Extra feedings for kits

[home*sweet*home]

So this is day three. The runt still seems to be not getting a fat tummy, there was another of the smaller ones that did not seem fed this morning, so we brought mom in and massaged her and got her into her bunny trance and let the two starving little monsters have at it. They both filled up fine. so yesterday we did it twice. Does that seem like enough? Or should we do it three times a day?

On a good note, it was 29 degrees outside when I got up and I thought for sure we would have frozen little babies. We brought the box in and they were warm and toasty. The hutch is a remade two story coop that is 4x4 and my daughter put a tarp over for the breeze and it is situated next to a privacy fence, so it stops drafts.

So since it was not broke, we decided not to fix it and put the box back out side. I am so proud of Ebony, her first litter was a fail (1 peanut and 2 dead kits). This time, she is doing such a great job. She feeds them 3 times a day. At least she did yesterday. The other girls are not too interested in the kits, neither has the male.

He is a good boy. We were told he was a girl by the breeder and so he was housed with our dutch female. They got along great. She was 4 years old. We found her dead one morning and her belly was large, so I opened her up and found kits! (she had never had kits) So we looked at him and found out he was not sonya!

 

[OneAcreFarm]

I think twice a day is plenty. They should be able to catch up if you do that...

 

[home*sweet*home]

I have another question. Ok, we brought them in this afternoon and 4 were stuffed full. I mean they looked like they would explode (so I guess that other little one was fine) and Peanut (what we named the runt) of course had a wrinkled tummy. We let him nurse and it was chowing down. After a while it would stop nursing and we could not get it to go back on, but the tummy was not round like the others, it was definitely fuller but still somewhat wrinkled.

It reminds me of a preemie baby how they tire out. It is real aggressive and suckles strong. We have also put on a bigger kit to get the milk to come down easier (last time we only did it for a second cause the least full kit was still quite full lol little pig!) But after about 5 minutes or maybe less it poops out.

Ok, I am a lactation consultant and I am thinking all this things lol, maybe it is tongue bunching, maybe it has a tongue tie lol. I am sure that does not even happen in rabbits, it just does not seem to get it.

I am just not sure if this little one can do it.

 

[MaggieJ]

Home*sweet*home, you are doing all you can and more than most would. You can help the runts out and give them a better chance, but you can't save them all. You can continue to supplement and hope for the best, but don't feel too bad if he doesn't make it.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Home*sweet*home, you are doing all you can and more than most would. You can help the runts out and give them a better chance, but you can't save them all. You can continue to supplement and hope for the best, but don't feel too bad if he doesn't make it.

Yep, Maggie is right. Some runts just don't make it, others that you swear won't survive, will be little troopers and just astound you.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I am a lactation consultant and I am thinking all this things lol, maybe it is tongue bunching, maybe it has a tongue tie lol.

My eldest son latched on with his gums, and it was so-o-o painful. After a day or two, we ended up going to the hospital for a class with a LC and solved the problem. All of our kids have been born at home, so I was completely horrified to take him into a place absolutely teeming with bacteria and viruses!

What a great job you have- to think of all the babes that are happily nursing away thanks to you! It's a pity that to many people breastfeeding should take place in privacy... if it were common publicly I think you would see a drastic decrease in your clients. I nursed on demand wherever we were, and frequently people would come and peer into my sling and ooh and ah at my exquisite babies, not even realizing they were nursing!

It sounds like you are doing a great job with Peanut- I bet he's happy to have an in-house LC!

 

[LilFish_JWQueen(:]

yeah peanuts will never make it no matter what you do and its just something that takes a bit to get used to knowing the lil baby will die. In the wild rabbit feed their young once a day because they dont want their prey to know where the babies are and domestic rabbits do the same thing once a day... but u are having the babies feed instead of the mom doing it herself so its ok they feed twice as long as they arnt getting over fed and getting fed enough.

 

[Cattle Cait]

Twice a day should be fine. Runts do occasionally make it, we've had Palomino peanuts survive. I just don't recommend breeding it if it does survive.

 

[home*sweet*home]

I am a lactation consultant and I am thinking all this things lol, maybe it is tongue bunching, maybe it has a tongue tie lol.

My eldest son latched on with his gums, and it was so-o-o painful. After a day or two, we ended up going to the hospital for a class with a LC and solved the problem. All of our kids have been born at home, so I was completely horrified to take him into a place absolutely teeming with bacteria and viruses!

What a great job you have- to think of all the babes that are happily nursing away thanks to you! It's a pity that to many people breastfeeding should take place in privacy... if it were common publicly I think you would see a drastic decrease in your clients. I nursed on demand wherever we were, and frequently people would come and peer into my sling and ooh and ah at my exquisite babies, not even realizing they were nursing!

It sounds like you are doing a great job with Peanut- I bet he's happy to have an in-house LC!

Well what a coinidence. I am almost a homebirth midwife (just have a few births left), my last daughter was born at home!<br /><br />__________ Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:39 pm __________<br /><br />

yeah peanuts will never make it no matter what you do and its just something that takes a bit to get used to knowing the lil baby will die. In the wild rabbit feed their young once a day because they dont want their prey to know where the babies are and domestic rabbits do the same thing once a day... but u are having the babies feed instead of the mom doing it herself so its ok they feed twice as long as they arnt getting over fed and getting fed enough.

It was actually decided that this in not a peanut but a runt.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

[/quote]
Well what a coinidence. I am almost a homebirth midwife (just have a few births left), my last daughter was born at home!

__________ Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:39 pm __________

That's awesome, congratulations on both counts! Direct entry or CNM?

 

[home*sweet*home]

Well what a coinidence. I am almost a homebirth midwife (just have a few births left), my last daughter was born at home!

__________ Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:39 pm __________

That's awesome, congratulations on both counts! Direct entry or CNM?[/quote]


I am a nurse, but I am going the CPM, or direct entry route.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

Well what a coinidence. I am almost a homebirth midwife (just have a few births left), my last daughter was born at home!

__________ Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:39 pm __________

That's awesome, congratulations on both counts! Direct entry or CNM?

I am a nurse, but I am going the CPM, or direct entry route.[/quote]

That is wonderful! I used to work L&D and I loved helping bring new life into the world...even thought about going the direct entry MW route myself....

 

[home*sweet*home]

Well what a coinidence. I am almost a homebirth midwife (just have a few births left), my last daughter was born at home!

__________ Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:39 pm __________

That's awesome, congratulations on both counts! Direct entry or CNM?

I am a nurse, but I am going the CPM, or direct entry route.

That is wonderful! I used to work L&D and I loved helping bring new life into the world...even thought about going the direct entry MW route myself....[/quote]
Cool, I used to work L&D too! Texas is a good place to do it. You have licensing. We have nothing here in Oklahoma<br /><br />__________ Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:37 pm __________<br /><br />So "Peanut" is still with us. We have been bringing in the doe and feeding twice a day (one day we did three). The tummy is always small, but fills up but never as big as the other kits (the other smaller one is caught up now, we just have this one). It is a little over half the size of the others, but I still think it is a run and not a peanut. It walks and is very active. We put it on mom and it acts like a little tasmanian devil! Crazy and then poops our after about 5 minutes. The tummy is visably bigger, just not as plump as the others get.

Every morning I keep expecting to see it dead and the little booger smells me and starts going crazy. This morning I swear it was hopping. Like jumping forward. We put it on a towel and it could walk, just like the others. It is just soooooo small.

Here are pictures, this is yeaterday (three days old)

 

[MaggieJ]

He's hanging in there... a good sign. Fingers crossed for him. :clover: :clover: :clover:

 

[home*sweet*home]

He's hanging in there... a good sign. Fingers crossed for him. :clover: :clover: :clover:

Its funny you say he, I have been calling it he too.

The doe and the buck are both pretty tiny. I hope this one makes it. It is so cute. If you scratch its side it snuggles in and goes to sleep. It is adorable.

I wish I could keep it, but we are only keeping one doe (do not want more than one buck because we do colony and it would be too hard to trade out bucks and keep track of the pedigree. And the one we have is good at what he does and he is small and good shape and ears etc. I am very happy with him. He has only showed once and did not do well, but he was only 3-4 month old and the judge even commented as he grew he would do well. All the breeders seemed to like him too (his breeder was actually sad that she gave him up as a pet cause he turned out well). She was gonna get a doe from him and my gr ch.

Anyway, if it is a doe, I dont think I would want to keep it because it is so tiny. I want a bigger girl My other two does got some big back ends lol)

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Awwwwww! He is adorable! Since he is handled so much I hope you can find a nice pet home for him! How cute that he gets so excited when he smells you- I guess you are "Mom" too.

A couple questions: Why are you bringing them in the house to nurse? Is that for your comfort? When you hold the doe to nurse, do you have her upside down on your lap?

I wish I had found this forum earlier, because our doe Feather has litters of 9 and 10 and only has six nipples. Usually only 6 make it, but once we had 7. I didn't think to give the weaker ones extra feedings. When we have more productive does I plan on breeding 2 or 3 on the same day so I can foster to does with smaller litters.

 

[home*sweet*home]

Awwwwww! He is adorable! Since he is handled so much I hope you can find a nice pet home for him! How cute that he gets so excited when he smells you- I guess you are "Mom" too.

A couple questions: Why are you bringing them in the house to nurse? Is that for your comfort? When you hold the doe to nurse, do you have her upside down on your lap?

I wish I had found this forum earlier, because our doe Feather has litters of 9 and 10 and only has six nipples. Usually only 6 make it, but once we had 7. I didn't think to give the weaker ones extra feedings. When we have more productive does I plan on breeding 2 or 3 on the same day so I can foster to does with smaller litters.

The little one does not get enough. so we bring in the doe and put her on her back and let it nurse.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

The little one does not get enough. [/quote]

I got that part, lol! Just wondering why you take them to the house to let it nurse! If it is as chilly there as it is here, I get it... just thinking that transporting her around might be stressful, although obviously she is handling it fine.

 

[home*sweet*home]

The little one does not get enough.

I got that part, lol! Just wondering why you take them to the house to let it nurse! If it is as chilly there as it is here, I get it... just thinking that transporting her around might be stressful, although obviously she is handling it fine.[/quote]

Oh, lol. sorry was talking to a friend when I replied. It was very cold outside and we have dogs in the back yard and there is no place to hold the mom on her back. So we bring in the nest box. Check out who needs extra (the other 2nd smallest needed a feeding this last time) and if they need fed, we bring in ebony and cuddle her a little (she was a pet first) and then massage her and get her in her trance (dd does this) and then put the kit/s on. We actually have a pretty good system. Then we take her out and give her a treat (usually some greens)<br /><br />__________ Sat Nov 19, 2011 9:57 pm __________<br /><br />Oh and I think we have a home lined up if he makes it.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Ah! Okay. Sounds like a good system. Glad you may have a home for him! Keep up the good work.

BTW, we homeschool too! : ) That's 3 out of 5 similarities- I'm not a grandma yet (eldest is only 14), and I only am midwife to animals.