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Baby Bunnies

Tamsin

Administrator
Staff member
I've got 4-5 baby rabbits arriving later. The vet gave out my number to someone whose husband works on a building site - they're digging up the entire area and uncovered the nest. They can't leave cos of the work going on. I don't usually take bunnies in myself despite how many calls the vet direct my way :lol: but she's got a Jack Russel that 'likes' bunnies so they can't go to her house.

Not sure what/where to put them yet as I don't know how old they are.

Any tips? I know a few people are rearing babies at the moment.

Tam
 
WILL DEPEND HOW OLD THEY ARE TAMSIN ....LET US HAVE A ROUGH IDEA OF AGE WHEN THEY GET TO YOU .

ANGIE

WE GOT ANOTHER ONE TODAY TOO....ABOUT 2 WEEKS OLD WE THINK :?
 
Hi Tamsin

I'm currently hand-rearing 4 baby bunnies at the moment which my partner discovered on our allotment! It seems to be the time for bunnies appearing in all sorts of places.

Mine were about 4 days old when I got them and I put them in a shoe box with newspaper a teatowel for extra warmth and lots of cotton wool. I was given a half hour training session from the vets on how to feed them and started feeding every 4-6 hours about 2ml each time by syringe. I've been using some kitty milk powder from the vets.

They are now 17 days old and doing fantastically well! and gobbling up about 7-10ml 3 times a day!

Hope this helps as this is my first time too and thankfully with the vets, and this site I have managed to get the bunnies to the age they are.

Suzanne

PS Mine our in my hallway with the draft excluder up against the door as we have 2 cats.
 
bunnymadhouse said:
WILL DEPEND HOW OLD THEY ARE TAMSIN ....LET US HAVE A ROUGH IDEA OF AGE WHEN THEY GET TO YOU .

I'll let you have a picture and you can guess the age :lol:

Thanks for the tips Suzanna, the lady is going via and the vets so will pick up some kitty milk for me.

Tam
 
They're tiny! There eyes aren't open but they have fur and are quite wriggly.

So how much and how often should they be fed?

baby2.jpg


baby.jpg
 
Thanks Angie & Tracy for the phone support. I've given them the first feed, they only took 1-2ml each but I think that was partly down to me trying to get the hang of it. I'll give them another go late tonight.

They're sooo wriggly! One was licking everything accept the syringe and another kept nuging my hand but wasn't at all impressed by the syringe.

I'll try and get a teat to go on tommorow and see if that works better.

Tam
 
baby bunnies

They look about ten days old :) their little eyes should start to open soon :) you can buy a feeding kit (get the one for small animals not the kitten one as it will be to big) most pet shops sell these & they are easier for the babies to suck from :) they look well fed & should have a good survival rate :)
 
I'll try the petshops tommorow aswell. They didn't arrive til 7 so it was a quick call around and dash to the vet that had milk.

Tracy gave me the number to order them but would be good if can pick it up local instead of waiting for post :)

Tam
 
baby bunnies

Hi tamzin :) the feeding bottle that i have is made by HAGEN pet nursing bottle :) they really are good for feeding babies (except tiny ones)
If you can,t manage to buy one then I have one that i can send to you :)
 
Hi Tamsin

Gosh I can't believe ours once looked like that! our ones are 17 days old now and have lots of fur, big ears, etc...

I had awful trouble feeding to start with as i couldn't get the hang of the syringe, got the milk everywhere apart from their mouth! i use a 1ml syringe which is long and thin and the bunnies seem to prefer it better than the 2.5ml one which is short and fat. it took a few days for the bunnies to take the food with ease, it used to take anything from 45mins to an hour and a half to give all four just 2ml. Now they are taking about 9ml each and it takes just about 5-10mins max each rabbit.

i didn't use a teat as i kept being told about the bunnies breathing milk into their lungs if they took too much milk in at one time. with the syringe you have more control. i practised using the syringes by filling them with water and dispersing it into a bowl!

guidelines for feeding which someone from here kindly gave me the link to is;

A baby rabbit of 1 day old would consume on average 2 mls of milk daily. By 5 days the volume would increase to about 12 ml. At 10 days it would increase again to about 15 mls, by 15 days increasing to 22 mls, 20 days increasing to about 27 mls, 25 days to about 30 mls. By 30 days of age you will expect to see a decline to about 20 mls, and by 35 days a rapid decline to less than 5 mls or weaned altogether

mine our 17 days and are taking between 21-27 a day now.

i hope this helps! we're in the middle of operation bunny at the moment as they keep jumping out of the cardboard box they had so transferring them to an old chinchilla cage someone gave me. partner in the hallway with his tools making a few alterations as we speak!

suzanne
 
They are gorgeous! I can't believe Barney once looked like that, especially now he's lying on the rug moulting everywhere having left me an enormous present behind the sofa. :shock: Good luck being a surrogate mummy. Sounds like you're doing a fine job! :D
 
Yep, milk everywhere and an hour to get them all done :lol: Some seem better than others at drinking it.

Does the teeth chattering/purr have any significance? They seem to start that every now and then and I wasn't sure if it meant I'm full up, that's yummy or just because they felt like it.

I just finished feeding them again and they've totally zonked out. I lifted the 'fed' towel back in the carrier and they didn't even notice.

Here is a better pic just after dinner....

sleepy.jpg
 
Aww bless 'em, they do look very contented indeed. Their coats look very glossy :thumb:
Are they wild rabbits?
 
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