Fostering Kits

fogcity · Apr 8, 2013

I lost three does yesterday to some local plants I usually feed that I guess had been sprayed with chemicals. One litter was a day old, one was 3 days, and one was a week. I have a doe that has a five week old litter that was weaned a week ago. I held her in the nest box and the doeless kits latched on. I saw milk coming out. Will this work? Can I have her nurse one batch in the morning and one in the evening? Its not a big deal if I lose the litters. Its all part of being a rabbit farmer. Does anyone have any thoughts/experience with this?

MamaSheepdog · Apr 9, 2013

How terrible! I am so sorry.

You really don't have anything to lose by trying. It might be best to combine the 1 and 3 day old litters for one feeding, and the week old for another.

You could also try supplemental feeding with formula.

Good luck! :clover: Please let us know how they do.

ladysown · Apr 9, 2013

depending on the size of the litters I'd combine the whole works of them....or keep the week old separate. Just keep switching the nestboxes. Do a 12 hour split.

fogcity · Apr 11, 2013

We have been using the doe mentioned above to nurse all the litters. We combined them from three into two groups. One is nursed in the morning and one in the evening. We have been supplementing the smaller ones with cat replacement milk. So far we have lost none.