Is a does milk always available?

[jimmywalt]

We have 9 Holland Lop Kits that were born 2 days ago. Of the nine there are two that are runts.

We have been keeping the nest box in the house where it's warm (it's only about 40 degrees in our 2 car attached garage). This morning we took the nest box out to the doe. It looks like the 7 full-size kits got milk, but the 2 runts didn't. That was about 7 hours ago.

If we bring the doe inside the house and take the 2 runts and put them in a towel on our lap with the doe over he top, will her milk be available for them? Is the tap on 24/7 or only when she decides to turn it on?

These two kits look small and weak. It appears that if they don't get fed today they might not make it.

Thank you.

 

[Zass]

A doe needs to letdown before they can nurse. That is why flipping them over doesn't always work as well as holding them upright. You kinda have to relax before you can letdown milk.

It's easiest when she's full of milk right before she would choose to nurse on her own.

 

[ladysown]

you could take the four biggest of the litter out overnight to give the weak kits to chance to feed. One good feeding can make the difference for weak kits.

OR foster them out to another doe. With a smaller litter or bigger milk supply.

MIND.. my philosophy is this:::: I've seen runty kits thrive in a big litter and have big kits fail. I want the kits that FIGHT to survive as they are overall stronger and healthier and therefore easiest to work with. If weak kits fail it bugs me.. but not as much as if I coddle a weak kit and it dies at 3, 5, 6 or 10 weeks for "no apparent reason".

And while I have fostered weak kits out, I always mark them for dog food or pet market and simply don't keep them.

 

[PSFAngoras]

I don't have much to ad to the advice above, but I just wanted to ask if perhaps maybe the kits were peanuts? Hollands have the dwarf gene, right? If that's true then I would expect to see at least one or two peanuts in a litter of that size. If they're not peanuts, the above is great advice, but if they are peanuts there's not going to be anything you can do one way or the other. It's an unfortunate part of breeding dwarf breeds.

-- Sun Feb 01, 2015 5:57 pm --

Just read that many (though not all) Hollands do have the dwarf gene, so it is possible for there to be peanuts if both parents are carrying the gene.

 

[jimmywalt]

Thank you. They don't look like peanuts.

Unfortunately 1 of the 2 is too weak to nurse at this point. I don't suspect it will be alive in the morning.

It's soooo sad. We just love all our rabbits, bunnies and kits. It's even hard for us to sell them most of the time!