Baby Rabbits with no mom

Question
Do you have any advice for me concerning 6 kits that my mom rabbit just delivered.  This is the second time that she has given birth and she does not take care of her babies.  The first time she gave birth our other mamma rabbit delivered at the same time so she was able to care for all of the babies but this time only the neglectful mother gave birth.  We did not intend for her to become pregnant again but she did and now we have six kits that will die unless we can care for them ourselves.  Is it possible to raise these rabbits?  I have did a lot of research and it seems like a very difficult task.  Do you have any advice for me?  What should I feed them and how often?  Do I bring them inside or leave them in their cage with their mom?  Please help if you can.

Answer
hello tracy

i have a load of advice for you as the same thing has happened to me before. It is so hard seeing the mum rabbit not look after her babies. one thing you didnt mention is if they look healthy with a little belly or little and skinny? if they look healthy then there is a good chance of them surviving however if they dont look good then they will have a very small chance of surviving as it is the mums way of saying tha they are not well.

ok, firstly you should take them out of their cage away from the other as she may try and hurt the babies if she dont want to look after them. if you can, get a  small cardboard box for the babies fill it with loads of soft bedding such as shredded paper/straw or even hamster bedding. It is very important that they stay warm so put the box in a nice warm place. You can hand rear the babies but alot of time/work and patients is involved especially that you have 6 babies. from now to about a week old they will need to be fed about every 3 hours and one babies feed needs to last about 20 minutes, so by the time you finish it wont be long until it is feeding time again.have you got someone to help you feed the bunnies? do you work?

after about two weeks they will slowly start eating solid foods but will still need milk up until 4-5 weeks old but will not need alot of milk at that time.

when i had to feed my litter i only had 3 bunnies and that was hard work for me, its not going to be easy.

i fed my babies felix cat milk, it has to be warmed up like how you warm up a babies bottles of milk, get a syringe to help you feed them and slowly drop the milk into there mouths.

at night when it is colder get a hot water bottle put a tea towl around it and put the hot water bottle under the cardboard box.

if you have any other questions please dont hesitate to ask.

hope this helps and wishing you all the luck with the litter.

sarah