How to 'flip' a doe?

[uhurubuns]

For the first time ever, I have had a doe kindle and I don't think she's feeding the babies. That'll teach me, not to keep the daughter from the show-perfect doe, and keep the daughter from the good-mother doe instead.

I have heard people here, speak of 'flipping the doe to let the kits nurse'.

How on earth do you do that? Doesn't the doe freak out and thrash around? How do you get the kits on the teats? Just lay them on her belly?

:helpme:

 

[ReiLossefalme]

I tried doing this when one of my kits fell out of the cage overnight. I just turned the doe over and cradled her like a baby in one arm, head in the crook of my arm, and my hand wrapped around her butt. Past the initial wiggling she didn't seem to mind and the kit latched on fine, but she released no milk. Moved the kit around from teat to teat, and still he was a hungry, sunken sided baby.

 

[LindseysWoolies]

The best way to do it is let the doe sit upright in your lap and then hold the baby and let it suck the normal way. This has worked for me feeding hungry babies.

 

[Piper]

they have it covered, but - if things take a turn to the worse, these posts go to the next stage. Hopefully, you will not need these, that after the doe feeds them a time or two, she decides that she is a 'Mom'!
Fed vs. Unfed KIt Pictures (tells how to trance a doe, to flip her) post73254.html#p73254
Tips for Handraising Kits (warns about helping them go potty, or they can die) post23792.html#p23792
Formula feeding baby bunnies *PICS & VIDS* formula-feeding-baby-bunnies-pics-vids-t3691.html
14day old kits topic9270.html

 

[Secuono]

You just roll her over. Most rabbits can go into a trance once on their backs. Though, sometimes you get one that is a nut and you just gotta pin her over the nest and hope she even has milk!
Pick her up and tilt her up and over in your arm like a puppy or other critter you want to hold like a baby. Or on your lap, just roll her over or again, sit her up facing away from you and lean her onto her back.
If you cover her eyes and keep things around her calm, she should just settle.

 

[Bad Habit]

Everyone's given you all the info you'll need, but best of luck. I didn't think Lily was feeding her babies this time, and I know how scary that can be I hope your doe smartens up and starts taking care of her little ones!

 

[uhurubuns]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I tried it; I laid her on my lap with her head out by my knees so I could stroke her whole head. She tranced just fine. But when I put the babies on her belly, they rooted around desperately, found a teat and latched on, sucked desperately for a minute, then let go and rooted around again, over and over.

After five minutes of this, I decided she must not have any milk. The babies were no fatter than before.

So I put her back, and dug out the kitten formula I bought for our elderly cat. He hated it, but I'm glad I had it on hand. I have an old kitten bottle I've had rolling around in the drawer of pet stuff for at least 15 years. So I mixed some up and used that.

The hardest part was getting the somewhat age-hardened and slightly too large kitten nipple in their mouths. But Beveren is a fairly large breed so the size wasn't too far off. Once they got the idea they nursed from the bottle just fine. According to the marks on the side of the bottle, they each took about 1/4 tablespoon. They looked much fuller than before, not as full as I'd like, but definitely better.

I never had a bad mama doe before

When I put them back in the nest, the doe came over and I held my hand out to her like I always do, like you do to greet a dog. Her ears came up and she started smelling my hand all over, and then she started licking my hand all over! :shock:

I guess she smelled the kits on me, so maybe there's hope and she has some maternal instinct after all. It is her first litter, and she did get started pretty late, she's a year and a half old.

Rabbit tongues are very soft and smooth and warm! :lol:

 

[3mina]

Older does sometimes take awhile before figuring out what to do, ironically, the younger does have an easier time figuring what it do

 

[skymya]

O I will be watching this thread for sure.. I just had my first popples! 10 total still have 9..

 

[uhurubuns]

Today when I checked the babies they had some in their bellies, so I think she's feeding them now. As Piper said, maybe she just needed to get the idea. They're still not as full as my kits usually are, but they're plenty warm and starting to do that little jumping bean routine.

Now I have a different problem. Two actually. First, there's now three times as much fur in the nest as before and I think she's pulling herself raw.

Second, she stopped eating about four days before she kindled. Nothing odd, with all those kits no room left for food in there! But then she still didn't eat, and still didn't eat... not even an apple twig, one of their favorites. Finally, I offered her a little calf manna. She went nuts for it. And she absolutely refuses to eat anything else. I've never given my rabbits more than one tablespoon of calf manna a day, its just a supplement. But she went almost seven days without eating a bite. It was after I flipped her she suddenly wanted to eat- but not the regular pellets, and it was after I gave her the calf manna she seems to have started feeding the kits. I tried mixing a little calf manna in her pellets, something that's worked for me before- but no go, she threw all the pellets out on the ground and ate only the calf manna.

I have never seen anything like this before. What a pain in the butt this doe is. She is sooooo getting culled. But in the meantime, has anyone ever fed calf manna as the primary feed? She got more than two tablespoons today. I'm afraid she'll blow enteritis from this.

 

[Piper]

Have you tried Quaker Old Fashioned Oats?

 

[uhurubuns]

All I have is Quaker Quick Oats. Does it make a difference?

 

[Piper]

Quaker Quick Oats - does not have enough of the full oat. "I" do not know, if you can use it, till you get, the Old Fashioned type, later today. Do you have hay, instead? Why I am on this line - I am thinking fiber. You could try a teaspoon, of the Quick Oats, to see if she is at least interested. If she is interested, I would get some of the old fashioned oats.
Rabbits can exist on hay and grain and a mineral / salt block. Hay and Oats (whole or rolled) are what you feed, when the rabbit is sick, too.
- As far as the calf manna, I really do not know. I am just trying to give you options.