cecotropes for babies

Question
The mother rabbit has died and I have been raising them myself. I have been successful for 1 1/2 weeks now and the babies are 2 1/2 weeks old. I know I am supposed to have donor cecotropes but this is not available to me. What will happen if the babies do not get the donor cecotropes? Is there something else I can do for them?

Answer
Dear Samantha,

Actually, I'm starting to believe (from lots of experience) that baby rabbits who are simply allowed to be in contact with other adult rabbits will get sufficient exposure to normal rabbit gut flora that they might not really need cecotropes.  Colostrum in the formula can help them establish a normal flora without being harmed by potential pathogens in the environment, and you can read about raising orphans here:

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

and here:

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

Exposure to cecotropes from a healthy rabbit is not a bad idea, but it might be enough to just scatter fecal pellets from healthy rabbits around the babies' enclosure for them to come into contact and inoculate themselves.

I hope this helps.  Good luck with the wee ones!

Dana