10 babies 2 are hungry, what to do?

CanucksStar#17 · May 21, 2013

One of my rabbits had her babies on Saturday, she had 10, 2 of the babies are skinny and really hungry, I held her down and put the 2 of them under her so they could nurse but there wasn't any milk left for them.
What to I feed them so they live? I saw the recipe in the treadFormula feeding baby bunnies I have goats but they aren't milking until June 3rd, I do know of someone who has goats but I don't know when I will be able to get a hold of her I also don't have any Corn Syrup and won't be able to get some until tomorrow evening at the earliest. Is there any other recipe for feeding babies? Just until I can get some goats milk and corn syrup. And it said to use evaporated goat's milk, can I just use fresh milk? How long do you think these babies will last before they starve to death?

TheLittleBunny10 · May 21, 2013

take the biggest ones out before a feeding and put them in halfway through the feeding,
get some goat milk from a neighbor, or from the store, KMR (kitten milk replacer) also works well.
did you look at the tread fed-vs-unfed-kit-pictures-t3052.html
I found it very helpful

my best wishes for your babies

Miss M · May 21, 2013

Not having the ingredients on hand, that is absolutely what you should try first. Give them first shot, and then stick the others in there after a couple of minutes.

The reason the recipe calls for evaporated goat's milk is that I read a lot of recipes for bunny formula, and read the results and comments. The recipes typically called for using the evaporated goat's milk and then diluting it to regular strength, then adding corn syrup, maybe an egg yolk, maybe not, and so on.

One formula I saw several times was 1/2 Cup evaporated goat's milk, 1/2 Cup water, 1 Tablespoon corn syrup, 1 egg yolk.

The ones who used diluted evaporated goat's milk didn't seem to get great results. Results were mixed. Popples did okay, but not wonderfully. One lady who used nothing but fresh goat's milk had babies that did fine, others just didn't seem to be getting enough.

I figured, if they're not doing well consistently, well, we know that rabbit milk is incredibly rich and nutritionally dense, so maybe the formula simply is not strong enough. I took out the water, halved the corn syrup (since I had half the volume), and still put a whole egg yolk in there (which is hard to cut in half... besides, if they needed nutrient density, that would definitely give it to them).

That is how the formula I use came to be.

It doesn't mean it's the only thing you can do, though. Even if all you can do is egg yolk and sugar water, it will give them something for their little bodies to work with temporarily. It might give them a bit of the runs if it's continued too long... don't know, I haven't had to do that.

I'd try TheLittleBunny10's suggestion of withholding the other babies for a couple of minutes while those two get first shot, and then look at their tummies. If they haven't had enough, maybe try some egg yolk and sugar water. If I was in your position, with your circumstances, that's probably what I would try.

Good luck, and keep us posted! :clover:

coffeenutdesigns · May 21, 2013

When I had a runt not getting enough, I just took the largest half of the babies out one night. The next night I took out half again, but this time the half that was the most well fed. It gave my runt a chance to get a couple of good meals so he then had the energy to get in there and fight for his fair share. It didn't hurt the bigger ones to miss one meal.