Malnutrioned Buns

[Sealy]

I must have lost my hare-loving mind1 I rescued 3 baby buns yesterday from my countie's shelter.. all about 10-12 weeks old. I am going to have to enter Buns Anonymous soon
So now I have 2 more baby Lionheads & a baby Jersey Wooly, all bony from malnutrition. ( however, no runny eyes, nose or no indication of mites, so far)
I brought them home late yesterday afternoon, immedietly put tons of hay out for them, alfalfa pellets, a water bottle and a free standing crock of water.
Just overnight, their poops are better, urine is a good color, and they all are alert and active.
Do I just continue my present feeding regimen or is there something I need to add to this?

~Sealy
( & Bonny, Dandelion & the newly aquired Oregano, Sage & Turnip Top)

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[ra7751]

Hi,

I would say keep doing what you are doing. We see lots of emaciated rabbits coming into our rescue and you are doing exactly what we do. If you do too much, it will cause GI upset. Free choice hay, pellets and water is the way to go.

Randy

 

[missyscove]

It sounds to me like you're doing all the right things. I just want to make sure... you're not leaving them all together are you? Unless you're sure they're all the same gender. You wouldn't want to have to put them through a pregnancy at that age and condition.

 

[Sealy]

Thanls Randy & Missy...Good to hear on the nutrition. Hopefully, they will be less bony soon!

yipes on the keeping them together! Over night I did.. they were all together at the shelter. :/ I suppose I foolishly thought they just weren't old enough to mate yet.
Turnip Top ( the Jersey) is definetly a female and I do believe Oregano and Sage ( Lionheads) could be boys. It's so hard to tell for me still when they are that young. But their parts don't look like Turnip's...sooooo. I guess I better get them seperated today!
Curious though, after having been so bonded, how will seperating them effect them psychologically? ( at least until they are spayed & neutered and I would agree that the psyhological consequences would be much better than pregnancy!)

 

[ra7751]

We have run into that bonding thing with rescues. Put them in cages that are next to each other so they can "talk" and physically touch each other....without too much touching. If your estimate of age is correct...I doubt the girls could conceive but the boys can fire live shots as soon the the testicles drop..and they can store sperm so they can impregnate a female for some time after neutering. And we will join your "Buns Anonymus" chapter....we have 63 full time residents (domestic rabbits), 3 morewe are fostering for a vet student while she is doing clinicals out of state, 4 degus, 4 chins, 2 short tailed opossums, 3 guinea pigs, 2 hamsters, 12 birds (including a wild caught domestic dove and a starling that won't leave), 12 cottontails, 5 opossums, 2 bluebirds and a squirrel. Guess it's time to start cleaning cages....it's like the Energizer bunny..it just goes on and on and on.

Randy

 

[Sealy]

O_O Wow Randy, I think maybe you should be the BA president heh. You will need to attend many many meetings!
I am building a NIC cage today for them, so I will make the seperate sections. Poor things :/ After looking at some more Lionhead age stages, I'm thinking the Lionheads are only about 7 weeks. They are just now beggining to molt a bit.
But I won't take any chances, as much as I would love to have a whole house full, I don't want them that way!

~Sealy

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[Agustina]

Hey Sealy, I went through the exact same thing. Got two bonded babies with malnutrition that turned out to be a girl and a boy and I was worried to brake their bond by separating them. I spent with them in the same room with close supervision all the time that I could and separated them when I wasn't present. They didn't lose the bond, but I don't think they would have lost it either way, they even survived adolescence!