Trying to keep 3 day old going.

[Ncrabbit]

Tried the goats milk, corn sugar and egg yolk. It would take very small amounts, less than a 1/2 of an eye dropper. Tonight we took doe out of cage and settled her down for about half an hour and the little guy went from teat to teat. Seemed to have filled up after awhile. I also took the two largest out of the cage tonight and will see if that will help out. Any advice would be appreciated. Will check them in the morning.

 

[Susie570]

Tonight we took doe out of cage and settled her down for about half an hour and the little guy went from teat to teat. Seemed to have filled up after awhile.

How many other kits are in the nest? I would take all of the full bellies out, except maybe three or so of them for warmth.

The going from teat to teat is normal, it takes a while for the doe to settle down and let down her milk. Were you holding her in a natural position? That seems to help.

 

[katiebear]

You are doing everything you can..for me it seems the ones like that will make it if they get past the first week...Good luck to you and keep up the good work, I know it can be frustrating.... :?

 

[Ncrabbit]

It wasn't exactly a normal position. My wife kinda had her sitting up while she stroked her head. She's a pretty temperamental Cali. I took the two biggest out of the box. I will check on them in the morning. There is still 5 in the box with the little one. Will keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Being meat rabbits I'm sure most people would cull but I kinda like giving them all a shot.

 

[Miss M]

We like giving them all a shot, too.

If you can get it to feed from the doe, that is always better than formula. But if you still need to supplement, you may have better luck if you stimulate the kit while it is eating. Wiggle it, rub its head, do stuff to mess with it. This is normal activity for a feeding kit, since it would normally be getting bumped, pushed on, and rubbed under the doe with the other kits there. We've found that it can help increase the amount the kit will take in.

Sometimes, though, you just can't get the kit to take in enough. This is not your fault.

 

[Ncrabbit]

Thanks MISS M. I got the recipe off a post you started years ago. This site is great for beginners like myself. Where else would you be able to get info this quick? It's almost 4 am and it definitely ate last night. Sides are bulging. I really didn't expect it to make it through the night. Mother Nature is amazing! Not a good picture but there is a difference.

 

[Zass]

Sometimes, it's just one good feeding that they need to give them the strength to compete. Hope the little guy catches up from here on out

 

[grumpy]

Sometimes, for no apparent reason, a youngster just won't thrive.

Those 'runts'--for lack of a better word, may/might have some form of
internal or genetic defect that makes them that way. If that's the case, one
needs to question themselves, "What will become of this little guy, if he
survives?"

Any purpose beyond pet-status isn't worth consideration. You'd surely not
want those problems to become entrenched through subsequent future
generations. Unless you plan on keeping it yourself for the rest of its life,
there's no guarantee it won't be bred at some later point in its existence.

If that occurs and the vitality of that mating is compromised, who should
take responsibility for that downward turn? The grower? or the new owner?

I look at things far more differently than most insofar that over the last 40+
years, I've seen an overall decline in the natural vitality of the domestic rabbit.

My question is: Why? My personal answers are not popular, but quite realistic.

Grumpy.

 

[Susie570]

Look at that fat little belly!

Runty kits seem to often catch up pretty quickly, once they get a few good feedings in them. I wouldn't use a runt for breeding purposes, but if you just want another meal in the freezer, I see no harm in it.

 

[Zass]

I keep my runts going if I can as well....only to make a meal of them later. :shrug:

 

[grumpy]

Look at that fat little belly!

Runty kits seem to often catch up pretty quickly, once they get a few good feedings in them. I wouldn't use a runt for breeding purposes, but if you just want another meal in the freezer, I see no harm in it.

Question: What was the texture of the meat, when it was cooked?
Did you notice any anomalies when you processed it to possibly learn
the cause of the retarded growth?
Was the heart muscle well formed and correct?
Lungs? Liver? The gall-bladder when it was removed?

Just curious if you've noticed any of the above when processing rabbits
that have shown retarded growth. Did you check the pancreas for any
abnormalities?

How much extra feed was needed for growth to marketable size?

Just curious because once grown to the point of processing the "Human
Factor" comes to the front. LOL. "Aww....Little Homer has had such a
struggle. It'd be a shame to process him, now." The heart becomes weaker.
"I suppose, it'd do no harm to keep him around. He's such a tough little
guy!"

Worst case scenario for the breed. Best case scenario for little "Homer".
I've been guilty of it.........and so has everyone else. Mine was a long time ago.

Grumpy.

 

[Zass]

I'll answer, since Susie hasn't actually processed any rabbits

I don't wait around for runts to get to market size, they get processed with with the rest of the litter on time. Usually, they catch up and I don't even know who the runt was.
Sometimes they are a lb. light, say 4 lbs. when the rest are 5.

I grind a lot of rabbit meat, so I'm not very useful for describing texture.

But, since I raise rabbits for pet food as well as human food, some smaller or tougher kits are no problem for me.
They don't seem to eat quite as much as faster growing kits, but,
I have absolutely no numbers to back that up. So it should be viewed as an opinion statement rather than a fact.
Any and all kits with noticeable GI problems get euthanized, since I've determined that rabbits with gi problems suffer quite a bit.

Most of the time, I never see anything wrong inside at butchering time.
But, when I do find an anomaly it's usually in the intestines.

I have never seen a malformed rabbit heart, but a close friend has. (She unfortunately didn't get a pic.)

 

[Susie570]

True, I've not processed any rabbits. I may NEVER process any rabbits (myself), I don't know yet. I think it would be good, at the very least, to develop a humane dispatch method that I can use in an emergency situation.

It would be very useful information to have, if any abnormalities were noticed when processing a runt though, just as any abnormalities should be noted when processing any rabbits. In my one runt experience (so far), the kit just needed some extra attention for a few days, then was fine. She grew well and, as Zass said, I wouldn't have even been able to tell that she had been a runt by the time she was steadily eating solid food. :shrug:

 

[Miss M]

I keep my runts going if I can as well....only to make a meal of them later. :shrug:

We do this, too.

Some runts are just smaller and that's all there seems to be to it. A few extra meals, a little supplementation, and they start to thrive. Like yours, ours have either ended up the same size as all the others in the litter, or just a little smaller. Like you, we do not wait for the runts to catch up, and they get butchered with the rest of their siblings.

Others seem to have some physical problem. Some have trouble figuring out how to eat at first. Many of those, with a little help (supplementation), finally get it and take off. Others never get it and die.

My husband is the one who guts. He has kept organs that aren't quite what he's used to seeing for me to look at and pass/fail. The vast majority of those were from one single litter that had mushroom-like spongy kidneys and slightly reticulated livers. We've never tied anomalous organs to runts, though I haven't told him, "This is the runt, inspect the organs," when passing him the skinned rabbit.

Same with the meat. By the time it's bagged, all memory of whether it was a runt or not has vanished. Maybe we should change that. :thinking:

 

[Ncrabbit]

Well had to leave town for work Sunday morning unexpectedly. Gave the wife some last minute instructions and kinda let things go as they may. Returned last night to find the little guy about to burst at the belly but still about a third of the size. Grumpy I agree, this will never be bred. My wife has already chosen it as her pet if it makes it. In the future as the operation grows it will probably be a no brainier, cull. I am glad I did it this time for the eXperience if nothing else. Thanks everyone for the replies. I will post a picture tonight when I return home. :bunnyhop:

 

[Miss M]

:lol: Cute!

Careful feeding with formula... you don't want them to get as full as they would on mama's milk. It doesn't seem they can overfeed on milk, but they can overfeed on formula. A nice little marble belly is all you need with formula.

 

[Truckinguy]

I"ve tried feeding dozens of kits that age that were rejected by the does for whatever reason. I've never had one survive yet. I've stayed up all night on the couch with them on my chest and fed them at regular intervals but I think they ate too fast and inhaled the food. It's disappointing but I try with every one.

When I have a large litter and one or two are falling behind I take the fattest half of the litter inside with me for the night. When I go out in the morning the other half has been fed during the night and the smaller ones have had a chance to get at the nipples with the smaller number of kits competing. It seems to work ok although I still lost two of the smallest ones of the most recent litter. The bigger kits don't seem too worse off for missing one feeding over night.

 

[Ncrabbit]

I, my wife have done the same. Took the 2 fattest in the first few nights to see if the little one would eat and it did. My wife has been supplementing with a ear dropper but no more than half a dropper at a time once or twice a day. It's only a week old so we know it's not a done deal yet. I told her not to get to attached to it due to the survival rate doesn't seem to good from what I have read.

 

[ladysown]

i wouldn't be supplementing at this point. The little fellow seems have gotten it all sorted out and should be just fine to go.

As long as you have full bellies...bunny baby is fine.

 

[EnglishSpot]

I've got a runt I'm working with. I've tried flipping the doe but she wouldn't let down, and now I'm supplementing, but it just doesn't eat a whole lot before it falls asleep again. I stimulate it while feeding it. I'm using goats milk, egg, and corn syrup. I've been putting it back in the nest box during the day, but all of it's siblings manage to bury it at the bottom of the sleeping pile and it doesn't get to the doe to eat. If it dies, it dies, but I'd like to save it. How often should I be supplementing feedings?? I've been doing it twice a day, but I think I'm upping it to three. Right now I've got it sleeping on a heating pad until I can get to it to feed it again.

Suggestions?? I'll get a pic after I get my son from summer school.