Doe in Milk?

[MatSuAK]

Soot had 10 popples today Agouti is on day 38 and still nothing I was considering fostering a few to Agouti, but would she have milk? How do you tell? I understand how to check if the popples are well fed, but I would hate to move them to a doe that has no milk.
Agouti built a nest, pulled fur, the works... Just no babies. She doesn't look or feel pregnant, but her nipples are bald and very easy to see.

 

[akane]

If she isn't actually pregnant she won't have much if any milk. Also rabbits have issues letting the milk they've produced flow. They need the hormones from giving birth before the kits will get enough. The tendency of rabbits not to let down milk when stressed or until enough hormones are building up in the body has frustrated me before when trying to save kits.

I would definitely wait and if you see any kits not doing well then decide on a course of action. Some have good luck splitting a litter in to 2 boxes and putting one in the cage in the morning and one in the cage in the evening. If the doe will feed twice a day all the kits can survive that way.

 

[Comet007]

There are quite a few herbs that can be fed, dried or fresh, that help with milk production. Fennel, dandelion (not an herb lol), goat's rue (galega officinal), raspberry leaf and lemon balm are a few. In nature, rabbits are able to seek out these things to naturally provide what their bodies need, but in captivity they rely on us to furnish them. Of course, many others I'm sure, have not used any of these and were still ok with the larger litters.

 

[Zass]

tips-for-handraising-kits-t2486.html
Here is a thread that mentions supplementing struggling kits too, in case you are interested in that route.

 

[MatSuAK]

So far so good. All the kits look plump. There are two black ones that I will keep a close eye on. They were not quit as plump as the others, but far from unfed. Soot has been a great mom for her first two litters, so fingers crossed :clover:

-- Sun Apr 27, 2014 9:58 am --

Nine of the litter are thriving and plump :cheer2: :cheer1:

One blue kit is failing. We flipped Soot yesterday, the little one rooted around and sucked on several different nipples, nothing We tried twice yesterday to formula feed twice. Ate a tiny bit, but not enough to fill the tummy. Trying it more for the experience then anything else.

-- Sun Apr 27, 2014 12:42 pm --

Blue kit got some of mom's milk this morning I think. Tummy looked somewhat fed. Still gave him some formula, and a little to a black kit that wasn't quite as roly poly as the rest. Thinking with a little supplementation they might all pull through. This whole litter will be for the freezer though since I'm not marking who is getting help and who is doing okay on their own.


-- Sun Apr 27, 2014 10:12 pm --

Might be counting my bunnies before they hatch, but hopefully good news
At 10pm all babies had full bellies of momma's milk. Hoping the bit of help got them through. I did use a friend's honey from her own bees instead of the corn syrup. No idea if this was good or bad, but its what I had on hand. Dandelions decided to start growing so picked a small handful for the buns today.:hobbyhors