

Hello again,

Thank you parsnip bun, I managed to get the kit to suckle a little milk with mum on her back which is fantastic. Thank you so much for your advice! I'll see how the kit is doing in a few hours and will try to get him to feed again. I'll also get some puppy milk tomorrow just in case we need it.

Thank you so much for coming to the rescue and thank you rachylou for bumping! xx

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Wonderful news. Good luck with them all. xx

Ruby and Archie said:

Hello again,

Thank you parsnip bun, I managed to get the kit to suckle a little milk with mum on her back which is fantastic. Thank you so much for your advice! I'll see how the kit is doing in a few hours and will try to get him to feed again. I'll also get some puppy milk tomorrow just in case we need it.

Thank you so much for coming to the rescue and thank you rachylou for bumping! xx

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That is fantastic! And you are more than welcome!

rachylou said:

That is fantastic! And you are more than welcome!

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Thought I would let you know that the little one has been feeding well with parsnipbun's method. I weighed him today and he's 61g. The other kits weigh, 126g, 122g 117g and 88g so he's considerably smaller. He doesn't look a peanut, just very small. Here's hoping he gains some weight. x

Awww bless,, the wee mite, you're giving him the best chance possible.. Good luck to you..

Have you called the little one "peanut" its a cute name?

All the best
Fee x

Fee said:

Awww bless,, the wee mite, you're giving him the best chance possible.. Good luck to you..

Have you called the little one "peanut" its a cute name?

All the best
Fee x

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It's an adorable name! I mentioned peanut as someone suggested to me the kit might be a "peanut baby". When I looked it up it appears peanut babies are unfortunately deformed from birth. They usually die within a few days but it seems some make it longer. Apparently they are about the 1/3 of the weight of their siblings, have large cone shaped heads, buldging eyes, crossed back legs and little ears which are set back. I'd never heard of peanuts before! So as much as I like the name, I've been calling him "Tiny"! (But hoping he will grow big and strong!). He's certainly got a lot more energy today! Fingers crossed xx

well done you hope tiny pulls through:=)

Hello, I thought I would post as my rabbits have had quite a few litters before. First of all I'm glad the little one is starting to suckle from the mum And in most litters my bunnies have had, there is usually one runt, not always though. In fact, the tiny, tiny baby that I thought I would lose at first is now 1 and a half and very healthy, her name is Minnie

But if I were you I wouldn't try to feed it from a syringe. It is very easy to get wrong and if the baby tries to drink too fast and takes air into it's lungs it can be fatal. I thought I would just warn you :?

Another way you can get the baby to take in milk is to first put the mother up with the babies. Then rub the mother's fur over your hands and gentle push your finger into the runt's mouth then place it next to a teat and it will usually start suckling. Feed the mother some greens or a small treat while doing this and make sure you stroke her. Sorry if this doesn't work for you, but it is worth a try :thumb:

If you would like anymore help on anything, please feel free to pm me

Hope this helps,
Rose x

Natty123 said:

Hello, I thought I would post as my rabbits have had quite a few litters before. First of all I'm glad the little one is starting to suckle from the mum And in most litters my bunnies have had, there is usually one runt, not always though. In fact, the tiny, tiny baby that I thought I would lose at first is now 1 and a half and very healthy, her name is Minnie

But if I were you I wouldn't try to feed it from a syringe. It is very easy to get wrong and if the baby tries to drink too fast and takes air into it's lungs it can be fatal. I thought I would just warn you :?

Another way you can get the baby to take in milk is to first put the mother up with the babies. Then rub the mother's fur over your hands and gentle push your finger into the runt's mouth then place it next to a teat and it will usually start suckling. Feed the mother some greens or a small treat while doing this and make sure you stroke her. Sorry if this doesn't work for you, but it is worth a try :thumb:

If you would like anymore help on anything, please feel free to pm me

Hope this helps,
Rose x

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Hi Rose

Thank you so much for your post, that's really encouraging! Aww Minnnie! I love it. I really hope Tiny can do the same. He put on 7g in a day so hopefully he'll keep going. I'll weigh him again tonight. The other kits are growing steadily. My biggest kit has increased 20g(?!) in just one day.....I think I know who hogs the milk.... I'm going to avoid syringes if I can, I'd hate to get it wrong. I read about using a cotton bud instead? Parsnipbun's technique is working well for now but I'll bear the other way in mind too. Thank you again.

xx

Ruby and Archie said:

Hi Rose

Thank you so much for your post, that's really encouraging! Aww Minnnie! I love it. I really hope Tiny can do the same. He put on 7g in a day so hopefully he'll keep going. I'll weigh him again tonight. The other kits are growing steadily. My biggest kit has increased 20g(?!) in just one day.....I think I know who hogs the milk.... I'm going to avoid syringes if I can, I'd hate to get it wrong. I read about using a cotton bud instead? Parsnipbun's technique is working well for now but I'll bear the other way in mind too. Thank you again.

xx

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you can use artificial feeding really quite safely using a 1ml syringe with the special tiny tiny Mikki teat over the end. However mums milk is much the best if he can get it!!

parsnipbun said:

you can use artificial feeding really quite safely using a 1ml syringe with the special tiny tiny Mikki teat over the end. However mums milk is much the best if he can get it!!

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Hello all,

Just wanted to update you all on 13 day old Tiny. His weight is increasing slowly but surely each day. He's now 75g so a 15g increase in 6 days. No where near as much as his brothers but we're getting there! He's got so much more fur now but unlike like his brothers who are black and white, he's very pale brown and white. Only one eye is starting to open so just off to the chemist to get some sterile solution to give him a little help with that. He's a bit behind the others in terms of development. Where as they are taking their first steps and tasting hay, he's still mostly lying on his side and tends to fall over when he gets up. Another of my litter, although much bigger at 93 grams is having the same issues so giving both a little TLC. Thanks all for your advice. xx

Do hope he continues to thrive :wave:

good to hear the update! Glad he is still with us.

Good to hear! You could have a look in a pet shop near you and see whether they sell baby rabbit food? My babies loved it at around that age!