weaned doe losing condition

[nikodee713]

I just want other opinions on this

I have a litter of 3 purebred netherland dwarfs, 6 1/2 weeks old that Iweaned one week ago( the mother was getting very cranky and theprevious breeder who owned her always weaned at 4-5 weeks as mom wouldstart attacking her babies if they were left with her) The 2 littlebucks (who were the tiniest at birth) are thriving (in fact they arefat!), but the little doe (who was almost twice as big when she wasborn) is slowly losing condition. She is on a diet of pellets, alfalfa,water and pedialyte. I have her separate but next to her brothers.She's eating, drinking(alot), pooiping and peeing. Just not reallyfilling out. any ideas?

 

[SunnieBunnie Rabbitry]

IMO, I would remove the Alfalfa (high inprotein) and replace it with Timothy instead (High in Fiber).Did you recently start giving her the Pedialyte?

I would give her a tablespoon of Oats once (or twice) a day to helpwith flesh condition. Black Oil sunflower seeds mixed inwould be nice too.

 

[nikodee713]

Actually the hay is probably more like a 30%alfalfa, 60% timothy with the remainder orchard grass. WhereI am(southeast central Saskatchewan Canada) the hay mainlyavailable is huge round bales(of questionable quality) or pet store (24oz. for $9.00 CAN)But I did manage to find the above bale ofhay from a horse owner(it's less dusty than the petstorebales) I started heron some pedialyte the first few days as I was concerned it wasenteritis, but she had no diarrhea. Years ago I used to useGatorade(1/3with 2/3 water) whenever I had a baby get likethis, but I read a few threads about not usingGatorade.Opinions? I hadn't lost many babies whenfeeding a different brand of feed (Martins...which is only available atone place in the the whole of Sask. but is a 3.5 hr drive) CurrentlyI'm feeding CO-OP brand, and was told that it is lacking in vit E.(thebreeder I bought all my rabbits from said he was was losing alot ofrabbits from GI problems, and the vet told him to give them additionalvit E.....but I don't know how or how much) This little does mom is aolder doe and to date she has only given me this one doe out of twolitters (7 babies) so I was hoping this doe would be healthy enoughjust in case I don't get another.

 

[TinysMom]

I have been known to supplement some of mine w/a bit of baby rice cereal mixed w/ replacement formula forkittens....and then add water. No real formula I use...maybe1 tablespoon of the baby rice cereal from the box w/ 1/2 tsp of thereplacement formula (which she's old enough and you don't needit)....and then enough water to form it into balls orsomething....kinda like the pellets mom leaves when they're young andnot eating yet.

I've also added baby banana food if need be...maybe 1/2 tsp instead of the water....

Could it be the brothers aren't letting her at the food?

Peg

 

[nikodee713]

I don't think her brother's were letting hereat. But she's separate(but right next to) them right now.And still staying about the same. She has a good appetite and all. Ithink maybe her mom who is an older doe wasn't producing or stoppedproducing milk before she had figured out about eating pellets and haylike her brothers had. I was just hoping she would be a replacement forher mom, as she was the only doe out of two litters(7 babies total) andboth parents are registered and dad is a grand champion.