(RIP) Caring for the baby rabbits

[wawacrates]

the pregnancy came rather unexpected, but my female rabbit (Esset) is doing a good job. However, there is one that seems rather close to death. I believe its due to lack of food, because she's not removing it from the other healthy ones.

I really hope I didnt get to it too late, because he/she is very skinny and not moving much. They were born 9 days ago, so he/she couldnt have survived that long if he/she hadn't at least eaten a few times.

I bought kitten replacement milk and gave him/her a few drops. He started twitching and moving a little bit after swallowing the milk.

anyway, i guess i just wanted to share this with someone because its scary knowing that he/she will only survive if i care for it correctly.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? How much milk do you give and how many times a day? (i read that overfeeding is one of the lead killers of baby rabbits, cared for by humans of course) also, how exactly am i supposed to store the milk i bought (it came in a can and said "dispose after 72 hours". should i freeze it or chill it? it's currently in the fridge in a ziplock bag and i plan on letting it get to room temperature before giving it again. if im wrong at all, please correct me

I suppose i could have just looked up this information but question sites (specifically yahoo answers) are rather ill informed communities. thanks!

 

[hillrise]

Yeah, keep the milk chilled and reheat to skin temperature before you feed it to him. Mother rabbits feed their babies once a day, so to imitate that, you would feed it once a day until its tummy starts to get round (might take half an hour with a bottle, although normally mommas only feed them for about five minutes...guess it flows better out of teats). Since it's already 9 days old, you shouldn't have to do this for very long--they'll usually start nibbling pellets after their eyes open up between 10 and 14 days old, and can be switched to it completely at 21 days if they're also drinking water.

 

[wawacrates]

thanks for your reply, hillrise. unfortunately, he passed a few minutes ago. hopefully, he/she didnt feel much pain. I read somewhere that if they arent fed regularly, their metabolisms slow down and they just sleep more until they don't wake up. i hope that's true cause this is pretty rough on me

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We're sorry for your loss.