Mama and Weaning

[hokankai]

Well, the three troublemakers I'm fostering are now 5 weeks old and eating hay/pellets very well. I'd be tempted to say exclusively but I'm not sure.

When should I take out the mother? I was planning on waiting another week just to be sure but I wanted to know what common practice is.

Also, how do I transition mom to a timothy pellets and unlimited hay diet? Right now she hates eating hay and will starve herself until I fill the pellets. I'm worried she's teaching the little ones bad habits as THEIR hay consumption has decreased :grumpy:. She'll go from an unlimited to a VERY limited pellet diet.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

I'm going to move this to the rabbitry as I think you will get better responses from the breeders. But do say how sweet curls is doing. Buck or doe???

 

[ZRabbits]

5 weeks in about the time kits will stop with Mom's milk and start depending on pellets and hay. But I think you will be fine giving them one more week with Mom. Just to be sure.

Regarding Mom, I would slowly start transition the amount of pellets. I think she knows those pellets help her, because they do regarding lactating and this poor Mom is the one that was pregnant all the time, so she's so used of the need. I think once she's completely done raising kits, she will find hay a good source of food.

One week with Mom and her bad habit of just pellets won't hurt the kits. Once they are separated, they will revert to the habits of their new owners.

K

 

[hokankai]

Okie dokie, I'll plan on separating her in a week!

I_Heart_Fraggles: You need to check out my Bunny Blog! I have updated 5 week old pics in there as well as a gender aaaand a new name

 

[woahlookitsme]

I have noticed with our does that they won't eat as much hay and they will leave it for the babies to eat as the babies hit 4+ weeks. We give it not too often for moms who just got away from babies (as in maybe every other afternoon or so) and so when they get it they love it. As long as the pellets are hay based I think she should be okay. It could be worse and she could stop eating anything. I say feed her what she will eat.

If mom seems content with her babies being around then it wouldn't hurt to leave them in for another week. If she ever seems agitated or annoyed then find cages for them.

 

[hokankai]

Ok great. The reason I was worried is because mom started throwing a lot of cecals like she was getting too much protein or something. I've been mixing alfalfa pellets with Oxbow timothy based and they have gone away.

 

[woahlookitsme]

Lactating and Gestating moms should get around 15-17% Protein. Just to help Glad she's doing okay

 

[hokankai]

I think she might have weaned them already. I haven't seen them even trying to suckle and her teats are smaller than before. She had an accidental litter of 7 a few days ago but I removed them at 1 day (returned them to the shelter to be bottle fed) and I think that might have started to dry her up. She doesn't look full of milk anymore.

 

[hokankai]

Double post

 

[hokankai]

I just felt her this afternoon and her breasts are very small, so I'm pretty sure she's weaned them. I'd like to separate her if that's the case because I want her to go get spayed and put up for adoption as soon as possible.

Would this be bad for the kits at all? They're about 5 weeks old and will be kept together for another week or so.

 

[woahlookitsme]

No. If the kits are kept together and acting/eating/drinking fine then they should be fine. You might want to see how long before mom can get surgery after having babies. I know with dogs there is an increased fee but i'm not sure how long after birth it is still implemented.

 

[hokankai]

Well the shelter does all of the rabbit fixes for fosters and I told them they should wait a week after I bring her in so she should be ok.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and separate her then. She's kind of hogging all of the alfalfa from the kits and that way I don't have to worry about them not getting enough protein.

Mama's not gonna be too happy though, haha.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

Hoping the weaning goes well. As for your blog...... I visited.....saw the update......cant handle the cuteness.