Baby Kits Born Yesterday...Question

[dkalgren]

Hi,

I am new to the board and new to raising rabbits. I have two Angora Rabbits, my buck is a BEW English and my doe is French/English/German.

She just had kits last evening. She had 7 kits and 5 seem to be big and healthy, one is a little smaller and the only white one (pink) is small and seems to not be getting in on the milk action. I can't tell if I should intervene or just let it go for now. The lady that I bought the pair from said maybe let it go til tomorrow. He (I call it a he) seems so tiny and helpless. All the other ones are black skinned/ or dark brown but this is the only pink one.

The mom was a first time mom and she did great, had them all in the nesting box and is doing well herself. I am just a first timer and I really don't want to lose the little one, although I know this happens to.

Any advice would be appreciated.
Dawn

 

[Rainey]

Congratulations on your kits and sorry that you have one that isn't doing well. I think all of us feel bad when we have one or more kits that aren't thriving. Whatever you decide to do, you can find help with how to do it on RT. The decision each of us has to make is whether our priority is to save the life (if possible) of every kit or whether our priority is to improve the overall health of our herd by culling (or allowing nature to cull) the weak or non-thriving kit. Once you've decided you can find out how to make a formula and supplement feed a runt, how to give it more chance to get milk from the doe, how to kill a kit quickly instead of letting it slowly starve.
Not every kit can be saved, whatever you try, so for me learning to raise rabbits means learning to enjoy healthy growing kits, accepting that losses will happen, keep learning and not get discouraged by the failures.

 

[Miss M]

The surest way to give the kit the best chance possible is to give it a few exclusive feeding opportunities with the doe. Drape a towel across your lap, and put the kit in the middle, where there should be a slight depression. Then hold the doe in your lap over the kit and pet her, giving the kit the chance to feed with no competition. If it cannot get a good feeding this way, it probably has some issue that keeps it from being able to nurse effectively, and likely is not going to make it.

You can still try homemade formula, though: formula-feeding-baby-bunnies-pics-vids-t3691.html

Congratulations on the litter! I'm sorry about the one kit that isn't doing well. Hopefully it can get some milk and get growing. :clover:

 

[funnies50]

Congrats on the new litter, dkalgren! So sorry about that kit, though... Hope it gets better.

 

[dkalgren]

Thank you for your help and support. My littlest kit died. I did all that I could.
I have 5 really good size 12 day old kits and one pretty small one. I weighed the smallest and the largest yesterday. The smallest is 2.6 ounces and the largest is 6.7 ounces! They sure are cute though!

 

[EnglishSpot]

I am sorry your littlest kit died, despite your best efforts. That is always hard.

 

[Miss M]

I'm sorry you lost the one. It's hard, even when you know you did everything you could have.

They are getting into that really adorable and mischievous stage! :lol: Enjoy! They are so much fun!