Is there something wrong?

[Cosima]

Today I observed something concerning with one of my almost one month old kits. So like always I bring food to my rabbit in the morning. Most of the time the kits ether eat the food or get the opportunity of drinking milk from there mother while she is distracted eating but this morning one of the babies just continued sleeping I woke it up and carried it to the food but it didn’t eat so I tried to put it under their mother’s belly so it could get milk but it walked away and then fell asleep again (this kit usually takes any chance to get milk). I am starting to worry. could the kit have had drunken milk all night and now it is not hungry?

also, this happened to Blitz before she was eaten by a snake expect she was more awake (blitz is a cat for anyone who does not know) .

could it be related? I really would like to know.

 

[ThunderHill]

Hi Cosima. I've only been raising rabbits for a little over a year, so I'm not the most experienced, but we seem to lose at least one kit from every litter, often between 4 and 6 weeks, but sometimes earlier. Sometimes they just don't adjust to weaning and get diarrhea and die very quickly (as in, they are fine when we check them at night before bed, then we find them dead in the morning with diarrhea on their bottom). Or I've had a few just stop eating and die a few days later. In both of these cases, the rest of the litter are just fine. A few different rabbit breeder friends told me that this is normal and to get used to it, that sometimes they just die.

I hope your bunny is fine, but I just wanted to tell you this because when my first one died, I didn't expect it and didn't think it was normal, so it was even harder.

Please keep us posted on how the little kit is doing!

 

[Cosima]

So this afternoon the kit started drinking milk but still refused grass or greens. it joined the wave of hunger kits lololololol.

 

[Cosima]

You don’t have to worry about it being to hard I already had the "they all died" with my first litter probably a few days before I joined the form and luckily they were three days old so I was not attached to them (that sounds like I wasn’t attached like with a rope to them).

 

[ThunderHill]

I'm glad she is nursing! I hope she is okay! They are so cute (I saw pictures on the other thread)!

 

[northernnevadahollandlops]

We just lost a kit from a month old litter too. Also, not super experienced so I'm not sure what it was, but I am assuming gi stasis with weaning too early. It was the runt, so I wonder if he wasn't getting enough milk and then stopped too early. One day he seemed fine and then next he wouldn't come out of his hutch, seemed sleepy, and then wouldn't eat. I tried to syringe feed him a rabbit rescue electrolyte mix, but it was just too late. I hope your kit makes it!

 

[Cosima]

the kit is fine now but thanks. and I am sorry for your loss (that sounds weird).

 

[Softie]

did you ever figure out what was going on? is this normal? I have not seen it but would like to be ready if/when I do.

 

[Cosima]

He probably had eaten a lot the night before but other then that I don’t know

 

[Cosima]

I have a other question he (temper the kit) has a bold spot behind his ears. It doesn’t look like he has itched it because it is not red but there is no fur growing there. I will send a picture after I am done with my lunch.

 

[ThunderHill]

Hi Cosima. I've only been raising rabbits for a little over a year, so I'm not the most experienced, but we seem to lose at least one kit from every litter, often between 4 and 6 weeks, but sometimes earlier. Sometimes they just don't adjust to weaning and get diarrhea and die very quickly (as in, they are fine when we check them at night before bed, then we find them dead in the morning with diarrhea on their bottom). Or I've had a few just stop eating and die a few days later. In both of these cases, the rest of the litter are just fine. A few different rabbit breeder friends told me that this is normal and to get used to it, that sometimes they just die.

I hope your bunny is fine, but I just wanted to tell you this because when my first one died, I didn't expect it and didn't think it was normal, so it was even harder.

Please keep us posted on how the little kit is doing!

I just read back through this old post of mine and wanted to update. We've actually implemented some changes and for the last several litters haven't had any of these weaning losses. We started giving our rabbits fresh forage daily, putting ACV in their water, and changed the pellets we give our nursing does and new kits (from New Country Organics to Manna PRO). I can't say if any one of these changes helped more than others, but we now lose very few kits.

I certainly respect the advice my friend gave me, to just get used to having that amount of loss during weaning, however with a bit more experience under my belt now, I've learned that sometimes there are things you can change to reduce these losses. While inevitably you will lose some, at least for us we were able to make some small changes that have made a big difference.

 

[ladysown]

We just lost a kit from a month old litter too. Also, not super experienced so I'm not sure what it was, but I am assuming gi stasis with weaning too early. It was the runt, so I wonder if he wasn't getting enough milk and then stopped too early. One day he seemed fine and then next he wouldn't come out of his hutch, seemed sleepy, and then wouldn't eat. I tried to syringe feed him a rabbit rescue electrolyte mix, but it was just too late. I hope your kit makes it!

this sounds like failure to thrive

 

[ladysown]

The biggest thing that has helped me with my losses... ONLY breed the strongest, healthiest rabbits. NEVER breed anything that ever gets sick regardless of what that illness was. It's hard sometimes, but better for my herd long term.