What color and am I imagining Rex fur?

[CCWelch]

The back story: I know these babies are crossbred, their momma is a Californian New Zealand white cross. I was pretty sure their dad was my New Zealand White buck and the babies started out looking like NZW's and Cali's

Fast Forward: These are the babies that were being fostered that I am now bottle feeding. Tell me what you think? And what color would you consider those other than white ones to be? the undercolor is blue.

Yes, they have pink eyes, all of them.

 

[ZRabbits]

Sweet Babies! Tough to try to guess by pics. But chincilla or smoke looks like the coloring. A diluted gene makes blue.

Can't wait to see what they turn into when they get older. The coloring changes so much from babies to 3 months. I was told you really don't know the actual coloring until 4-5months. The changing of the colors in Dobby were amazing.

K

 

[CCWelch]

Bad last 2 nights, I lost 3 of the bottle babies. They are trying pellets, hay and water for the first time over the last 2 days but I also changed to the multi-species milk replacer from the farm store, I changed over gradually from the other one but now I am losing babies. I cannot get the one I was using, what do I do?

 

[ZRabbits]

Can anyone else out there can help her find the milk for her babies!

Come on community we can do it!

I'll look to see if there is anything else. I hear that goats milk is good as well for baby bunnies.

Use Meyenberg Regular Goat milk (found at Safeway in the milk section or Whole Foods) or KMR KITTEN powder formula + follow directions on the can. (KMR better for domestics). It may be easiest to start with a 3 cc/ml syringe or an eyedropper. Some use pet nurser nipples on the end of a luer lock syringe, or a teat cannula on the end of a syringe. Feed only with the bunny sitting UPRIGHT, and point syringe down towards bottom or side of mouth, so if too much comes out, the baby does not aspirate! For those who are slow to learn nursing, SC fluids may be necessary to prevent electrolyte imbalance or dehydration (check with a vet on this only!!). Domestic buns with closed eyes should be fed 2 x a day, and the number of feedings gradually decreased until they are weaned. If their eyes are still closed, you need to stimulate their bottoms with a warm moist towel after feedings to help them to pee. (Domestics are weaned about 6 weeks; wild bunnies are weaned about 3-4 weeks for cottontails and 9 weeks for jacks). Bloat is commonly associated with too frequent feedings and too much at one time.

So sorry for your loss of your bottle babies. You are doing everything you can.

K

 

[CCWelch]

These guys are 2 weeks old, they already turbo suck a bottle and put themselves to pee, they even leave the nestbox to do so.

 

[CCWelch]

I have a can of liquid ready to use goats milk esbilac, I will pick up some KMR later today(wish the goats milk esbilac came in a powder instead of only ready to use cans.

 

[CCWelch]

Well, sadly I lost all of them, the last one today at 3 weeks. It was already starting to eat hay and pellets and only got a small amount of formula but it bloated and died even with baby gas drops (simethicone)

 

[eclairemom]

So sorry to hear about all your babies :in tears::rip:

 

[The Haven Rabbitry]

So sorry to hear about the babies, but a side note to answer your color question.... californians when chilled at birth have that "gray" looking coat. They will molt out of it and become "pointed" like a californian. They ALWAYS lose this color. I have had many litters of californians born in the winter that are "gray". Just for future reference!

 

[CCWelch]

Thank you for the color information, I no longer have their mom so I will not be dealing with that until I get some Cali's again. This litter was their mom's third strike.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:rip:

 

[CCWelch]

Sorry if my 3 strikes rule seems a little cold, I raise rabbits commercially and for showing, if a doe cannot or will not raise her litter and her babies are not hardy and robust enough to foster, usually I try to pet her out first but if it takes more than a month to get her petted out, to me it is wasted cage space then I have to remedy that.

 

[CCWelch]

I think there was something a miss with this litter because my foster doe will usually not reject babies, she raised these to 10 days then kicked them out and refused to nurse them, the day after that I fostered a few more babies to her (from another mom) they are fat and healthy and starting to eat solid food now, she took over just fine.