What am I do wrong?

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

I'm at my wits end with my rhinelander litter. They're 7 days old today and out of the 5 I've lost 3. One died from getting chilled when it crawled away from the rest and two died today.

I've been nursing them to their mother who rejected the nest, I had only been feeding them once a day since all my other does feed either that or twice a day and the litters have been great, but this litter has taken a big fall with nursing. I lost the two sports today and I'm almost positive that it was due to lack of feeding, even though I was nursing them until they were completely full. But each time I would go back to nurse them, they all seemed to have small bellies.

Mom is in a fit bill of health and is producing a ton of milk, her teats are perfectly healthy and the kits suckle easily. Now I'm blaming myself for not nursing them enough, but honestly they seemed to be thriving from once a day nursing, that is until the next feeding when I noticed yesterday that their bellies were quite thin.



Currently I'm done to two of the marked. I'm feeding them as often as their bellies start looking thin. I'm thinking that since they are a larger breed that they need more milk/feedings then I had been giving them (again even though they all had nice round bellies after each feeding). Both kits hair is coming in and they have a shine to their coat which makes me think that they are getting a good amount of protein. But now I'm feeling that I've done everything wrong even though I was doing everything by the book and to what I thought was the best care that their mother would have given them.

Maybe it's the litter? Maybe none will survive? At 7 days is it fine to give them as many feedings as needed until they get their eyes open and I start introducing hard foods?

Anything? I'm just lost right now...

 

[butsy]

maybe try feeding a bit less but more often ?

 

[Jaded]

Do you have any other litters you can foster them in?
Its hard nursing kits yourself and most of the time they end up dying due to a lack of milk and being cold.

 

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

I hadn't planned out this breeding well enough for a foster litter but for the first few days I've had no problems nursing them to mom. My does are all due this week, and as of right now I have 2 that are late and 3 due tomorrow, if anything I'm hoping for someone to pop tonight. Again, the whole litter seemed to thrive until now.

Cold wise, the only one that was chilled crawled away from the others, I've had kits in the past that have wandered off from the center of the nest for no reason. Their nest is mostly made by me but has shavings (for the very bottom like I always do) hay and a ton of hair that I pulled from mom. They're all quite toasty and our barn is climate controlled (not like that means much to babies).....

 

[Jaded]

Ok just make sure the kits are all warm and put them in with another litter tonight.

 

[lelanatty]

Raising kits isn't just about nursing them. Often the fatal flaw is not stimulating them to pee and poop. Mother rabbits will lick their babies bottoms and this stimulates their bowel and bladders. You can use a wet washcloth for this. Have you been doing this?

 

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

Oh yes I know this and have been doing it the whole time. The kits are clean, have been going to the bathroom great (trust me I've been peed on many times already -.-) and they have a clean nest as well.