URGENT:TONIGHT IF POSSIBLE?

Question
8 month old rescue bunny quite shockingly had 2 babies!
One was WAY out of her pen on floor, still alive, partly warm. Found another baby in bunch of hay she had gathered up. It was dead unfortunately. The 1 baby I put in a nestbox in her pen w/some of our other rabbits' furs. I rubbed them on her fur 1st but this 'foster' fur had been sitting in a baggy for months (I collect fur for our canaries nesting times).

I put a hot water bottle (rubber kind) under a towel & put the baby on top within this fur I had.
The mom is a very nervous type of bunny. When do I know if I should place this baby in with another bunny we have that's still nursing 4 - t week old kits? I don't want this baby to die but I want to give the mom a chance too.

I can't find any info on this & because it's only ONE baby.
She never did pull fur either.

Thanks so much

Answer
Dear Paula,

Mama is young and inexperienced and stressed.  Triple whammy for unfortunate births like this.  :(

I hope the information in these articles will help:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/orphan.html

This includes feeding instructions for the "orphan":  you can take over feeding if mama is unable (which is not unlikely, seeing as she didn't pull fur; her oxytocin and prolactin levels might be too low for her to successfully produce milk for her baby.

Please also see:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/surpriselitter.html

and:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

I hope this will help with the situation.  Good luck!

Dana