Ideal temperature for kits

[Diamond]

Ok, to make a long story short.... I lost a kit, noticed it was emaciated and then checked on it later and it was dead. A friend of mine has extensive experience raising orphaned creatures - squirrels, ferrets, wild birds, possums (yes, opossums). If someone cuts down a tree and finds a nest, they call her.

So, she offered to take on any weak/ runty/ struggling rabbit kits in exchange for rabbit meat. I personally don't have enough time to bother saving the weak, but it sounds like a win-win situation since she enjoys nurturing little creatures.

I looked over the threads on hand-raising kits and gleaned what I could about what to feed them - I have a good source for fresh goat milk (and my own goat does are due to kid in June and July). So that's easy. My Nigerian does actually have a pretty high fat percentage to their milk, compared to other dairy breeds, which is an added bonus.

But I was wondering about how to keep orphaned rabbit kits warm?

Does anybody know what the 'ideal' temperature for naked kits is? I was thinking of taking an egg incubator and seeing if I could adjust the thermostat to a suitable rabbit temperature. If my friend and I have everything set up for a 'rabbit rescue' then we would be more likely to save struggling kits before it is too late.

 

[skysthelimit]

Might as well just gather some of the does fur from the nest box. I have a lone ranger kit here, I took some of the does fur, put it in a bucket with hay, and I carry him around. That fur keeps it mighty warm.

 

[Diamond]

LOL can't beat mother nature, can we?

I also thought about an old fashioned hot water bottle....

 

[akane]

You would be better off letting the kit move to adjust it's temperature than having an incubator which is held all at one temp. Extra warming materials like lots of fur, dryer lint, cut up fabric (no long strings) and a heating pad under half the box allow for the kit or kits to crawl under more items or to the top and toward or away from the heat. It has saved me from cooking and freezing kits I was hand raising more than once. I would find them scattered at the front of the box if I got things too warm or buried deep together if I let the room get too cool with no added heat. Once well fed and if there are more than one they should not need any additional heat. Just a good nest. You need to keep them warm until you get them well fed though because they cannot digest milk if their body temp is too low and rabbit temp is above 100F. They'll die with full bellies of warm milk if you try to feed them cold, let them cool too much while feeding them (if feeding more than one I wrap the other in a heating pad or blanket in between), or don't have a warm enough nest to return to afterward. You can quite easily cook them as well though and I nearly killed 2 litters using an electric blanket that covered too much of the box. Luckily I was using big boxes so they just moved away.

 

[MaggieJ]

A low tech solution is to take a screw cap wine bottle, preheat it with hot tap water and then refill. Cap it and pull a sock over it. Lay it along one side of the nest box. The kits can gravitate to it or away from it according to their need. It will stay good and warm for a couple of hours.

 

[Diamond]

Great advice! Thanks so much!