Mama Abandoned Litter Hand raising attempt

[AdventureIQ]

Reading several post on here. Will cut to the chase.
Babies born yesterday afternoon. Mama started kicking them out of nest and small opening of cage to the ground right away.
This is first litter.
Trying to hand raise. We lost 3 of 10 in first 12 hours
Steady survive rate since 4 am today (its 10 pm now
Using kitten formula.

Should we try to reintroduce them? My thought is if we lose others we should. How long is too long?

This is our second litter so far-- different doe. First litter is four weeks and one day old.

Have heat lamp--- temp gun reads 85-95 in nesting box

Mama has been a mental case since we got her-- <br /><br /> -- Mon May 09, 2016 9:24 pm -- <br /><br /> I made the call tonight to put them back in with her-- she was pacing the cage--- now pulling hair out--- maybe a good sign?

 

[Winterwolf]

I've never had to deal with orphaned rabbits before, so I'm just guessing here. But when our cat had a surprise litter on us (apparently she snuck outside without us knowing) she abandoned the oldest two babies in favor of the youngest three. We attempted to bottle-feed the two orphans, but with little success. After nearly ten hours, we finally decided to try reintroducing them to their mother. She accepted the first one back right away, but it took a while longer before she was willing to take care of the second one. (Maybe it was because that one was the runt?) So, maybe your mom rabbit will still accept the litter after she has a chance to calm down. Might want to monitor her with them for a while, though, in case she tries to hurt them.

 

[alforddm]

Yes! Pulling hair is a great sign. It means her instincts are starting to kick in. You may already know this but momma rabbits only nurse once or twice a day. So, don't be concerned if you don't see her in the nestbox. They generally ignore it to protect the kits from predators.

You said you been reading threads on here so you have probably already read these but just in case.

This first thread is a big one. It will help you tell if the momma has been feeding the kits. Hopefully she will do the job.
Fed vs unfed kits

These two threads are on hand raising. Before you try hand raising, however, there are several ways to get the doe to nurse the kits. My favorite is holding the doe in the nestbox inside her cage. I've only had to do this a couple of times and the does have gotten the idea. However, not all rabbits get it.

If she refuses to care for the kits. You will have to try hand feeding. This really is a last resort as hand fed kits generally don't do well.
Tips for hand raising kits
Formula feedig baby bunnies

And last but one of the most important. Don't use the KMR. It is too watery for baby rabbits. Some of our members have theorized that so many babies die on KMR because of kidney failure because their inmature kidney's can't process the extra water in KMR. This is because of the different nursing habbits of a cat vs a rabbit.

Here is the best formula recipe.

Updated hand feeding forumula

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[a7736100]

My current litter indoors in plastic bottom type cage. The doe made a small nest outside the box before birth. After she had the kits she dug at the nest the scattered the kits around. I replaced the kits and she scattered them again several times. So I took the kits out and kept them warm. They chill easily and newborns get cold after a minute exposed. One kit acted dead but came alive after hours of warming up. The doe worked on the nest some more. After 12 hours there was a wad of hair in the nest so I tried replacing the kits. She did not dig them out this time. She also fed them. The next morning she was bare chest and the kits were under a cloud of fur. One reason I prefer indoor litters is that it only take a few minutes of exposure on the wire for kits to be too far gone to recover.

 

[AdventureIQ]

so far so good--- no more losses as of 2130 today. She is drinking a ton of water. All babies moving around and seem to be doing ok. Thanks all for the input! Will post pics when I get the chance.

 

[FourRingCircus]

You have gotten a lot of good advice already - hopefully she's good to go now! I have had them start having their litters before the nest is made... one had two, then 24 hours later had the rest. I found them in the nesting material as she was tossing it around (just a flash of pink) - they were pretty bruised up, but survived OK. I just took the two out and let them stay together in a basket (I actually took them out of town with me! They slept the whole time excpt right at the end when I think they started getting hungry... thankfully I was able to put them in with the doe at that point).

 

[AdventureIQ]

Turn of events today--- the remaining litter passed. They had looked very undersized last night and a bit like the pics in the underfed thread. I was pretty sure they would make it.

Trying to decide if we will breed her again or if she goes to the pot as planned i the first place. Not doing it out of spite--- but that was the plan from the begging, but we thought we would give her a shot at breeding. I will wait a few weeks to let her stress go down before we harvest her.

The litter that was born the day after hers seems to be doing pretty well and the mama is doing great with her kits.

I can walk away from this knowing I did what I knew how to do and learned more on the way. Thank you to all those who provided insight, feedback, and encouragement. Also the numerous links on here have been invaluable. Thanks for all those who posted or linked to it.

Rob
Adventure IQ