Young mother, cold kits, HELP!

[tonyshuman]

Riffy wrote:

hes back to normal thanks guyss.. im going to clean his cage up in a few to see if he is pooping normal..

one of my other rabbits had babies .she is only 4 months old....she waspregnant when i got her it was my friends bun , they feel cold so i put newspapers and a little shirt ontop of dem...it seems as she didnt rip off any fur to cover them and is not feedin dem...they will probabbly die cuz dis is her 1st time ever havin babies

 

[tonyshuman]

tonyshuman wrote:

I'll start a topic in the Rabbitry about the baby bunnies. Most people who visit the Infirmary don't have experience with babies because we are primarily pet owners and our animals are spayed or neutered. In the Rabbitry section, people who breed rabbits visit. They will know how to take care of them.

If the babies are cold, I would recommend putting them in a shoebox with some bedding. Rabbit fur is the best bedding, so if one of your bunnies is shedding you can put it in there. The mom should pull fur from herself to make a nest soon. I would put a heating pad under half of the shoebox--that way the babies can wiggle onto the warm spot if they want the warmth, and if they don't want the warmth, they can still wiggle onto the other half of the box that doesn't have the heating pad.

You'll need to check to see if the mom's milk came in--the babies should have white bellies that look like they've swallowed ping pong balls if the mom has fed them.

 

[BlueGiants]

Can you give us more information? How old are the babies? When were they born? Is the mother outside? Can you bring them inside? (they will be fine away from mom for at least 12 hours...)

She may not nurse them for hours, How many did she have? What breed is the mom?

 

[aurora369]

Cross posting my response from the Infirmary thread:

If the babies are cold, you need to warm them up. Put the them on your skin under your shirt for a bit until they feel nice and toasty. Or, take a shoe box and put half of it over a heating pad set on low and put the babies on the warm side. The reason for only half the box is so that if they get too hot, they can wiggle over to the cooler side.

The babies will need to be put in a nest box. A shoe box, small rubber made or a clean litter box will work. Put about an inch or two of shavings or a soft litter in the bottom, then fill the rest of the box with hay or straw. Compact the hay down nicely and make a fist sized hole nice and deep into the hay. Transfer as much of the nest mom built into the hole along with the warmed up babies.

Once the babies are warmed up and in the nest, you can try and help mom to feed them. Cold babies will not feed, so it is very important for them to be nice and warm before starting the feeding. You can help mom feed by placing her over top of her babies that are in the box. Rabbits feed by standing over their babies, not lying down like cats and dogs do. Once she is standing over the babies, they should start nursing from below her and making squeaky noises. You'll have to keep mom distracted by petting her and/or feeding her some treats.

Put mom on the nest two or three times a day for 5 minutes. The babies nursing and suckling will stimulate mom to produce more milk and once she's got a good supply of milk the pressure will make her want to feed on her own.

Post pictures of the babies if you can. We will be able to tell if the babies are fed or not from the pictures. A well fed baby will have a round belly and a baby that is not fed will look shrunken with out a round belly.

-Dawn

 

[TinysMom]

BlueGiants wrote:

Can you give us more information? How old are the babies? When were they born? Is the mother outside? Can you bring them inside? (they will be fine away from mom for at least 12 hours...)

She may not nurse them for hours, How many did she have? What breed is the mom?

YEAH! So good to see Cathy to the rescue! I've missed you so much.