With a rocky start to their life, my Lucky seven litter beat the odds and pulled through with an amazing mom/foster mom. For reasons we are unsure of, the moms milk dried up when they hit three weeks old. Losing two of the seven babies from internal damage caused by mom. Friday morning the remaining five babies (The Fab Five) were all listless and weak. Due to the horrible odds baby bunnies face when bottle fed I was not sure they would pull through. They can over eat and actually cause themselves internal issues if you let them over eat so I started with many small feedings throughout the day Friday to get them hydrated and full again. Slowly I started fazing out feedings and increasing the amount they got in them. By Monday night, they no longer needed my to feed them through the night (THANK GOODNESS). as of today, Tuesday, they will be on two feedings a day and by Friday, I hope to have them on their usual one feeding per day of milk like their mother would give to encourage them to start eating more solids and develop their digestive system. Rabbits are a very hands-off mother to begin with only feeding the babies twice daily for the first couple of weeks then moving to only once daily when they are old enough to come out of the nest box and nibble solids. They do not need to be spoiled and should not be treated like most other baby animals for this reason. Over feeding is the number one cause of death in hand raised baby bunnies. I fed many small feedings until they were going to the bathroom regularly and then started cutting back slowly due to the poor nature of their health. Even new born baby bunnies should not be fed more than 2 times a day (unless difficult circumstances such as the one my babies faced arise) then they should only be small feedings not full feedings to prevent over expansion of their tummy. My babies are not out of the woods yet at 3.5 weeks old and day 4 of bottle feeding, but with each day their odds increase greatly.
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AuthorI currently Volunteer through Dark Star Wildlife Nursery wildlife rescue to aid in saving the lives of wildlife who would otherwise be left motherless or worse. Archives
June 2017
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