Orphaned Baby Bunnies

Question
About a week ago we lost our Continental Giant doe to flystrike.  she left us with 8 kits when they were only 6 days old and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we've lost 6.  The two that are left are feeding really well on Cimicat and a pro-biotic mix.  One of them is so greedy at feeding time, I've been limiting them to 6.5ml per feed (every 6 hours)as I'm worried i may overfeed them.  They are now 2 weeks old. In about a week they should be ready for solid food, but having read up on hand rearing rabbits, I've read that changes to their diet can be dangerous. I'm just wondering when i start to introduce them to pellets, do i just give them a couple to try every feeding time?  They live in a bed of Hay, as well as nice warm hot water bottle to keep them warm, so i assume they'll start to chew on the hay when they are ready to try it. should i make water available to them at that stage too? and keep up the feeding at the regular times?  I'm just very worried that they've made it this far, and their change of diet might kill them.
I hope you can help.

Answer
Hi,

they can have water and hay available all the time. Just refresh both at least once a day.

When rabbits are young and growing, it is hard to overfeed them.  I would be more worried about feeding them too fast and getting liquid into their lungs, rather than overfeeding, so if he wants a little more you can give a little more.

Pellets are not that huge of a shift as they are powdered and break down into slush in the gut.  Generally since they are all hay based items it is not the same kind of shock to a young gi tract as veggies and fruits or other high carb/hi sugar items.  It is a much smoother transition.  Do not use pellets with extra junk in them - just straight ol' food pellets.  The other stuff will cause gi tract issues.

Also do not feed these guys greens or fruits until they are at least 6 months old.  Their gi tract is too young to handle this stuff now.  Like you suspect they have to get used to just dealing with hay and pellets first.

Each can have around a 1/4 cup a day the first month.  Whne they are a little bigger, you can give between 1/4 and 1/2 cup per day.  Technically they will be really growing so they will not get fat if they also get exercise.  Generally the first year, you don't have to worry about them getting fat.  After a year you need to make sure to limit pellets to no more than 1/4 cup per 5 pounds body weight, per day.

To get and keep them interested in hay, get good fresh hay, and every day (or twice if possible) top off with new hay - as it loses its appeal the longer it's out.  A good timothy hay, orchard grass hay, are best.

Check out the House Rabbit Society web site (www.rabbit.org) and search their articles on "babies", "newborns", "orphan".

Lee