handrearing 3 week old baby rabbits

Question
ive a litter of baby mini lops they are 3 weeks old and mummy rabbit has died how often should i feed them hope you can help
lucy

Answer
Hi Lucy,

I am sorry to hear their mama passed away.

Well, you could feed them once every 4-6 hours from a bottle.  You can feed them Kitten Milk Replacement and instead of mixing with water, use cream. Rabbit milk is very rich.  You might need to enlarge the nipple hole on the bottle.

You can start to wean them down slowly around week 4-5.  You can start leaving out a bowl of timothy hay pellets (pellets ONLY, nothing extra like seeds or fruit or corn) for them to start nibbling on, as well as hay (timothy hay, a little alfalfa hay).  Oxbow brand pellets and hay are excellent and most rabbits like them.  as these are youngsters who would normally learn to eat this stuff from watching mama, you'll have to monitor them and maybe hand feed a couple pellets or try to get them to nibble them.

Do not give any fruits or vegetables at all now.  Their gi tract is way too immature to deal with it and you can kill them from complications of this.

Another great resource to tap is the House Rabbit Society web site.  They have hundreds of articles on all aspects of rabbit care and behavior.  Search on "newborn" and "orphan" and "nutrition" to find relevant articles you might want to have on hand right now.

Also, pick up the House Rabbit Handbook either from HRS or your local bookstore.  They have a great section on raising newborns/orphans.

Lee