How to Feed Newborn Rabbits When the Mother Won't
Most mother rabbits will feed their babies, even if they appear to be ignoring them. Mother rabbits feed their young twice each day and then they leave; this is because in nature, a mother rabbit stays far away from the nest to prevent attracting predators. Inspect the domestic bunnies' tummies to see if they are round, which indicates that they are full of milk. If they are wrinkled, bluish, cold, have shrunken bellies and are roaming around, you might want to start feeding them.
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Things You'll Need
- Kitten-milk replacer
- Syringes
- Rubber tube
- Timothy-and-oat hay
- Vegetables
Instructions
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Cradle the baby upright. Place a short rubber tube that fits into the baby's mouth onto the end of a syringe. Feed a bunny that is less than one week old morning and night feedings of 2 to 2.5 cc of milk. Rub the area around its genitals to help it defecate before and after each feeding.
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Feed a bunny that is between one and three weeks old morning and night feedings of 7 to 13 cc of milk. Rub the area around its genitals to help it defecate before and after each feeding until the baby is ten days old.
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Hand-feed a bunny that is older than ten days with watered-down timothy-and-oat hay, pellets, dandelions, parsley or grated carrots until they are full. Put a dish of water in the cage.
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4
Feed a bunny that is three to six weeks old morning and night feedings of 13 to 15 cc of milk. Stop hand-feeding after the baby is six weeks old.
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Tips & Warnings
Mix one cecotrope per day into the milk formula to give the baby bacteria for its stomach. A cecotrope is a chain-like dropping that the mother usually eats.
Use a damp cotton ball to entice defecation.
Cottontails require about half the feeding portions and are able to feed themselves after three to four weeks. Jackrabbits need to be fed for at least nine weeks.
References
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
