bad doe second time around.

[Lowstorm]

thought of another option that I may have to do. Bring the babies inside. Bring the mamas in 3x a day, Clover twice and Alfalfa once and hold them down for feeding the babies. I was reading on here of someone else doing that with a litter. NOT IDEAL but a least an option. Or feed them using milk re-placers. I'd take this as a last step if I start losing babies.

 

[Pastor Dave]

The one your son is holding in his left hand looks healthy.
This being the doe's actual first successful litter, I would wait and see. I wouldn't call it a strike against her, but give her two more at least anyway. At 9 days old, they will be looking around real soon and learning to eat on their own from observation.
I haven't done colony style, but that would be be my guess.

 

[Lowstorm]

Well, came home to one baby with no suckle left that we had to put down (it was bad. Really really bad) the rest are not good at all. Took a good look at Clover,... her nipples are red but there's no milk. I held her and put two babies to Feed, she has nothing to give. Absolutely no idea why.

For tonight the babies (13 left) are all in with Alfalfas nest. I figure by morning I'll know. All the Feed stores are closed til morning. I have the whole instruction manual on feeding babies by hand. But Alfalfa went right into the nest box and there was no sound. Heck, she was checking out the babies while I was putting them in.

So either she'll Feed them or not. I may be hand feeding 6 bunnies or I'll have one great momma. I'm hoping I'll have a great momma. I'm not afraid of feeding them though so might go ahead and supplement if she takes them all.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Pretty Frustrating I would guess. We've all had similar occurrences if we have put any time into developing a breeding herd.
I had a doe that didn't come into her milk until after her first litter had all died. By the time I caught on, the ones fostered also died. The doe teamed up with her developed mastitis and needed her litter removed for penicillin injection treatments. I gave them to the doe that had lost her litter, but by now had come into milk. She nursed the other litter to completion and all made it.
Both mothers since then have done great!
We learn a lot as we go, and a lot of it is still just practicing as we keep trying along.
Hang in there.

 

[Lowstorm]

Yeah, I did a lot of looking up of mastitis this morning and it doesn't look like that thankfully.

I'm going to be checking on them in a few minutes. Hopefully it's good news.

 

[Lowstorm]

So the verdict is in.


What a good momma!!!!!!!!
She has taken on the task of feeding 13. Only one still looked a bit skinny but one isn't bad and I think she was about to Feed again.

 

[Pastor Dave]

That is a huge task for her. She does sound real good though. Kudos for her efforts!

 

[Hens and Roos]

Glad to hear that she is feeding all kits!!

 

[Marie28]

Wow! Thats a good mama!

 

[Lowstorm]

This afternoon I checked again. All still alive, only one at a worrisome skinny. The rest were so fat they weren't moving. On the plus side she's gotten 'aggressive ' which means she's staying in the box and letting me touch her when I check on them. Clover will be given another chance and Alfalfa is obviously a great momma.