hello, I have a californian/flemish litter, there were 11, down to 4. they are five days old. today my flemish doe had a litter of 12, one has died so far. I brought them all in the house for warmth. is it possible to foster some of the flemish kits to the other litter? the californian doe is a two time mother. the flemish doe had her first litter on the wire floor and they all died.
this is her second litter.
i just started with rabbits last spring.
shannon d.

Welcome!

It is possible to foster kits - if I read your question correctly, you are looking to split up the Flemish's litter to give better odds of survival? I can see where you'd want to try that. She might do just fine, but if you'd like to give fostering a go rub the Californian's pulled fur and nesting material on the kits so that they smell like her own.

Then it is up to her - some are wonderful foster mothers. Some are more reluctant. Let us know how it goes!

welcome Boundry

thanks for the welcome. is the age difference in the kits too much? 5 days.

Have they nursed off their mom yet? The colostrum is important for them to have.

I assume they have, they have fat little bellies.

Welcome, Boundary Bunny. Glad to see you here!

I don't have a lot of experience fostering rabbits, so I'll leave your question to other members.

thanks Maggie. today I put the flemish kits on the californian doe for a few minutes. then their mother tore up her cage. I think she didn't like them being with the other doe. after a while I put her in the back room with their nest. she climbed in and let them nurse for a while. afterwards she was much calmer. I think things maybe are working themselves out. whew!

Good to see you here, Boundary! You will find alot of good information and support here! Welcome and glad things are going better with your Flemmie litter.

Yes, fostering generally works out well, but I'd be wary of fostering to a mom that isn't able to take care of the kits she already has. Loosing more than half the litter is not a good sign.

JueLee has a good point- if the doe couldn't maintain her own litter, fostering doesn't seem like a good plan.

As for the colostrum, we have barn cats that are "colony raised" and sometimes a Queen will nurse other kittens before they have their own, or give birth in an established nest where the competition for teats favors the older kittens. When that is the case, her own kittens will get to be a few weeks old, and then start dying off. I assume it is because they didn't benefit from the antibodies of the colostrum since they got very little or none at all.

IMO, without colostrum most animals succumb to illness and it is nearly hopeless to try to raise them without that boost to their immune system.

Fortunately, it sounds like your doe is doing a fine job. I hope you have lots of healthy babies, and welcome to RT!

Glad the fostering went well! ...it usally does iv been fostering babies to different moms for as long as ive been breeding and never had a problem.
Welcome to rt!