Feeding baby bunnies

[LilacGal]

Okay so I don't have baby bunnies yet, but I'm hopeful. So my question to you is: do you discontinue feeding forage while you have baby bunnies in with the mom? Bob Bennett makes it sound like the moment a young rabbit eats anything green it'll die due to the shock to it's system. But honestly that doesn't make sense to me.

My theory is.... If mom eats a diet of pellets, hay, and forage routinely then her gut is colonized with the bacteria to handle those foods. And baby rabbits get their gut bacteria by interacting with their mother. So they should have the gut bacteria that the mom does.

Now I do understand that if my does were on a pellet only menu if I then took the kits and fed them tons of carrots and greens that they wouldn't be able to handle that. But that's not the same thing as feeding them just like their mother. So do I have to take forage off the menu for my does when they have mobile kits in with them? I'm talking grass and weeds not heaps of cabbage.

Thoughts, theories, personal experience? ancake:

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

[Miss M]

You are right. Whatever you feed the doe, just keep feeding it. The kits should have no problems at all. Those who do natural feeding on here don't skip a beat when they have new litters. They just stuff more of the same greens and grains in there.

 

[Frecs]

:yeahthat:

 

[MaggieJ]

This is one reason I don't recommend Bob Bennett's books. He has a ton of good information, but he is right out to lunch on natural feeding. As long as you make the greens available from the very beginning, the baby bunnies will have no problems with them. They nibble momma's food from the moment they find it and develop the gut flora they need to digest it naturally.

Problems can arise with pellet-fed kits who are suddenly presented with greens partway through their development. It is the sudden change that does the harm, not the greens themselves.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

When kits first start eating, they just nibble here and there, so their gut flora has plenty of time to adjust.

Problems arise when a rabbit has been raised on pellets (or hay or grains) and then goes off to a new home where the owner offers too much fresh food too quickly. But any rabbit, no matter what age, can be safely fed fresh foods as long as it is transitioned to it slowly.

 

[LilacGal]

Thanks everyone, good to see that my theory holds water. Fingers crossed, two does are due tomorrow.

 

[skysthelimit]

Best wishes to you

I try my best to offer some greens from the beginning, so all the kits will eventually be ready to handle a full load in the spring and summer months.

 

[LilacGal]

Grass and weeds are still easy to come by down here. Makes for happy bunnies. No popples yet but fingers crossed. They've been digging away in their boxes.