Orphaned kit question - Cecotrope

[Generic_User]

Hey guys, just recently lost my colony to RHDV2. So far the kits are coming up on the end of their incubation period, so I am crossing my fingers. They are 2 weeks old, and are eating well, but I have no access to cecotropes. Is there anything I can do to wean them without it? The only rabbit I have left is a 6 week old male that luckily never got put with the others.

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Do they still have a Doe? 2 weeks is very early to wean

 

[MsTemeraire]

Do they still have a Doe? 2 weeks is very early to wean

From the sound of it they're orphaned

They should have had some bacterial input from their mother, providing they nursed from her before she passed away. The doe will deposit bacteria on her fur when she washes herself, which the kits pick up when they feed from her.

I successfully raised 5 babies last year from 1 week old, following the death of their mother (suspected RHD2). I concentrated on building a good digestive system with them using something we can get in the UK called Fibreplex, which I added to their formula milk. I'm sure this helped to preserve the bacteria/microbiome they already had; like the OP I couldn't give them caecotropes.
https://www.protexinvet.com/fibreplex/p26

 

[tambayo]

Your 6 week old will produce cecotropes, so sit down beside him with book and tea and wait.

 

[ladysown]

I've in the past run a healthy older kit in with young kits and that has done the trick quite nicely. Easier, generally, to do with a buck kit than a doe kit. So i'd run that 6 week old with the youngers.

 

[kusanar314]

I've in the past run a healthy older kit in with young kits and that has done the trick quite nicely. Easier, generally, to do with a buck kit than a doe kit. So i'd run that 6 week old with the youngers.

I think they are worried that the kits are possibly still carrying the disease and will infect him since he's all they have left.

 

[judymac]

I recently lost a nursing doe to bloat (made a feed recipe change that was disastrous, I lost my best eaters before I discovered the problem, and learned about baby gas drops--we saved the last bloat victim with it.) Anyway, the doe in question still had orphan kits that had never left the nestbox, eyes just opening at 10 days of age. I had no litters to foster them, and gave them no chance of survival at that age.

I bought a can of canned evaporated goat milk, put a little of it in a cup, and added a pump of NutraDrench (I understand the bunny version is called NutriDrops, but we still had several bottles of the sheep version with the pump dispenser. I've raised many a lamb on this mixture). I used an eyedropper, and fed the two remaining kits. With lambs, you look for a rapidly wagging tail to know they are eating well, with the bunnies I looked for little air bubbles going up the eyedropper tube, showing the kits were drawing milk out of the tube.

I didn't add cecotropes, and the BeneBac I ordered took almost a month to arrive, so it didn't help. I put CalfManna pellets out and fresh third cut hay for them, and amazingly they survived. A little before they were a month old, they decided they had no interest in the milk anymore. They were eating well, and I just gave them a bit of NutriDrench for a little longer. They're now two months old, happy and healthy. After so much loss, it was a delightful surprise.