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Runt of the litter

Lillian

Warren Veteran
Im really worried about Roo, he is so tiny compared to the other 4 babies. In the past we've had bad luck with the runts. First there was Harry from Stan and Tilly's second litter, Harry stopped eating and became paralyzed in his back legs and had to be put to sleep at 8 weeks old. This absolutely destroyed me and my mum as we had spend 2 weeks syringe feeding him and massageing his legs to try and help him walk again. Then in Tilly's last litter there was Pipkin, Pipkin stole my heart, he was the sweetest little bunny ever. When he was 7 weeks he started to get thin, by 9 weeks he was being treated for snuffles and within days he too had became paralyzed in his back legs and his snuffles was really bad and he had to be put to sleep :cry: .

Is it likely this could happen to Roo? Violet & Bugs are really big babies, the two black ones are medium sized, but Roo is tiny. In the pictures Roo doesnt look particulary small compared to the black babies but when you see them in real life you can see just how small he is.

(Roo is the brown with white stripe on his head)
fp2thursday.jpg
 
TBH whenever I have had litters in we have never had a problem with the runt so I cant really advise you there but is it possible there is a genetic problem? If so shouldnt you really stop breeding from the parents?
 
I was worried about the runt in my litter that Millie had last year once they were out of the nest he soon caught up and was the first the eat hay, and the first to get to millies greens.
 
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