hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Emma Purnell — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 13:32:11 GMT

I am also really sorry to hear that.

I do want to thank people for all the advice on here though, I had a call from a member of the public wanting advice on hand rearing some little bunnies and could pass on all your fabulous info!!

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Saskia Quinn — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:43:16 GMT

aw Im sorry to hear that Shell.

Well, at least you tried, it just wasnt meant to be.

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

shell30984 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:48:16 GMT

Hi all,

Unfortunatley the baby bunny didnt make it, despite all your advice and my constant efforts :( he was ok for a while - but never really managed to suckle on his own properly!!

its such a shame

But thanks for all your replies

xxx

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Rachel Jayne — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:41:01 GMT

The little nozzles that used to come with old bottles of canaural (if you still have any lying about at work) are fab, syringes & bottles are all too big.

I've successfully hadnreared two bunnies, one wild & one chinchilla rabbit.

Don't try & force feed them too often, they only need feeding every 12 hours, obviously feed them more frequently if they ask for it, but think about how the mother only feeds them very infrequently to avoid drawing attention to them in the wild.

They usually love cimicat, I've always used 1:1 when they're very little, gradually watering down. doe's milk is very thick & rich.

You can had a pinch of bio-lapis or abidec into the milk as a bit of a pick-me-up.

Hope it's still alive & doing ok?!

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Saskia Quinn — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:32:16 GMT

wondering if the little rabbit made it?

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

A Little TLC — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:38:33 GMT

Jacqui will help you!!! She has to work from home this time of year as she has so many babies to rear.

Rabbits are tricky, you have to persist! poke the teat in the side of the mouth and bring round to the front, try squeezing a bit in or wobbling the teat... weird i know. they are little blighters to get started, but patience is the answer :)

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

shell30984 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:16:11 GMT

Thanks Guys - well it survived the night, but i cannot get it to feed :( i keep trying and it keeps crying as if its hungry, but with no luck!

Im waiting for a call back from tiggywinkles, so hopefully they will give me any extra advice i need!!

its all so confusing!! lol

But any advice on how to get it to feed would be of great help, as i really dont want this poor lil chap to go down hill?!?

Thanks so far Guys!!!!

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Samantha Palmer — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:41:03 GMT

I've handreared a lot of wildlife over the years, and the success rate, even with the best experience isnt that great. However, good on you for trying, its certainly worth it in my opinion. I looked all this up for you from my wildlife BSAVA book so i got it just right.

They can be fed on powered milk replacers like cimicat, or goats milk (I'd recommend the goats milk simply because its already made up to the correct percentage and its natural). If you use milk replacers, they need more feeds (up to 4) and the milk diluted to 2:1 milk replacer to water. Bunny babies need a lot of fat and calories.

Can be offered food like grass, hay and veg at any time after 18 days old. if you can get hold of them, feeding adult rabbit caecotrophs should be given too to get their job flora going. (Can be given in a syinge or scattered on the floor).

All the rest like keeping warm and toiletting etc it the same as for any other mammal baby.

Good luck.

Sam

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

A Little TLC — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:52:10 GMT

She is a legend isn't she :) i am housesitting for her at the end of the month.... well... animal sitting actually, she has quite a mengagerie at the moment, i',m gonna have my work cut out!! love it though, love the babies!!

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Dreamcatcher — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:36:37 GMT

I hand-reared a baby bun a couple of months ago, and he survived thankfully! I rang Tiggywinks too and spoke to Jacqui - she was very helpful! My bunny was a bit older... we reckon he was about two weeks old. I can't remember the exact ratio- but I fed him a mix of double cream and cimicat (mixed with boiled water that had been left to cool- although Jacqui recommended Esbilace, but we didn't have any at the time) I think it was one part cream to 4 parts cimicat (already mixed). I also mixed half a tea-spoon or so of rabbit recovery formula in there (Which I increased slightly as he got older). Jacqui recommended feeding him 10mls twice a day, however I found he simply couldn't manage all of that and so split the feeds into 5mls four times a day. I weighed him every day to check he was putting weight on. (He lost weight initially, due to stress I think). I also introduced grass, dandelion leaves etc straight away. When he started eating that I cut down the milk to two to three meals a day, then introduced hard feed (excel junior).

I then cut the milk to just once a day for a couple of days and continued to watch his weight. Once eating properly he didn't really seem to want much milk anymore anyway and I just stopped.

I hope that is some help... he is the only buny I have ever hand-reared so I'm sure more experienced people would have better advice. Also I'm sure it would be much different for a younger bunny - definately try ringing Tiggywinks. My bunny didn't like being syringe-fed at first, but persevere because within a couple of days he came to quite enjoy it! Also be careful not to feed the milk to fast as they can inhale it :-S

Good luck!

xxx

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Nicola Smith — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:34:16 GMT

I did a litter of 6 many yars ago, can't rem ember much except only fed 2x daily as I know overfeeding is bad an gives them bloat. They got to 6 weeks then lost 2 during weaning to jelly d+ and bloat, at least some made it though.

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

A Little TLC — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:54:30 GMT

Phone tiggywinkles. 01844 292292. you need to speak to the head foster career, Jacqui.

wild bunnies are really hard to get through, but it is possible... i have done it, but not for a while, and tiggys protocol is often changing.

cimicat does not agree with them at all, not sure about domestics, but for wild it always seems to be terrible. we always used to use unpasturised goats milk, however at the young age, we would add in colostrum. a pinch of avipro, and some bio-yogurt. do call, though as i am a bit rusty, haven't made theor milk up for a while as i can go in at the moment. so im not up to scratch with this years recipie!!

the amount you feed varys with the age, and its important to stick to it.

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Doolally — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:54:22 GMT

Apparently weaning time is the danger period. They seem to do really well on milk, then die when it comes to weaning

I read somewhere that when it comes to weaning you should try to feed the bunnies caecotrophs to help establish their gut flora....although that then poses the problem of finding a willing adult bunny donor and trying to harvest them from said bunny!

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

xxserahxx — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:43:46 GMT

Id recommend about 3-4 times daily.. as cimicat isnt goin to be as rich as mothers milk so wouldnt be gettin right amount of nutrients only feeding twice daily.. but its ur choice.. :D

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

Tracy Windler RVN — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:39:00 GMT

I tried hand-rearing baby bunnies, but didn't have much success, then someone told me that I was over-feeding them. You should aim to only feed them twice or three times a day, as the parents would be out grazing a lot and wouldn't feed as often as cats/dogs etc. Good luck

Re: hand-rearing baby rabbit - advice please??? :)

xxserahxx — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:34:38 GMT

1 part Cimicat : 3.0 parts cooled boiled water. about 3-4 times daily by 1ml syringe

A 1 day old rabbit would have about 2 mls of milk daily. By 5 days the volume would increase to about 12 ml

to help pass urine .. get a warm peice of cotton wool and gently rub the genital area to stimulate the kit.

good luck.. im not sure on sucess rate suppose it depends on experience