Nursing Bunny Help?

[WolfMomma]

I'm a rehabber from East Texas, and I've, honestly, never had any success with rabbits. I know that there is reallyvery littledifference in wild baby bunnies and home bred baby bunnies, so I was wondering if any of you had any experience with nursing baby rabbits to see if I am doing everything right. I'm pretty confident in my abilities, but, like I said, because I've never successfully rehabed a baby cottontail (it's difficult and heart-tugging), I'd like to see what kind of info you guys had!

I have a pretty massive support group with squirrels, but never in my life have I actually met a fellow rehabber (in person or online, but I've read success stories) that has had success with them. I hate to sound morbid or disheartening, but a lot of them loose the babies for many different reasons. . .

If you guys could help me out, please let me know, because I can post pictures and keep you updated with my progress. I really know very little about bunnies! :O

If you guys don't have any advice on 'baby' rabbits, I'd love to track my work here to share the adventure and keep record incase someone can help with 'something' if that's alright!



So far (some sad parts included):
From the begining, I was brought a pair of eastern cottontails by the neighbor boys who rescued them from their dog. Unfortunatly, only the two survived, and the remains of what looked like two more received a tear drinched burrial from the three of us. The first one, a female with a white blaze, was badly injured- torn face and missing two toes -but the second, a male with a bright red bandanna on the back of his neck, was large, plump, open-eyed, and quite alright. I wouldn't have succesfully restored the nest from what had happened, and they might have died in the freeze over the past few days if momma was too afraid to return. We've watched, we'ved waited, and no sign of any adult rabbits has been made since. :C

So here I am, five months pregnant, and nursing two cottontail fawns. The first night they arrived (the night of the attack), I fed them a solution of water and sugar that I used with squirrels to keep them hydrated when I didn't have formula on hand. The powder I had was clumped in the can because I hadn't used it in two years, and I wasn't going to feed them bad formula. :[ The next morning, I took them to the feed store, we weighed them on the bean scale, and they both had a good weight for their size: four ounces and three and a half ounces (the little girl was smaller than her brother)! <3I got the formula I always used for my squirrles, PetAg Kitten Milk Replacement (KMR) and went home, ready for feeding. This stuff even worked for the raccoon I nursed until I got a more experienced rehabber to take her on! That was a wildexperience!

Within a day of arrival, the female opened her eyes and was nursing very well, but brother was difficult and uninterested. Today is the seventh day since I brought them home, I've reduced the feedings to two to three times a day, and started them on Timothy hay and an alfalfa based pellet. The hay they love and have been eating on pretty well over the past few days, but the pellets they've only sampled once or twice- finally-just yesterday.

Any advice on encouraging them to eat the pellets would be appreciated!

I'd love to post pictures if that's okay!

 

[WolfMomma]

Okay, so I didn't see any rules about posting pictures, so I resized them to 500x375 to cut down on usage and what-not.

My husbandsnapped thesepretty hurridly this past weekend just after I fed them and was introducing them to some mixed hay from the feed store. I wish I would have wrote down what kind it was. :/

Here's the male kit, we've been calling Chubbs.

-and here's the female my husband calls Little-Bitt. It was his idea to name them. . . :/

I don't know how well you can see the scratch down the left side of her face from her eye down to her lip, but I'm so glad it healed so fast!

Here's some butt, and a little look at her right rear foot. Gosh this picture was hard to snap when she was kicking me. I can try to get some better pictures of her scrapes, but it's hard to do when I don't have a third arm.

They both look really good, and I'm glad I finally got them up to a decent weight after this weekend when they slimmed down! I'll take some recent pictures sometimes after my doctor's appointment!


[edit] Gosh, I didn't relize how much my fingers have swollen. XD

 

[LindyS]

As for milk:
Goats milk is great for orphan baby buns.

As for solid foods if pellets dont seem to get their add very tiny pieces of broccoli to the pellets or even a seed mix.
They will need lots of water!

 

[LindyS]

omg!!! how fricken cute is that. Look at them little bitty paws!!! ahhhhhh mushy

 

[Runestonez]

Because they were dog caught have you treated with any anti-biotics?
If so what one(s)?

Have you treated the cuts and scrapes?
If so with what?

Are you feeding straight KMR?
Generally I use a mixutre of KMR, whole goats milk, heavy cream and either benebac to bolster their gut or a bit of powdered colostrum mixed into the formula.

With CT's their gut bacteria sets up faster than with domestics.
I would stop the sugar water!
The excess sugar is going to cause a gut imbalance...if they are getting KMR...thats good for hydration...but it doesn't have the necessary nutrients/fats that CT mothers milk would provide!
I will PM you the measurements!

Danielle

 

[LindyS]

Oh skip the broccoli it can give gas.

Add these:
Rosemary: iron& calcium

Mint: Vit A & Magnesium

Parsley: Vit A&C

Cilantro: Vit A&C

 

[WolfMomma]

Thanks for all the PMs! I hope I corrected any missunderstandings so far, and yeah, I've heard more than my share of horror stories about baby rabbits and greens, so no thank you, LindyS! I call it the Mr.McGregor complex, to put it nicely. I'm sure you know the story of Peter Rabbit and getting a tummy ache from all those greens. Well, I've heard that it can get far worse for babies.

I'll see what I can find about herbs and see what I have in my cabnets for them. These guys are taking to the hay a lot easier than I thought!

I'll post weights and pictures in, at most, an hour, but then again, my day has been going by pretty fast!

 

[LindyS]

Ok but you didn't answer ronestonez.

 

[Runestonez]

It's OK...
We have been talking by PM.

 

[WolfMomma]

Yeah, I've been talking to Runestonez via pm, so I didn't feel like answering her twice.

 

[WolfMomma]

Okay, so, here's the best picture of the few I snapped today. They're pretty fiesty. The rest were all blured or shakey. It's so much easier to snap pictures when someone else is snapping them!

They weighed up at 4.8 ounces for the female with the blaze, and 5.2 ounces for the male. Here I thought they were going to be all pudgey and over weight. :I

When I was there though, I notced thatLittle-Bit had a balding spot on her nose! I tried to crop a close-up out of a picture, but I went ahead and highlighted it just in case it's hard to see. I don't know how my husband takes such good pictures with this stupid thing. . . Is it something I need to worry about?

 

[WolfMomma]

Here's a little better picture of the bald spot. Does it look red? Is it because she's been chewing/rooting around in her next box?

 

[Runestonez]

What have you them in/on right now?

 

[WolfMomma]

In these pictures Ijustset them on cleantowels so I could place them on the counter under a half decent light. I litterally had to be veryquick orI wouldn't have been able to get pictures at all!I put them back in their nest box after I got done with them. They got a little warm in the little box I transported them to the feed store in. Or are you talking about what they sleep in?

 

[Runestonez]

I was just trying to figure out what she had been snuzzling at to get her bald spot!
So the box they sleep in I guess!

Does their box have towels in it?
Is it cardboard, etc etc