Some bunnies born on easter and a question on nursing

[dutch_dwarf]

Hey all, I grew up with rabbits but that was many years ago. We have been the happy owner of Shelby for a year or so after rescuing her from being snake food (cousin has boa's) and bred her with a dwarf lop of similar patterning. 31 days later she had a litter of 10! bunnies. As you can see in the pictures they cover the spread on patterning with some really unique stuff.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photo's and I have a question on nursing. I found the runt today, easily half as big as the others, and my daughter is very concerned and now my wife wants to try to nurse the little guy. Is this possible? and if so do you have any tips or suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

oh and any tips on telling which type of ears they will have?

Shelby with bunnies:

 

[TinysMom]

Formula recipe

 

[SNM]

I would seperate them into 2 groups. I would do smallest five in one group and then the other in another group. Feed the groups at different times each day( dawn and dusk) There are only 6 nipples so that means somebody is not getting fed. Watch all of them closely, because that is a big litter.

 

[mistyjr]

MY LH doe had a litter of 7. 2 weeks later, She stopped feeding them, And 4 of them died. I asked around about it. And they told me that it was too many babies for her feeding them. Momma also need double what she eats in food. Feeding babies can bring momma down.
So I took the babies over to my aunt's to milk her goat. And we feed the babies goat's milk for day and 1/2.



But it looks like she's doing a great job feeding them all.

 

[TinysMom]

Wow - I've had lionheads successfully raise litters of 8, 9 and 10 (that one astounded me).

Glad to see that your babies are doing ok Misty.

 

[mistyjr]

Thanks Peg, She's a bigger doe, But she dried up with her milk, The babies were 2 weeks old. And they were so hungry, 4 died, 3 made it and now they are 3 weeks old. 2 babies with mini rex, and 1 with a Jersey! I asked a few breeders about it. And they told me it was from her having to many babies.

 

[TinysMom]

I'm not saying you're wrong Misty - hope you don't think that!

We had a problem once with does that weren't getting their milk in (turned out later lots of breeders in the area had that problem and we'd used the same feed). I had one doe - Matilda - who kept 24 babies alive for 3 days by nursing them every 8 hours (she'd do a different set of 8 every 8 hours).

She was a huge lionhead doe -and 3 days later when the last of my does had their babies - we were able to split up the babies among them and all the does had 7-8 babies each.

Some does can handle a large litter - others can't.

 

[mistyjr]

Yup..

 

[dutch_dwarf]

Thanks for the replies. I'm worried about the milk production issue too. We purchases some kitty formula to try out today so we'll see how that goes. Shelby is grazing non stop in the yard and has two bowls of pellets.

I came home from school today the the bunnies were scattered around the hutch, the poor little runt doesn't look so good. I think I will try to divide them up as suggested.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Very cute and good luck.

 

[LindyS]

Wow look at all dem babies!

 

[dutch_dwarf]

oh hey, just read the formula link. Thanks a bunch Tinysmom!

Tiny (as we've named the the little guy) didn't like the straight mix of kitty formula. So we put a ton of cilantro out for Shelby and let her chow on that while trying to get tiny latched. It wasn't going well at all and Shelby ran off outside. I was ready to call it quits when she ran back in and plopped down next to me on the floor with her hind legs stretched. So I started giving her a good petting and let Tiny burrow into her belly. We were rewarded with cute suckling sounds and a round bellied runt. Now I hope we can repeat this regularly.

 

[mistyjr]

My first litter. I had a runt also, I let him nurse momma extra then the other's babies did!

 

[dutch_dwarf]

Update, All 10 are doing well. Tiny, the runt is still tiny but seems to be growing fine with our daily bottle feeds of about 1 teaspoon. Shelby doesn't like to nurse the little ones outside her hutch so we've always just locked her up at night with them. They're all so cute I'm sad to have to let them go eventually. The big brown one is so mellow and has such nice coloring.

Stil hoping Shelby's milk production keeps up for the next couple weeks. The bunnies are nibbling on momma's poops and timothy hay bits that are mixed in the straw.

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

My mother in laws big doe raised a litter of eleven including a runt with no assistance. Good luck and please ad more pics

 

[dutch_dwarf]

As requested here's some photo's I took a couple days ago. I think Tiny is going to stay with us, he loves being held and cuddled. The rest will probably go to a local pet shop if we cant find homes for them.

 

[CCWelch]

How adorable, it looks like at least a couple will end up at least half lop eared.

 

[Must_Love_Pets]

So adorable!!I want I want!!!