We have a rescued baby bunny, as of last night. The eyes are a work in progress. Luckily one is now open (they are matted over) after lots of warm cotton balls and very very gentle rubbing. After the soak this morning on the more inflamed eye, it did start draining, which is a great start! It is not hot to the touch, but he does scratch it, which may explain the redness and irritation (it is obviously infected though). We are feeding KMR, but I am looking for raw goats milk as well. Lil' Cottonball weighs 6.2oz. I have no idea how old he is or how much he should weigh, which makes feeding confusing for me. He ate 8ml of formula this morning ( we are feeding with a 1ml dropper). I plan on getting some soft Alfalfa tonight since his eye is opened. Does anyone have any idea how old he may be? I am thinking 3 weeks? He is hopping around, pooing and peeing on his own, and has no fear of us, he actually enjoys being held and having his eyes soaked and cleaned. Thank you so so much!!!
Baby Bunny, Please Help!!!
- Thread starter newchck
- Start date
MissE
Crowing
He looks to be about 3 weeks old. How did you come to rescue him? They should be with mom at that age, so not sure how he will do. At that age they do start to nibble on pellets, but still need to nurse for most of their nutrition. Definitely keep on the KMR. Weight will depend on breed.
His eyes should have opened between 10-14 days, but if they crust over, you do need to wash them, like you're doing. They may have been crusted over too long for them to recover. Time will tell.
Good luck with the little guy!
His eyes should have opened between 10-14 days, but if they crust over, you do need to wash them, like you're doing. They may have been crusted over too long for them to recover. Time will tell.
Good luck with the little guy!
- Thread starter
- #3
Thank you! We live in a town where someone let domestic rabbits loose some years ago, and now they are all over the place. (I have never weighed one, but they are smaller than our New Zealands but bigger than your wild rabbit so I am guessing they are around 5-7 pounds grown) Edit: They may weigh even less, I am not too sure. This little guy was in my in-laws yard with a sibling, an hour later the sibling was gone and this guy was being stalked by cats. My father in law went to check on him and the bunny didn't run, was very thin, super super lethargic. My mother in law called me over, after formula feeding him (and the tiniest bit of molasses on the gums) he perked up and started hopping around. My in-laws said these babies kept dwindling in numbers. (We are thinking with the bad eyesight maybe the mom rejected them) With his eyesight being impaired, the sunken belly, and the fact that he is domestic in nature we decided to give him a better chance. He seems pretty good other than his one eye that he keeps scratching at. I am going to call an exotic vet to get some advice, and see the cost of an exam.
the_peanut_coop
🦌Optimist🦌
Poor lil cutie. He definitely needs to be nursed, as he is not old enough to be weaned. luv that, though. good job rescuing him. good luck.
- Thread starter
- #5
Thank you. We are going to try to get 15-30 cc a day into him of good formula / goats milk and some alfalfa. Hopefully he will be nice and chunky soon!
- Thread starter
- #6
the_peanut_coop
🦌Optimist🦌
If he's six ounces at 3 weeks, thats healthy.
- Thread starter
- #8
Thank you so so much. We are hoping that he will continue to gain weight! Do you happen to know if weight gains should be daily? I guess this is a good experience for me to have. We will be breeding our doe in the fall and it is my first experience with baby buns!
Do you have rabbit food?
An alfalfa-based complete pellet is good for growing bunnies, and I'm pretty sure he's old enough to start eating it. Not yet ready for it to be his entire diet, but old enough to start nibbling.
Within another week or two, he will probably not need the milk any more-- a doe can have litters as close at 4.5 weeks apart, so bunnies sometimes get weaned pretty early. Yes, bunnies can be weaned completely onto a good pelleted food as early as 4 weeks old and do fine (which might be reassuring since the doe isn't available to nurse this one!)
Rabbit pellets may look too big for a bunny that small, but the bunnies just pick it up by one end and start chewing. The other end of the pellet hangs out of their mouth wiggles as they chew--awfully cute! And then sometimes they drop the rest of that pellet and start another one, which is a bit wasteful, but in a few weeks they become tidier eaters.
- Thread starter
- #10
We do have pellets. we are going to start with some alfalfa hay and see how he does with that and then work up to pellets. Thanks!!
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