Glad you have your little guy and I hope thingsgo well for you and him. Stress factors were explained in thenext post and are a very real problem in buns so young. Mostresponsible breeders do not wean the kits until 6 to 8 weeks, no lesssell them. We wean at six weeks. The litter isplaced together in a separate cage. We watch them verycarefully for the next two weeks to be sure they are all adapting wellto eating pellets and drinking just water and eating hay.They go up for sale at 8 weeks. If one is smaller that therest we leave it with mom for another week and then wean to the cagewith the rest of the litter and that one is not sold until 9 weeks old."Rabbit Raisers" will sell to pet stores and anyone else at six weeksor sometimes even earlier because pet stores want tiny bunnies as theyare cuter and sell faster. However, many times this practiceturns to a tragic end as the bunny dies, mainly because it was weanedto soon.
Many times buns must be weaned earlier than 6 weeks, perhaps anaccidental rebreeding of the doe or other problems. Forexample, we have a little polish bew doe whom I had to wean at 4weeks. Either mom, or her sister, bit off the top of one ear,and she has all the fur from her eye to her nose gone, could be overenthusiastic grooming by mom, just don't know. We triedfostering to another litter, but it didn;t work, so she is in a cage onout coffee table and gets carried around and snuggled all daylong. She is doing well so far.
Good luck with your new baby. Donna