On Wednesday January 16th, I had a maiden doe deliver 6 kits. She had them all on the cage floor, despite a nest box ready to go, and made no attempt to clean them up after birth.
Thankfully I happened to go out to feed animals RIGHT when she was finishing up.
The weather had just turned cold and she had not pulled any hair out to line the nest, and was obviously going to abandon these kits.
I am usually of the "let nature take its course" mentality, especially with meat producing livestock, but, 6 kits is almost $100 worth of rabbit meat, and I would love to be able to keep them alive.
So I brought the kits inside, and placed two very hot water bottles wrapped in washcloths inside the nest box, and covered the box with a towel to keep in any heat. They quickly warmed up and became content to sleep.
Now about feeding them. I knew from having a human baby of my own that mammal babies can survive nearly 3 days post birth with almost no food or water. A tummy full of amniotic fluid and then teaspoons of colostrum are all a human baby lives off of for up to week after birth until a mothers real milk comes in!
Rabbits are a touchy animal though, the mother doe's milk is AMAZING, and to this day has NOT been replicated. Does will only nurse kits once to twice a day and if you've seen the amazing growth rate of rabbit kits, you've done the math already. That has to be the RICHEST milk ever.
I decided on taking the kits to the doe twice a day in hopes that I could at least get her to sit over them long enough to nurse them. If you go this route, you will need to bring the kits back in and use a cotton ball warmed with warm water to rub their genitals to make them urinate. The GOOD mother does this to her kits while they nurse. This is natures way of keeping their home clean. Rub down the kit gently until they urinate, it does sometimes take some coaxing, but usually after a minute or two of rubbing, you will see beads of urine begin to come out. Sometimes...a lot!
Its now Sunday, and the kits are alive, and seem content, but they are getting skinnier and skinnier. All of them have pretty nasty cuts and gouges on their little frail bodies where moms razor sharp nails have stomped them. She has to be held down, and I can hear nursing sounds occuring, but again, their bellies are never rounded, and they just seem to be getting smaller and smaller.
I've decided to improvise. I will still continue to force mom to sit over them once a day, but at this point, I'm not sure she's even lactating, and a stressed mother probably isnt letting-down anyways. So I doubt they are getting much of anything from her.
I've concoted my own rabbit milk replacement. It wont be perfect, and it may not even be enough to keep them alive, but after 4 days, the husband and I have become pretty attached to them, and I cant just let them die without trying.
Anyways the milk replacement we are currently trying after doing some reasearch on the internet is:
2 Cups Cows Milk ( I suggest whole milk, but we used 1% because its all I had)
3 egg yolks
2tsps sugar
2tblsp Ground Flax ( This is mainly for the calories and calcium, it wont dissolve in the liquid)
1 tblspn Poly Vi Sol multivitamin (the kind for babies)
Just keep it in the fridge and use as needed. We'll probably need to shake it each time as it will probably separate.
Since they have made it this long, I'm using the eye dropper that came in the poly vi sol. I've heard for newborns you can and probably will drown the kits this way, but like I said this is what we had.
I place one drop on the outside of the mouth and wait for the kit to suck or lick it in. When its done Another drop. Wait. Another Drop. Wait. Etc etc until the kit stops licking and seems more content.
Try not to force the kit. You will cause it to aspirate the liquid.
We've already decided because mothering abilites are hereditary, we will not be keeping any of these kits for own rabbitry, and mother doe wont last long either. She will be dinner. I have too many amazing mothers to keep a bad one, and potentially spoil our breeding stock. The kits will be sold, after all this work, I wont be able to eat them.
I'll update on their progress as it comes.
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