Abandoned litter!

[EgyHotot]

Our normal sized dwarf hotot doe(who has already had a minimum of two sucessful litters with another breeder) kindled three babies the morning of 6/6/06. They were there when we woke up. The next morning she had a fourth baby that was a bit bigger than the other three. It didn't make it, even though we were able to warm it up.

She's either not feeding them or doesn't have milk to feed them, because they are VERY hungry and don't have full bellies. We've forced her to nurse them by flipping her over and putting the babies on her, and they seemed to get full, and then last night she fed them on her own, but she wouldn't feed them this morning. So we got a kitten milk replacement and tried to hand feed them. I have no idea how much they actually ate.

so...

My questions are these:

1) Is there some way to get her to nurse the babies?(she's not being agressive towards them, she just won't feed them.)

2)We have another doe, but she has no litter. She's had litters in the past and been a great mother. Is it possible to stimulate her to start producing milk so she can take care of them?

3)Any suggestions on how to hand-feed them, because we don't seem to be very good at feeding them.


If anyone knows anything please help! We need to try something soon or we may loose the rest of the litter too!

 

[Pipp]

moving this to the Rabbitry...

 

[aurora369]

If the mom is even remotly producing milk, I would try to get her to nurse.

You can hold her on the nest for 5 minutes every 12 hours. It lets the babies get some milk, and it will stimulate the mom's milk glands to produce more.

I had to do this with a foster litter I had. Once the babies eyes had been open for about three days, I stopped the force feedings, and she is now feeding them on her own.

Give that a try.

The babies have the best chance with mom's milk. And when you give them KMR it fills them up and they won't stimulate mom as much. So it's a vicious cycle. Once you start hand feeding, your pretty much stuck hand feeding them, and they don't have such a good chance that way.

--Dawn

 

[Starlight Rabbitry]

The mother may not be producing enough milk. I would do both. Hand-feed them and also leave them in with the mother so that she too will feed them. Make sure that if she stops feeding them that you stimulate them to urinate. Gently take a cottonball soaked with warm water and rub their genitals. This will cause them to urinate. Hopefully this is just the mother being stubborn.

You can tell if she has milk by rubbing the botton of her belly. It should feel lumpy around the nipples and should feel "swollen" If she feels like she did before she got pregnant, chances are she is not producing enough.

There is no way to get a rabbit to produce milk without giving birth or just before giving birth. At least not that I know of anyway.

Sharon