Questions about fattening up my recovering doe

So I have a doe named Turtle who ended up with some pretty serious sore hocks, at first I tried just keeping her cage cleaned (Which ended up become a daily task) So I gave her a box to sit in, a box with some hay that I cleaned out daily so she wasn't sitting in her own filth. Well eventually she peed in the box so many times the bottom fell out, this is when she got put into a new cage. After putting her in the new cage I also gave her a wide plank to sit on *Which she did use* but her heels weren't really healing (I kinda assumed they were since she was being more active) I picked her up the other day after thinking she was dead in her cage, she was so skinny, she must not have been eating nearly enough between the foot injury and having 6 kits to share food with. She's inside now, has a cage lined with towels and she has a nice soft blanket she likes to lay on. But I still feel more of her ribs and spine than I would care too and I'd like to give her something a bit more fattening once every few days just to add on the extra weight. I was thinking of mixing some oats in molasses and see if she'll eat it but am kinda wondering how much to feed and what proportions. Any help would be appreciated

By the way her sore hocks are almost completely healed although she will likely remain indoors until she has grown some fur to cover her heels or when I get vetrap to wrap her feet up.

My nursing does get a handful of plain oats and some sunflower seeds almost daily. Try those maybe?

:yeahthat: And stuff that hutch full of straw so she stays off the wire. That will help her feet more that anything. It lets the pee and poop through but keeps dry padding under her feet.

Oats and black oil sunflower seeds or sunflower hearts/meat, which are even higher protein and fat than with the black shell. Not the whole striped kind in the shell. That shell cannot be digested and are less appealing. Other than that the form doesn't matter although the more processed the oats they more they tend to like them. Whole oats just screened for debris from the field may or may not be eaten much where hulled, cleaned oats like usually packaged for horses are more likely to disappear and rolled oats or plain oatmeal (same thing one just comes in a bulk, cheap feed store bag and doesn't have as uniform of particles) are usually the most enticing. I've also mixed milk replacer for like horses or goats into my feed. It was suggested to help increase milk production and weight management over things like calf manna that I have read from a few sources and possibly experienced it causing mastitis. I don't have a large enough sample to be sure but I don't use it in exchange for those other 3 options. You can also use horse feed pellets. They are near double the fat content of rabbit pellets and I've done it before. When I couldn't get consistently good rabbit pellets I used various horse feed and soft mineral blocks but if they weren't in a colony and provided with lots of hay they got quite fat on them.

She's in my room on the floor with tons of sheets and towels right now lol. She's so skinny I don't want her to be outside because she don't need to burn any unnecessary calories, she does stay outside for the better part of the day but comes in as soon as it's dark *About 6pm right now* I've been free feeding her, and I can tell she's improving because she's eating more, and she's been pottying more. I'm thinking about giving her a litter box in the cage with hay so cleanup is easier from day to day. I'll add some oats, but I don't have any sunflower seeds and I've asked for some to be picked up but they have yet to found any, so I was told to look on amazon, which is something I could do, but anyway. Would Molasses hurt or help her? I've heard they like it and it'll help fatten her but I want to hear from you guys.

An update on her, no more swelling in the hocks and the scabs are getting smaller daily, last I checked her ears the mites are gone or at least gone enough I can't see them but I'll keep up treatment at least another week (I use a mix of plantain salve and coconut oil and the ear mites are gone/ears are pink after about a week of treatment). I also wash her bedding daily or at least change it out and I always sweep around her cage. She's literally living the bunny luxury life right now, spending days out in the grass, nights in a warm, soft bed.

akane, I'll look into getting some milk replacer, would it be bad to give it to her though since she's not pregnant/nursing? Her kits have been long weaned. I felt of her yesterday and I can still feel every bit of her spine except the like top three vertebrae. I can still feel her ribs pretty good too, she's definitely bigger than when I found her and is starting to put up more of a fight/ getting stronger.

Sunflower seeds are sold as wild bird seed. Like I said you need the black shelled ones or just the inner meat pieces and not the whole striped. They are at pretty much every feed store, garden store, some hardware stores, and some grocery stores. <br /><br /> -- Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:54 am -- <br /><br /> Molasses can cause diarrhea in too high of amounts. The milk replacer shouldn't do any harm even if it's not specifically used for producing milk. It is sort of dairy parts that lack the lactose and designed to be easier to digest for young animals. I think it is superior to cow milk derived products even when cultured unless you want more live bacteria but most pellet feeds have probiotics and most milk replacers have probiotics so all you gain from something like yogurt is if you get the more expensive kind that has live bacteria cultures. Actually miso soup from fermented soy beans is a better probiotic than yogurt. Not that we really are needing a probiotic but just pointing out why I chose the milk replacer as a protein and fat source along with most things needed to make milk if milk is being produced.

I didn't know that those were the kind of sunflower seeds I was looking for! I thought they were some special kind of some sort lol. I will definitely get some black sunflower seeds today then since I need more feed anyway. I'll try to get some milk replacer, although I think it would almost be wasteful because after this it would just sit and go bad.. Thank you guys for all the help, I'll try to get a pic of her in better lighting than my bedroom sometime, she's really pretty..

I'm using both black oil sunflower seeds and calf mana to help one of my does recover.

I am at fault because I bread her too quickly a 2nd time. (In my defence I am used to meat breeds that bounce back very quickly from litters)
I want to give her a good rest, but I have been given an opportunity to breed her at a show at the end of this month.
If she isn't back in condition, I will have to pass, because I will not risk her life for more kits.

I'm hoping to rebreed her soon, but not until she's fully healed. Feed store was apparently closed early today so they're getting fruits and veggies with a little pellets.