Baby rabbits

[allyxoxo]

My doe had babies and we have four now because unfortunately the others passed away. Since the mama became ill from how much the babies nurses on her, I have to syringe feed two of them. The two I don’t have to syringe feed are very big and will eat pellets and hay, and drink water on their own and their fur looks normal but a little messy even when I brush it for them. But the two I am needing to syringe feed are a bit more thin than the other two, and their fur is getting very tangled and sticky because the milk/formula I am giving them gets all over their face and neck. On one of the babies, the fur is so bad that you can pretty much only see the skin. I try wiping it off with a damp cloth after feeding them but it doesn’t seem to do anything and only
make it appear worse.

Is there anything I could do to get the babies cleaned up and get the fur to cover up the skin? I don’t want the poor things to be cold.

 

[JBun]

What are you feeding the mom(type and amount of food)? Now that she's feeling better, 4 kits shouldn't be too much for her to handle if her diet is the correct one for a nursing doe.

 

[allyxoxo]

Mama is eating pellets and timothy hay, drinking lots of water but the vet we took her to advised us not to let her nurse anymore since she could end up getting ill again. And I’ve tried to get her to be with the babies just to see them, but she tries to attack them now by biting them
or pushing them on the ground so they get scared and run away from her and me when she does that. So trying to get her to nurse again wouldn’t work.. but the formula gets all over them so I need to find a way to clean them and make the fur be fluffy again instead of sticking to their skin and face.

 

[JBun]

Can you try wiping them off with a warm damp cloth? Then you need to make sure they stay warm until completely dry. I've used a blow dryer on low before, but it has to be done very carefully making sure it doesn't scare them and also carefully monitor to make sure they aren't getting too hot or too cold. Otherwise, towel dry and monitor body temp until completely dry.

So are the two little ones just not wanting to eat solid food like the other two bigger ones? What formula mixture are you using? Are you adding plain heavy cream to it to help boost the fat content?

 

[allyxoxo]

I have tried that and taking a little bit of warm water and putting it directly on the fur to clean it, then using the blow dryer but the fur stays sticky and hard still. And the two smaller ones won’t eat the pellets put will nibble on some hay and drink water every so often, but when I bring the formula to feed them then they go crazy and just keep eating that. I use KMR with heavy cream for only the tiny babies, the bigger babies will refuse that and just eat hay and pellets.