rockyhillrabbits
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- Joined
- Mar 10, 2022
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I have two litters that are the same age. One is a purebred New Zealand litter and the other is a New Zealand crossed with a Flemish Giant litter. In the mixed litter, I lost 2 when they were 2 weeks old. I lost another a few days ago and then another yesterday. 1 was found dead with hay in it's mouth and a little bit of green discharge, but it could have been green from the hay. The last 2 were fine when I fed and watered but dying the next day. The one that died most recently had a hard belly. No diarrhea, no mucous in the droppings. The only thing that was changed before this last death, was I had gotten a couple bags of rabbit feed sold at Wal-Mart included with the rabbits and cages I had picked up from a friend. He also gave me a bag of timothy hay. I had also been feeding a compressed Standlee bale of Alfalfa/Timothy but when I ran out I had to get just Alfalfa.
I had mixed the Wal-Mart feed in with the feed I use, thinking it wouldn't affect them because it was still mostly my feed. But when I had a death, I stopped giving them the alfalfa hay. I have fed babies alfalfa hay before without any issue and other than being a little dustier than usual, this hay looks like what I always get. I don't have access to any other hay so I have been using compressed bales for many months.
The purebred litter is doing fine on the same feed. It just has me stumped.
I had mixed the Wal-Mart feed in with the feed I use, thinking it wouldn't affect them because it was still mostly my feed. But when I had a death, I stopped giving them the alfalfa hay. I have fed babies alfalfa hay before without any issue and other than being a little dustier than usual, this hay looks like what I always get. I don't have access to any other hay so I have been using compressed bales for many months.
The purebred litter is doing fine on the same feed. It just has me stumped.