Need help! Orphaned baby bunny

[miavanders]

Our beautiful mother rabbit has just passed away, but had just had two babies over a week ago. We’ve lost one of the sweetest little babies (the runt of the two), and just have the one left.

What should we be feeding him and how much? We’ve read that kitten milk replacer or goat milk is best to feed in replacement of the mother’s milk, and that he should be fed about 6-7ml each feeding, going onto 12ml at 2 weeks, is this correct?

We’ll be keeping him inside to make sure he stays warm, and we’ve brought the nest his mother made for him to stay and sleep in.

We have experience with baby rabbits but have never looked after one so young without a mother, which is why I’m hoping to get some advice and information on anything else I should know.

I’m crossing my fingers for this little guy and will be doing everything I can to keep him healthy and happy.

 

[Zoobec]

Sorry you are in this position I don’t have any experience of this so I don’t have any advice, but this thread may help http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?327923-Accidental-Litters-and-Taking-on-Babies

 

[InspectorMorse]

Our beautiful mother rabbit has just passed away, but had just had two babies over a week ago. We’ve lost one of the sweetest little babies (the runt of the two), and just have the one left.

What should we be feeding him and how much? We’ve read that kitten milk replacer or goat milk is best to feed in replacement of the mother’s milk, and that he should be fed about 6-7ml each feeding, going onto 12ml at 2 weeks, is this correct?

We’ll be keeping him inside to make sure he stays warm, and we’ve brought the nest his mother made for him to stay and sleep in.

We have experience with baby rabbits but have never looked after one so young without a mother, which is why I’m hoping to get some advice and information on anything else I should know.

I’m crossing my fingers for this little guy and will be doing everything I can to keep him healthy and happy.

Very sorry for your losses

You have done the right thing to bring the Kit in. Goats milk or Cimicat is fine to use as a feed substitute. You will need to toilet the kit after each feed too, just wipe his/her ‘bits’ with a cotton wool pad.

Normally the Mother Rabbit will only feed her Kits once or twice a day. Her milk is very high in nutrients and solidifies in the kit’s stomach, it is then slowly digested over 24 hours. No milk substitute can provide as much concentrated nutrition, so hand rearing involves doing more feeds several times day and night.

There is some information about hand rearing on here

https://cottontails-rescue.org.uk/health/hand-rearing/

 

[Liz47]

I hand reared some orphaned bunnies following the link posted above. I used Cimicat milk but also found they were keen to nibble hay and baby rabbit pellets from much younger than I expected. I didn't focus too much of feeding amounts as they would get fed up easily so fed little and often and made sure to weigh them the same time every day and keep a record of this.

 

[miavanders]

Thank you! It’s great to know everything we can about what we should be doing in this situation

We started feeding him goat milk which he thankfully took to quite easily and have scheduled a couple times of the day to feed him. The links have helped a lot in clarifying and detailing what needs to be done to keep him healthy, and we’ll definitely be taking notes!

 

[tulsi]

Very best of luck I hope your baby rabbit continues to thrive.

 

[miavanders]

I hand reared some orphaned bunnies following the link posted above. I used Cimicat milk but also found they were keen to nibble hay and baby rabbit pellets from much younger than I expected. I didn't focus too much of feeding amounts as they would get fed up easily so fed little and often and made sure to weigh them the same time every day and keep a record of this.

It’s good to know we can be a bit flexible with this! Very stressful assuming whether or not what we’re doing is correct or right.

We’ve been feeding him as much as we can, but not up to the suggested mark so it’s good to know you’ve gotten through this about the same way He gets full shortly after feeding so we try to spread out each feeding time a bit more. Also working on finding something to weigh him so we can keep account on the progress he’s made.

 

[Graciee]

It’s good to know we can be a bit flexible with this! Very stressful assuming whether or not what we’re doing is correct or right.

We’ve been feeding him as much as we can, but not up to the suggested mark so it’s good to know you’ve gotten through this about the same way He gets full shortly after feeding so we try to spread out each feeding time a bit more. Also working on finding something to weigh him so we can keep account on the progress he’s made.

Hope he does okay, maybe some kitchen food scales would be most accurate as he's so small?

Sent from my Galaxy S21 Ultra using Tapatalk

 

[bunny momma]

Sorry you lost the mother and sibling. Sending you positive vibes .