Can i raise this 1 day old kit myself?

[sweet_buns]

I'm worried about 1 of them in particular who doesn't seem to be getting much milk and is not as active as the others. I'd like to give them the best possible chance of survival and was wondering if its ok to try and rear it myself with formula? I have read to mix 2 parts formula mile to 1 part cream, does that sound right? Also, i was thinking of separating them, raising 3 myself and letting mum continue to raise the 3 fatties that look to be doing fine.

My questions are...

1. Can you give me advice in raising them myself?
2. What kind of formula do you recommend i use?
3. How should i construct the bedding for the 3 i am going to raise myself?
4. How often should i feed them and how much?
5. Anything else you think is important for me to know before i attempt to raise them would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Imbrium]

here are some good sites on orphans:
http://www.mybunny.org/info/newborn.htm
http://www3.telus.net/raisinghouserabbits/orphans.htm
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html
http://www.2ndchance.info/bunnies.htm

unfortunately, hand-raising kits has a *very* low success rate, even with expert care. if there's not another doe you could foster them to, then your best bet is to see if you can hold the mom and put the three smaller kits to her to nurse while the other kits remain in the nest box. they only nurse 1-2 times a day for maybe 5 minutes at a time, so it shouldn't be too difficult to hold her long enough to feed the smaller babies separately to make sure that they're getting enough milk.

if you opt to try to hand-raise them, I would keep them in the nest box with their siblings full time, just taking them out to feed them - that would be better than housing them separately.

 

[sweet_buns]

Thanks Imbrium. I actually just watched a vid of someone doing that and was about to ask about it. I think i will give that a go instead. I have someone to help me so it wont be a problem to do that for them. Fingers crossed they get fatter and stronger!

EDIT: I forgot to ask, what should i use as the bedding/nest when i remove the old stuff? The stuff that's in there now is probably 3-4 days old and they're 1 day old today. Is it time to change their nest material? How often should i do this?

 

[Sabine]

I personally would not destroy the nest until they start leaving it. Usually their mum has accumulated so much material that it can soak up quite a bit. If the kit is only one day old there is still plenty of time to catch up.

 

[tonyshuman]

I will move this to the Rabbitry, so our members who are more experienced with kits/nestboxes/etc can help. The Infirmary is mostly populated by pet owners with spayed/neutered bunnies, so we don't have a lot of experience with raising rabbits.

 

[Imbrium]

I may not be a rabbit raiser, but I still pay enough attention to breeder chat to know the answers to most stuff, hehe

as for the bedding, I don't remember that off-hand, but I *believe* it's when they start leaving the nest and crawling around on their own, as Sabine said.

when they're really little, mom has to stimulate them to potty by licking their genital area (which, btw, if she's not great about feeding some of them, you might want to make sure she's taking care of this - I would try to stimulate them yourself immediately after holding them to her for a feeding; just dip a cotton ball in warm water (as in very slightly warm, like how mom's tongue would be "body temperature") and gently stroke from the middle of their tummy to their tail a few times)... because of this, I would think she ends up ingesting most of their waste and there wouldn't be much in the nest anyway.

if you notice any particularly soiled areas in the nest (damp spots, etc.), I suppose you could spot-clean rather sparingly... but you definitely don't want to change out the nesting material completely for quite a while.

 

[woahlookitsme]

You need to clean out the nest when it's needed. My tan babies were about 8days old and damp with something wet I'm pretty sure it was urine. What I do is take the nest out of the box pick out what is still good and put the dry stuff back. I try to keep as much of the hair as possible. We have extra fur from moms who pulled fur but didn't have babies so we just get extra fur from there if needed

 

[sweet_buns]

Thanks Tonyshuman for moving this and to everyone for the input/advice. The nest seems pretty dry atm so i guess i will have a feel around every other day to see if it needs some spot cleaning. I'm just praying now that they all survive. I know it's probably not very likely since she's never had babies before and has had so many, 8 altogether.

 

[Blaze_Amita]

I usually clean my nestboxes by 14 days at least if it doesn't need it ahead of that. But I dry grass clippings in the summer and store them, shavings in the bottom(Seriously helps with absorption) and the grass or hay on top, 'punch' the nest spot and put whatever dry fur I can pick out. The dry grass clippings is usually softer than the hay. If it gets cold my momma's have pulled more hair on their own too.

 

[ladysown]

the general rule of thumb is leave kits with mom.

If you have some falling behind remove the bigger ones for one feeding so the littler ones can feed on their own OR give the little ones supplemental feeding either from mom or by giving a good formula. Goats milk, and evaporated milk work well together with a bit of corn syrup.

For cleaning the nestbox. Generally this should be done on day nine to ensure that when the kits open their eyes they have nice clean material around them.

That said... if the doe or the litter is messy, clean them up. You want the kits to stay nice and dry. Some litters can just be messy.

 

[sweet_buns]

Thanks guys. I saw Merry pulling out more fur last night so it looks like she's being a good mum. I still haven't actually seen her feeding them yet though.