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New Mum with 10 babies

L

loulouembers

Warren Scout
:bunny: My himmie rex has had her first litter of 10 babies. They are one week old today. :cry: The babies are looking thin and have some scratches on them, two have the tip of their ear missing. I have clipped mums claws to be on the safe side. Mum is looking after them and eating and feeding well herself. One fell out of the nest and she covered it carefully until I popped it back. I have brought them in from outside so their energy isn't wasted keeping warm. :?: Should I leave all alone and let nature take its course? :?: Would anyone recommend putting any of the babies with my blue rex who had just two babies of her own 8 days ago. My blue rex is a second time mum and very good at her job! If this could be an option I would need good advice on how to do this. Many thanx for any advice
 
I have no idea wether you would be able to give your other bunny some of the babys im sure someone will be along in a minute! And welcome to the forum XX
 
If a babies have lost their mum, it is worth trying to see if another mum will take over the feeding of the babies, however they have not, if you did try this you are serioulsy at risk of both mums rejecting the babies and them dying due to malnutrition. Hand rearing them really is not an option either as there is a high mortality rate due to aspiration pneumonia.

Mum will look after the babies as well as she can, you can help her by giving her lots of grass and green vegetables to help encourage her milk production and to ensure she has a plentiful supply of hay and pellets.

My best advise would be to leave them well alone and let mum get on with the job. Babies from large litters are often smaller in size than ones with very few. If you look at this thread http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/tam/viewtopic.php?t=8023&start=75 you will see some photographs of babies which are 2 days old and 6 days old. These are from a litter of 8 babies.

Janice
 
I believe that some nervous first time bunny mums can "over groom" their youngsters leading to nipped ears and sometimes worse injuries :( !

As the babies are all feeding off mum I would leave them but as Janice said just make sure mum gets some extra food to keep her strength up.

Lots of luck!

Caz
 
Polly was a first time mum of 8 (an accident :oops: ) and she was wonderful and all the babes survived and the smallest (Kamakasi) is a strapping boy now and back home with his mum!! :D He is second from the left in my sig, and Polly is the third.

Good luck!
 
Some could be fostered to the other rabbit but its not always that easy, i think it wise to leave them in case you come across a problem. Iwould give your mum lots of dark greens to aid in milk production and when the babys come out of the nest put on a bottle of kitten milk so they can get more milk if they want it. val
 
I don't know if giving them an "extra" bottle will help. Sometimes if the mother knows the babies have gotten food another way she stops producing milk, and wont let them feed off HER.

We have other animals that have raised young and this has always been the case. Im not sure about rabbits. But I'm pretty sure it would work the same way. It might be successful and just give them extra milk but it may not be successful in that mum might stop producing milk.
 
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