Help!

[bunnymommy91]

Hello! We adopted a rabbit and had no idea she was pregnant. After having her for 11 days one night she gave birth to FIVE babies. Within the five days since she gave birth 3 have passed away. What do I do to keep the other 2 alive

 

[JBun]

Is she producing milk and feeding them? They should have big fat round bellies at one point of the day, usually the early morning and/or evening. If they don't or look skinny and wrinkly, she's likely not feeding them well or isn't producing enough milk. If mom isn't producing enough milk, if she isn't being free fed now(nursing mother rabbits need lots more food) that could be why.

If they are getting fed and have fat bellies, there could be something like e. coli causing their deaths. If so, look for diarrhea(before mom can clean them off), particularly yellowish poop. If they have this it's an emergency and you would need to get them to an experienced rabbit vet to get them on the proper antibiotic to have any chance of saving them.
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/

Take a look at this link for other helpful tips on accidental litters.
https://flashsplace.webs.com/accidentallitters.htm

 

[Lenaly]

if you can find someone who is breeding rabbits can help you, i had asked one time and they helped from internet...

 

[bunnymommy91]

I looked into it and saw that i can bottle feed them some KRM so we are going to try that. The babies that died did look very wrinkly and skinny the ones that are still alive do look a bit more plump then the ones that had passed away. We had moved the buck into another cage and she seemed to be upset about it and one of the babies that died looked as if it had been stepped on.

 

[kookmo]

make sure the babies are warm, did the mother pull fur and build a nest, as long as they are warm. do not bother the babies only to check their bellies to make sure they are fat. if they a'rent there formulas for baby animals. if you can get the female spayed after about 3 -4 weeks as that when babies start weaning off of milk i hope this helps

 

[JBun]

I would only decide on hand feeding babies as a last resort, after being absolutely certain the mom isn't nursing them at all, or she isn't producing enough milk so they are getting an insufficient amount to thrive. Hand feeding more often than not, ends up killing the babies. Reason being is they most often end up aspirating the milk, getting aspiration pneumonia, and dying from it. Another thing that can occur is bacterial contamination in the hand feeding process causing fatal enterotoxemia from bacteria. Then if neither of those occur, there is the fact that they aren't getting the natural antibodies from mom, so the babies can grow up having serious digestive issues.

If you are certain they aren't getting milk(or enough) and that hand feeding is necessary, it should be done slowly and with great care. The formula mixture I like best is 3 parts powdered kmr, 3 parts water, 1 part plain heavy whipping cream(not whipped, no sugar), and I would add some benebac plus probiotics. The milk from mother rabbits is naturally very high in fat, which is why the cream is added. Otherwise the babies won't be getting the needed nutrients from the regular kmr and would need to be fed more often to make up for it. Or there is the fox valley formula that is recommended.

I would make sure everything was sterilized correctly, go slowly and carefully to minimize aspiration risk, and don't overfill. Make sure to stimulate the bladder and clean them off. This link has the formula info.
https://www.2ndchance.info/bunnies.htm
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EFJ6JJI/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Ava martin]

you can put the babies and the mom in a nesting box