Two week old bunny

[Kelsey]

I have a two week old bunny I took in because he was in a litter with four other bunnies that passed away. He was growing and walking around but today I picked him up and his belly wasn’t round and he was skinny and he rolls to his side when you put him down. I took him in and bought some rabbit stuff to feed him and I was wondering when should I feed him? Every four hours? We think the mama has Mastitis because her babies were dying and we called two wets and she isn’t eating her food or drinking her water and her belly she isn’t producing milk she has one nipple. The baby acts fine the only thing is he sleeps a lot and rolls to his side. He eats and everything. Will the baby live if I continue to take care of it? I need much needed advice!

[JackRabbit]

You could try pm’ing Roberta and Cottontail — they are the only ones I know of who have dealt with babies.

[Roberta]

Addressing the baby on the other thread but my question here is about the mother, is she getting vet treatment ? This is extremely urgent. It’s a concern if she is not eating or drinking and if she has stasis it could be the reason she isn’t feeding. You need to get her treated in the interim it is very important you start to syringe feed her too. I found Critical Care in 10 ml batches was the easiest, normally a mother bunny would triple her food and water intake which could be another reason she is not producing milk. Offer her lots of wet aromatic greens like kale, coriander, basil and parsley. You can syringe water also to get her hydrated.
Please get her to the vet if you haven’t already done so. My Pandora came from the pound with 10 kits born only hours before, she was starving and unable to feed the babies. I had to hand feed for a day and still lost 3 but Pandora eventually started to produce milk after I fed her non stop for 12 hours. She ate every salad, piece of hay and pellet I put in front of her. She was so starved she didn’t even have a dewlap to pluck fur from to nest the babies.

[Roberta]

If you don’t have critical care you can make a pellet slurry, you can also give her doses of simethicone (baby gas drops from the chemist) to help her pass any gas and try to start her stomach moving till you get to the vet. Initially give 1 ml simethicone 3 hrs apart then morning and night for after care until she starts to improve.

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