An observation of 4 week old kits....

[Frosted Rabbits]

Okay, it took forever for Ar to finally kindle a litter and raise some. They are 4 weeks old today, and for the last week, from what I can tell, are no longer nursing.

Several times on this forum, people ask when it is 'safe' to introduce fresh food to kits.

In years past, I used some caution when kits were housed with their mother-- but this past month, I just threw the stuff in the cage...

Since their eyes were just starting to open, these kits have been nibbling forage right alongside their mother. I have not been picky about ratios of plants, or even sorting out undesirables--

I noticed yesterday, AR is no longer nursing the kits. They are drinking from both bowl and bottle. They are selective about the forage-- even going so far as to ignore the sedges that were included in today's fresh cuttings. They eat the pellets and horse senior feed just as readily as the fresh forage. In the last week, they almost doubled their weight.
I am thinking, as long as the kits are kept with 'mom' and are getting the benefit of nursing when the solid foods are introduced, it really does not matter what is introduced and when-- they eat foods as she eats them-- nibbling right up to her mouth on shared pieces of forage. They nibble their mothers cecatropes, as well as their own.

Feeding a natural diet should include introduction to the diet in a natural manner-- I have found over the last two and a half weeks, that one does not have to exclude wide varieties of fresh food from the mothers diet when she has kits in the cage-- Make sure there is plenty of everything, and Mom will supply what the kits need to develop the digestive flora needed for a safe introduction.

 

[Joe n TN]

For what it is worth, I have found the exact same thing to be true. I feed a huge variety of forage in the spring and summer to supplement my pellet based diet. I've had no problems, in fact, I am not even seeing slower growth rates. I feed the forage first thing in the morning and free feed pellets in the evening for the growers.

Joe

 

[paintrider89]

I have only raised two litters so far. But this is what I did. Though I didn't ever hear different? My kits were quick to become beggers like my mommas. Whenever Simone is in the harden, you could see a row of bunnies sniffing in your direction. Same with the pellets. Everyone gets some in the mornings, when the kits start sniffing at mommas, I put another bowl in with some, and they took right to eating. My kits stopped attacking momma for milk at about 4 weeks. So that seems quite normal.

 

[MaggieJ]

The best piece of advice I was given when starting with natural feeding was to "start off as you mean to continue." Since then I have made the greens available to the buns from the beginning. I've never had a problem doing it this way.

 

[Secuono]

I've always been giving the nest whatever mom is eating, never restricting mom or the kits. Never had any issues at weaning, since the kits have been eating adult food since they were still in the nest.
But I've never had them grow faster just because they are still getting milk as well as pellets and greens. If anything, greens slow them down, same with grain.

 

[squidpop]

This is really valuable information for me because-- I've been finding it to be a pain in the butt to take the Doe out of the cage away from her babies to feed her fresh grass and greens everyday-- and then going back and putting her back in with the babies. I've been doing that for the whole first 7 weeks- hmmm thins makes things easier.

 

[MaggieJ]

Squidpop, please remember though that if you have youngsters who have not had greens from the beginning and are now partially grown, that they will need an adjustment period of very limited greens. For your next litters, though, it will make things a lot easier!

 

[Frosted Rabbits]

Okay, It has been a few days since I've accessed internet--ARs kits are sassy and full of piss and vinegar--They are showing the proper sort of selection when picking through forage-- passing up the "toxic" and other less desirable plants, like sedges. This means I can send the kids out to cut forage, without having to supervise everything... I made a bottom for a dog crate, and can now put everyone outside at the same time-- the kits are enjoying their time under the maple tree, while gorging on all the forage I can cut. The weight gain is steady, this is the first litter I have really watched weight gains on, due to the chance of being able to take them to a show ...