3 week old baby rabbit very week cant stand up n lathargic

Question
Hi
i am a rabbit breeder of holland lops for 8 year. My doe had 9 babies, 2 were dwarfs n died the second day, but here babys are very small. And has one week link. Since the hot weather has come we noticed he wasent looking so good, there for brought him in the house in a five gallon fish tank. He is 3 weeks old very tiny ande now is very lathargic very very week, cant stand up on his own, all he can do is kick his legs eat and drink water out of a suringe. He has a lotta will and is a fighter.

can you please help me?

Answer
Dear Maddie,

It is not possible for me to know whether this baby has congenital problems that are interfering with his thriving.  Holland lops are already quite inbred as a breed, and if you are breeding closely related rabbits, it is not unlikely that you will eventually have individual babies who express harmful, recessive versions of genes that were masked in the parents that did not have two copies of the harmful genes.  (If you would like more details on the genetics of this, please let me know; otherwise I won't bore you with it.)

Please get this baby to a good rabbit vet:

www.rabbit.org/vets

It sounds as if he is very ill and/or dehydrated, and needs immediate, emergency veterinary care.
A fish tank will not provide the ventilation he needs, but he does need to be kept warm.  But sure he is provided with warm water bottles and soft bedding.
 
Water is not enough to sustain a young baby.  Obviously, he needs nutrition.  You can find instructions for feeding a baby rabbit here:

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

But the most important article you can read is here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/breeding.html

I hope this helps.

Dana