Bottle feeding 2 day old kits - please help!

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Mrr

Mrr

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Abbotsford, British Columbia
So my Flemish had her litter of 12 kits on Friday morning.
I wanted to foster some to a more experienced doe as this is just her second litter, but the other doe had 8 herself so we weren't sure if adding any more was a bad idea or not. The litter is half flemish/ half champagne, so some kits came out quite a bit bigger than others. Today I noticed that, while everyone else looks nice and well fed, two of the smaller kits are looking quite anorexic. I'm thinking they aren't getting to their mom for feeding time, so I've decided to try bottle feeding. Im coming back from buying kitten milk replacer and a bottle right now, but I'm wondering if anyone can help me with how to proceed.
Do I feed until they're done nursing or give a set amount/time? Also, only once a day, correct? When can I safely stop bottle feeding? I've bottle and tube fed puppies/kittens before, but rabbits are new to me.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated!
 
I have no experience with hand-feeding tiny kits, but other members have shared their experiences. You may have read these "sticky" threads already, but if not they can certainly help you.

This is the best recipe for a formula that we have to date. It is far better than KMR.
updated-hand-feeding-formula-t27372.html

This thread will help you with the "how to feed" parts of the adventure.
formula-feeding-baby-bunnies-pics-vids-t3691.html

And another.
tips-for-handraising-kits-t2486.html

Feeding newborns is challenging and oftentimes they just don't make it, but if you have the time and dedication, it is worth a try.
:good-luck:
 
When we've had kits that looked like they weren't getting fed, we tried once hand feeding and were not successful. What has worked better for us was taking out the fatter kits for one feeding and leaving the smaller half of the litter in to get fed without so much competition. Then we put everyone back for the next feeding. Any small kit that didn't look full after being given that better chance was culled. Usually it only took a couple days of taking the biggest out for one feeding to get everyone looking fed.
Best of luck with the litter whatever you decide to do.
 
Rabbit milk is much more rich than any other milk - Ive bottled raised kits successfully before, but it is a last resort. (My bottle feeding recipe was mostly fresh goat milk, with a bit of heavy whipping cream and powdered KMR mixed in). You feed them until they wont drink anymore - often they dont latch on to any bottle syringe or anything, and this is a tedious process, of putting milk on their lips and letting them lick it off. You need to feed more than that - 2-4 times a day, with the extra feeding making up for the lower quality of milk.

In your case I would take a doe (which ever is easier to handle, but preferably the mother), and hold her down on a towel on your lap with the skinny babies under her, forcing her to feed them. This will give them an extra feeding, and should give them enough milk to hold off until they can steal those extra feedings themselves. Of course, it may already be too late, or they may have other problems leading to their skinniness which cause them further problems. But no matter how you handle it, rabbit milk will work for you better than any substitute.
 
We have never, even once, had luck trying to get a doe to release her milk while on our lap with the babies in a towel under her.

We have read on RT that people do get it to work, but we have tried about 10 different times (litters) and never once got it to work. We even tried other does (not related to the kits) that also had their own babies.

What we believe is that a doe will "release" her milk when she knows it's time........... and not before.

How have any of you had luck in "forcing" a doe to give milk? I sure would like to find that out.

Thank you.
 
The milk does seem to come slower when its forced - takes me about 20 minutes to fill up one baby rabbit. The type of rabbits I have too are Himalayans, which don't stress much when held - if the doe is super stressy you can barely get anything. If the baby is already too weak to aggressively nurse, then you can hardly get anything from forcing them to nurse either. I've had it help many babies, but it doesn't save all of them - still better than bottle raising though. Another way I've done it is holding the rabbit upside down in lap in a scruff and holding the babies on her from above.
 
Thank you to everyone who responded. I managed to get a bit of KMR into him yesterday, it took a bit of force feeding at the beginning and then he was suckling at the bottle like crazy. I don't know if I did it right, but I went until he seemed like he didn't want to eat anymore and just kept trying to curl up in my hand and go to sleep. I checked him again this morning and it seems like he missed out on feeding with his siblings once again, so another session of bottle feeding after work it is! First I might try holding him to his mom though. Does anyone knkw how to tell if hes actually getting any from her though? I couldnt find goats milk but today I'm going to check again.. if nothing else I might add some heavy whipping cream and an egg yolk into the mix. Hopefully I can keep him going a bit.. He's full of energy and spunk still at least..
 
Yeah I checked him for that afterwards and he didn't have that look, but he just seemed done. All he wanted to do was sleep. It looked fuller than it was at least though. The siblings all have full bellies at least, so she is feeding them.. it just seems like this one is being left out. I just don't know how to tell if he's getting anything from the mom if I hold her still.. just keep checking the belly?
 
Checking the belly is the only way I know to tell . . . but then I've never hand-fed kits.

Sometimes there is a reason a kit doesn't/isn't able to nurse. It may not be apparent externally, but if a helping hand for a few days doesn't do the trick, you might want to consider euthanasia. This has to be your call, of course, and some rabbit breeders go to extraordinary lengths to raise these kits. Others opt to cull, reasoning that a kit that frail is not likely to do well even with help.
 
Thanks jimmywalt, maybe I'll try my local feed store for that!

I just picked up a bit of heavy whipping cream and mixed a bit of that and an egg yolk into the solution I'm using.. Unfortunately my boyfriend probably won't want me to go much further to save the little guy if this doesn't work. I realize that you'll always lose some, but I'd really rather not in this case.

I've attached a link to a video of his feeding session yesterday evening. I started by a drop on his lips and he almost instantly latched onto the nipple

(No idea how to actually embed the video on this post)

https://youtu.be/KIRbizLRNLc <br /><br /> -- Tue Aug 16, 2016 6:56 am -- <br /><br /> Well.. I tried my best.

I woke up this morning to find that he'd managed to get out of his nest box and had frozen in the cool morning temperatures. I can't help but feel like if I'd just woken up earlier I could have found him.. feeling pretty bad right now :(

We seem to have this trouble every morning of kits getting out of the box. Luckily I manage to find them all before anything happens. I don't know.. maybe I need to put a lip on the front of the box to keep them from escaping?
 
I have a "baby scraper" lip on my boxes. It helps.

Another option I use is bringing my boxes inside. I take them out twice a day for feedings for the first two weeks.
 
kit-won-t-eat-help-t30400.html

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I just went through a situation of needing to bottle feed with one of my kits, you can read it on the attached thread above.
I used the formula the JimmyWalt suggested and got my evaporated goats milk at Walmart. It comes in a can. ;) I found all the ingredients at Walmart.
 

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