PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME WITH MY (SOON TO NOT BE) PREGNANT RABBITS?
Can someone give me al the information on orphaning your own rabbits kit's like ALLLLLL the information! I NEED DETAILS! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME I DONT WANT THEM TO DIE AND I WANT THIS INFORMATION BEFORE THEY ARE BORN! And please dont ask why just impart me the info please that's all I ask please...!
Babies pretty much need their mother. they need her to keep reheat and to be fed, like every few minutes.
You would need an incubator, or at smallest a heat lamp and some small animal formula, and you would basically want to spend 24 hrs a day with them for about 4 weeks. You would have need of to monitor the heat lamp to make certain it's not too hot or cold and bottle feed each baby every few minutes -- are you ready to do that??
I would suggest giving them to the SPCA. If you dont want them to die this is probably your best option.
First thing first
about 28 days back the birth the mother will start pulling out her own hair to build a nest for her young, she will also look for hidden places for the nest. When you see her start facing places with hay and grass etc you will know the time is near.
It will take approx. 10-15 min to total the birth process, and she may bare up to 10 young. Do not panic whether the mother immediatly distances herself from the young, adult rabbits have a sent that attract predators, babies do not - the mother does not want to organize predators to her kits therefore she keeps a distance. The mother will also chomp through any stillborns, this is completely normal
The mother will feed her young in the order of twice a day for about 5 minuets, unlike most animals, parents will disown their young whether they smell human scent, this is not the case with rabbits, this makes it ok for you to check the infantile.
The first thing you will need to do upon the arrival of the kits, is construct sure the nest the mother has built is warm, you may stipulation to make a warmer nest for the kits, whether this is so, get a hot water bottle and fill it beside WARM water, do not use hot as you will burn the babies. Wrap it up in a blanket and then create a small mainstay and place the kits in there. I can bequeath you more details on this if you need it (its too long to type)
The mother will feed her babies normally at dawn and at dusk, she will only do it when she feels it is secure. The easiest way to tell if they are anyone fed is that they are warm and have plump tummies!
One adjectives complication with rabbit births, is that if the mother was too young at heart, she may abandon them, this is where you need to step surrounded by and feed the young. Suitable milk for baby rabbits is similar to dogs and cats milk, and can be bought at a pet store. Use a feed bottle made for small animals, the babies may reject the milk at first, but be persistant or they wil die.
The babies will open their eyes at approx 10 days later, some will take longer and some may even be quicker, they will also start deveolping fur and even the knack to crawl after about 3 days.
It is important the male is removed from the mother and the babies, he may attempt to pregnate the mother straight after giving birth, he may even attempt this on the babies when they mortal matureing.
And do not mix them in with another litter! keep them completely seperated, you can bring wound to the babies.
You cannot foot raise kits, it is next to impossible. You can foster kit from one litter to another mother. As long as the kits are not more than a week apart. Just remember does shouldn't try and raise more than 8 kits at once because most does singular have 8 teats to feed the kits. If you want to foster one litter to another doe after you must keep the kits with the mother until the other doe have kindled, then you can simply place the kits all surrounded by the same nest box together. Do this in the morning and by the time the doe feeds the kit in the evening she will not know her kits form the foster kits.
I own raised many litter of rabbits and have fostered kit to other mothers. it works very well. In fact i other breed 2 or more does at a time to make sure I have a nursing doe surrounded by case an emergency comes up. (like a doe dies or one loses all her kits.)
If you involve more help email me privately
**EDIT**_ It is not true if you mix litters the kits will be harmed. I enjoy fostered kits to other mothers will great sucess.Just make sure you dupe the kits somehow so you know who the kits belong to. **
Everything you need to know something like orphaned kits is here: http://www.rabbit.org/care/orphan.html Do be aware that without their mother, many will die, even beside round the clock care. They do not do well when bottle fed.
Add: Just no. The mother's first milk, the colostrum, is key to their survival. Without it... Not good. There's no good reason for you to do this.
Answers: Ok. Since you have bred rabbits before you know how this works, she will build a nest and have them within a day or two. I'm going to call the fruitless mother A and the one that will have the babies the next day B.
So, when A builds her nest and have her babies take the nestbox out if you are sure B will hold her babies the next day.
There's two things you can do, leave the babies next to A until B has hers and then move the babies from A's nest to B's or you can take the nestbox out of A's coop and keep it somewhere really warm like surrounded by your room and put a blanket over the nest box (they'll be fine since the mom already pulled fur for them to keep them warm).
As soon as B has her babies the next year wait at least half an hour, you enjoy to be really really sure she is done, she will probably let them have some milk since getting out of the nestbox after kindling so don't force her out of the nest box, let her come out on her own.
Then, Bring A's babies and put them inside the nestbox and cover them back with fur around the nest box.
When the babies are elder and I have to foster them and I know that the mom probably won't react the best to them I put some Vick on my hand and put a short time bit outside of the doe's nose so that she won't recognize the scent of the topical babies, you can also use something vanilla scented.
Don't put A's babies in B's nestbox until B has kindled her babies, because she will still probably be making tiny change to her nest before she kindles and may step on A's babies or sit on them while kindling accidentally even if she is a worthy mom. Also, if you put them before B has her babies (this happen to me once a long time ago) she won't recognize her own and would be confused and hurt her own and then you won't have anyone near who to foster her own kits with.
* I would keep the A's babies surrounded by a room in your house where they can't be disturbed until B has her babies or she may hurt them again.
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