baby bunny death

Question
hi, I'm from England and occasionally breed a litter of rabbits. i keep lionheads and rex. a few months ago i bred 2 litters of lionheads. one was a litter of 4 and the other was 5. litter of 4 were all fine and still are now but the litter of 5, we lost 2 around weaning time. i figured its a digestive problem as i know thats very common. and there were no other signs of disease. just wondered if theres any supplements i can give them through weaning time. i heard herbal remedies are useful, i use them myself for various things. if u can tell me what would be good to use if you know. thanks

Answer
Hi Natalie

There are a few different opinions on this.  My own personal vet would tell me to feed them extra cecotropes from a healthy rabbit.  Some vets believe that pro-biotics are extremely important at weaning time.  I actually do use something called bene-bac at weaning time.  I don't know if it is helpful or if I have just been lucky but so far I have never lost a baby during weaning.

I can buy it here at any cage dealer or large pet supplier but I don't know where you can get it there.  It is the same thing you would give to baby kittens.  It comes in a very small tube and the babies each get one tube at weaning and then one 3 days later.  I don't know any other brand names other than bene-bac.  I am attaching the site where I get it so that you can see what it is.

http://www.klubertanz.com/images/Catalog.pdf


This is just an article I found about probiotics
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Probiotics/probiotics.htm

You always want to make sure that the babies have plenty of timothy hay.  Also I have found that if the babies get their little teeth on any veggies at all this can cause enteritis and diarrhea.  If you plan on feeding the mom veggies it is best not to do it in the same cage as the babies.  I generally separate the mom for a few hours a day and let her eat her veggie treats alone.  This way the babies really can't get ahold of them.

I am sorry about the loss of your babies.

Good luck

Pam