Foster Kits (slow growing?)

[furtoplease]

This is little "Lucky Chance". His/her mama passed away in labor and Lucky was the only one born before she passed. He is being fostered by my fuzzy lop doe who has a litter that is one week old today. Lucky is 2 days old and seems very tiny to me, only 1.5 to 2 oz on my crappy kitchen scale. The hair seems to be coming in much slower than other litters, too. There may be some fuzz there, but nothing visible even good light. Does anyone know what the normal weight is for newborn Giant Angora kits? He is strong and is eating so we are hopeful, but I'm curious about the size and development. I know it isn't premature because there was only one possible breeding date.

And one with a fuzzy lop baby for comparison.

 

[Marinea]

Looks like a fed, two day old kit to me.

As the other kits get larger, I would make sure the little one gets fed, maybe feeding it separately once a day to be sure.

 

[Dood]

:yeahthat: I would keep him and 1 or 2 of the smaller kits in the cage nest box with momma and put the others in a separate box and bring them to feed once a day to give the little guy a fighting chance.

His mother and littermates died for a reason so it's possible he isn't going to be a healthy rabbit but his belly does look full and as long as his bigger foster siblings don't crowd him out he should do fine.

 

[furtoplease]

Thanks, everyone! We gave him one separate feeding with foster mama yesterday morning, and have been checking him in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings since then for a full belly, and he's definitely eating. We've been weighing him and think he's maybe gained half an ounce or so over the last two days, and I can see the slightest bit of fur coming in. I'm so glad he's doing so well; emotionally, we need him to. His mama was special; we will be keeping a close eye out to make sure he eats and helping him if he needs it.

 

[ladysown]

He looks fine. Just keep doing what you are doing.

 

[michaels4gardens]

individual kit size will vary, depending on the doe, and on the number of kits, "generally speaking" a doe who kindles 12 kits will have a smaller individual kit size then a doe who has 5 kits. But small size kits will gain fast if they are healthy, and have plenty of milk.

 

[Susie570]

Sad to hear you lost momma during labor. You must have been there with her to catch it in time to save this little guy. Looks like he's doing well though. Best of luck!

 

[furtoplease]

Sad to hear you lost momma during labor. You must have been there with her to catch it in time to save this little guy. Looks like he's doing well though. Best of luck!

Fur is starting to come and so far he's still doing well although still slow developing; we were with the mama during labor and it was the oddest thing. She hadn't been eating well, though she never does during her pregnancies, and she was a day late, so I was checking frequently because I was worried about her. We'd given her a tums that morning and another half that afternoon, in case she had a calcium problem. It was her second breeding, and her first one went absolutely perfectly, so we weren't really expecting any problems, but when I checked on her, she was lying on her side, her stomach heaving like she was having contractions. She was pretty out of it and I'm not sure if she could move. I called my mom down to help out because I wasn't sure if she could even make it into the nest box. The poor doe's head was lolling and I don't think she could hold it up. Mom tried to take her out of her hutch so we could help the doe out in a larger space, and she had a seizure, and we actually saw the baby coming out, or at least we think we did, given the extra push by the seizure. But the weird thing is the baby wasn't really gooped up; it had a little slime on it but nothing like it should of, and the umbilical cord was already... cut. Or it was like it had been cut, with just the little nub on the belly, and it shouldn't have broken off that close if it had broken. But even if it had been born when I ran to get Mom and we just imagined seeing it born since it was a high stress situation, Mama bunny was in no condition to go and clean it, since she couldn't even hold her own head up. She died a minute or two later without any more babies being born. We contemplated a C-section in case any more babies were alive but it was a favorite doe and we weren't quite ready for something like that. It just didn't make sense and we're still not sure what happened with either the baby or the mama.

 

[JenerationX]

Glad he's doing well.