What kind of milk can you feed a wild baby rabbit

Caring for Newborn Baby Rabbits

IF THESE ARE WILD BABIES

It’s that time of year again. Wild babies everywhere. But are they at risk?

Wild rabbits hide their nests in plain view, often in the middle of your yard, bushes, etc. If you find a nest that has been disturbed, do the best you can to restore it and leave the babies in there. If a dog discovers the nest, do your best to restore it (with grass, leaves, whatever mama has used), make sure the kits are in there, and find a way to keep the dog(s) away from the nest. Mama will return for her babies and taking them away will seriously decrease their chance of survival. If you do not see the mama—DON’T WORRY—they only nurse their babies a few minutes a day, then they stay away so as to not draw predators to the nest.

If a kit is injured or an animal brings you an injured baby, if you have no choice but to help a baby, please do not try to care or it yourself—-get it to a rabbit vet or a wildlife rehabilitator

Local wildlife rehabilitator: https://www. nwrawildlife.org
List of rabbit vets: http://rabbit.org/vet-listings/

The best thing you can do for wild babies is to leave them alone (restored to the nest) or, if injured, get them to a rabbit vet or wildlife rehabilitator.

DOMESTIC/PET RABBITS

WHERE TO PUT THE BABIES

Make the babies a soft nest area in a box with clean towels. We like to put one folded towel on the bottom and another bunched on top of that, so the babies can snuggle into it. You can also purchase soft nesting wool from a pet store and put that on top of the towel. You can also take whatever nesting material they were in and put it in the box as well. Cover the box almost entirely with a light towel, making sure that there will be enough air so the babies do not suffocate. Leaving about a one inch gap at the top is usually sufficient. Keep the babies in an out-of-the way, QUIET area, such as an adult’s bedroom. If the room temperature is between 68-72 degrees you will not need to provide extra heat, but if it’s cooler than that you will need to provide extra warmth. Use a heating pad set on low and slip it under one half only of the box. We do it this way so that the babies can move to a cooler area if it gets too warm. DO NOT put babies directly on heating pad, as babies can burn themselves very badly.

If the babies were with their mamma, but she is not caring for them (and you are sure she is ignoring them) you may need to separate her from them so they will not get hurt. Rabbit milk is very caloric and the kittens (baby rabbits) only nurse for a few minutes a day, so if you think that she is not caring for them based only on the fact you don’t see them feed…think again. If you do think they are being neglected, you can check: Are they cold? Are they making crying sounds for more than a few minutes before (or at) feeding time? Are they blue? Is the skin shriveled? Check for dehydration: gently pinch together the skin at the nape of the neck. If it sticks together or stays in a tent, they are dehydrated. A healthy kit has a round belly, is warm, gains weight on a daily basis, and snuggles with its litter mates. If they are dehydrated, cold, losing weight or becoming injured, of course, something must be done

WHAT TO FEED THE BABIES

Baby rabbits should be fed Kitten Milk Replacer (KMR) or goat milk, which you can buy at pet stores, or sometimes even a local veterinarian’s office. Because rabbit milk is the most caloric of all mammals, we add in one tablespoon of 100% heavy whipping cream (no sugar) to each can of KMR. Most kits will not nurse from the baby animal bottles you can buy at stores. Instead, use a sterile oral syringe, which can be purchased at most pharmacies. A better alternative are these nipples, which come the a syringe, but you may not be able to find them locally/right away (link).

It is best to feed baby rabbits no more than twice a day, but sometimes it takes more feedings to get an adequate amount into them, especially at first.

How much to feed varies greatly on what breed of rabbit you are feeding, and how big the kit is, but here is a basic guideline for the daily amount to feed a domestic rabbit who will be approximately 5-6 pounds as an adult (average rabbit size). You can increase the amounts as needed for larger breeds.

To help the kits maintain healthy gut bacteria, go to your local health food store (and get a bottle of ACIDOPHILUS. Ask for the capsules that have the “grainy stuff” inside (they are easier to mix than the “powdery stuff”) and add a bit to the formula at each feeding.

ALL amounts below should be divided into two feedings per day.

Newborn – 1 week
- 4-5 cc formula
1-2 weeks
- 10-15 cc formula
2-3 weeks
- 15-30 cc formula
3-6 weeks, until weaned
- 30 cc formula

HOW DO I DO THIS?

Baby rabbits feed from their mothers while lying on their backs. You may loosely wrap baby in a soft face cloth or hand towel and lay it on your lap or in the crook of your arm. If bunny will NOT eat this way, of course, do the best you can. It is ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL to let the baby eat at it’s own pace—especially if it is not suckling from the syringe willingly. If you squirt the liquid in too quickly you can aspirate (get liquid in) the lungs and the rabbit will suffocate.

Until their eyes open (10 days): After each feeding it is important to make the bunny defecate and urinate to keep the intestinal tract and urinary system running smoothly. Use a soft cloth or a cotton ball moistened with warm water and gently stroke the genital area until the bunny starts producing stool and urine. Keep stroking until the bunny stops. You are replicating the behavior of the mother rabbit who would lick her young to stimulate them to go to the bathroom. The stool will be soft and may be varying shades of green and yellow. If the urine is brown and gritty, the buns are not adequately hydrated and you need to get them to a rabbit vet ASAP—-it is an emergency. Be sure to clean baby’s mouth with a damp cloth or paper towel, so that no milk dries in the hair.

Baby rabbit eyes open at about 10 days of age. You may start introducing them to hay and pellets at this point, but no veggies or fruits yet. Just leave some timothy or orchard and alfalfa hay and pellets in a corner of the box where the babies can easily get to them. Make sure it the pellets are plain, high fiber and fresh, with no added goodies such as dried banana chips or seeds. Don’t ever leave a deep water dish in which a baby could drown; instead, use something shallow and rinse and fill it frequently.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Your Question Answered: What Do You Feed Wild Baby Rabbits?

Written by The Rabbit Hole Hay Team

Regardless of how you stumbled upon these babies, here’s some things you need to know about what to feed baby wild rabbits. Before you go about this process, it’s important to know if the baby is a jack rabbit or cottontail rabbit. Jack rabbits are even more wild and will injure themselves or can die of trauma very easily. Please seek expert advice and let a professional take care of them if this is the case.

1. Make Sure The Rabbit Actually Needs Help And Is An Orphan

Are you sure that these wild baby rabbits are actually abandoned? How do you know? Rabbit parents can sometimes leave their nest for up to a whole day to forage in the woods and visit with other rabbits, and only come back to briefly check in and feed. If you have been watching the hole and haven’t seen the mom for at least two days or have even checked the rabbits and noticed they are skinny and calling for help, you may need to take action.

Read this to know if the babies are actually abandoned: How to Care for Orphaned Wild Cottontail Bunnies

2. Prepare A Place For The Rabbits To Stay

Create a nest like situation for the baby rabbits. This can be created by using a blanket or towel in a rabbit cage or hutch. The bunny’s environment should be cozily warm, but not hot. Smaller bunnies may require an incubator for help.

3. Feed The Rabbits

If the baby rabbits you rescued are infants with their eyes closed or barely any fur, you’ll need to hand feed them formula. There are different opinions on what type of milk you should feed them, how often and how to do it. However, goat milk or kitten milk replacer is typically the milk of choice. NEVER feed them cow’s milk. Just remember, wild bunny food is different than domestic bunny food.

Consider these articles for methods:

How to Care for Orphaned Wild Cottontail Bunnies
How to Care for a Baby Wild Rabbit
Orphaned Baby Bunnies: Wild and Domestic

Reminder: Any wild rabbit no matter the age should have constant access to hay, water and fresh greens similar to the type are used to in their wild environment. While it is not a baby’s main food source, they may learn how to eat solid food by nibbling on it.

4. Stimulate The Bunnies To Go To The Bathroom

In order for very young baby rabbits (7 days old or less) to be able to go to the bathroom they must be stimulated. Think about how mother animals typically clean their young by licking them. Really, it serves a double purpose which is to help stimulate their organs to urinate and defecate. This might sound a little gross to you and if you’re not able to take this on then please take the rabbits to a shelter or vet.

Read this for instructions on how to stimulate a baby rabbit: Saving Wild Baby Rabbits

5. When In Doubt Take Them To A Vet Or Rabbit Shelter

If you don’t think you are able to care for the baby bunnies, are scared to do so or have noticed they aren’t doing well or one is injured, don’t mess around and take them to your local veterinarian or rabbit shelter immediately. Rabbits can pass away quickly. You don’t have time to spare if you notice something is wrong. Let the professionals take it into their own hands.

Eventually you will want to, well, maybe more like have to, let them free and out into their natural habitat again. When you take care of these bunnies make sure you keep in mind that they are wild and need to be released back to where they came from. So don't get too attached! They should not be kept as your pet unless they have an injury or will not survive on their own in the wild.

Again, this is a very big responsibility and takes a lot of time and dedication. Please consider taking the orphaned baby rabbits to an experienced rabbit shelter or veterinarian. We hope this helped answer your questions of “what do you feed wild baby rabbits?”

You can also download our Hay is for Rabbits eBook to know all about the different types of hay, the best ones to feed your rabbit based on their age, and more! That way the next time you run out of hay, you can purchase your next order with us with confidence.

December 04, 2015

How to feed a hare at home?

Each animal needs its own conditions for a full life. For the well-being of the animal, there are certain requirements for habitat, lifestyle and nutrition. Pets are pampered based on the natural preferences of their wild "brothers". One of the "savages" that people are trying to tame is a hare (later they succeeded and turned out to be a domestic hare). When choosing the conditions for caring for a long-eared animal, they rely on a comparison with a rabbit, but these are completely different animals. Rabbits are more suited to living side by side with humans than hares. Years of evolution have created differences in the lifestyle, pregnancy of rabbits, the appearance of newborns (hares are covered with hair, and rabbits are born naked), which serves as a reason to approach the maintenance of eared at home in a different way. Rabbits are ready for family upbringing, special feeds are sold for them in pet stores, at home they are often treated to grains, while grain in a hare will cause gastrointestinal problems. The conditions for keeping hares should be studied by a person before he takes a forest dweller to himself.

A person's opinion of a safe place may differ from that of a hare. You should not condemn a hare who left her cubs on the site, or not far from the road. She didn't leave them forever. The mother comes to feed her offspring on average 1-2 times a day, more often at night. Therefore, you should not worry about lonely rabbits at first glance. But if something happened to the native mother of the hares, then you can’t count on another hare, because they don’t feed other people’s cubs. If a person chose to take a hare home, his duty is to properly feed the baby, to pick up milk similar to a hare as much as possible and later pick up food. It is required to study what is possible and what is not for the animal.

Contents

What can a hare do at home?

Cat and dog milk replacer (Royal) is suitable for the first meal, fresh goat milk can also be used. When the baby is gaining strength and weighing more than 700 grams, there is a need for complementary foods with grass, berries, fruits and vegetables.

The choice of herbs is varied, field ones are suitable: plantain, clover, medicinal dandelion, mouse pea, nettle, coltsfoot, yarrow, chickweed, shepherd's purse. Man often seasons his food with herbs that are good for hares, and which are not difficult to find in stores at any time of the year. These include: parsley, dill, cilantro, arugula, basil, spinach, tarragon, rosemary, and melissa and mint added to tea.

The choice of fruits should not be specific with notes of exotic, ordinary turnips, zucchini, pumpkin, carrots, sugar beets, fodder beets are suitable for hares, getting to summer cottages in secret from their inhabitants. In the plots, long-eared find treats in the form of berries such as strawberries, wild strawberries, currants, mountain ash, they can be content with plums. It is not forbidden to treat, now a pet with a banana, watermelon, apricot, cucumber, orange, sweet pepper, apple.

Another food recommended for hares, more familiar in nature - sprigs of aspen, linden, cypress, pine, beech, bird cherry, mountain ash, along with fruits, wild rose, birch, larch, willow, you can give juniper branches, but the berries of the bush are poisonous. Branches are better to choose young and soft.

The slanting barley, sour and the enemy of gardeners - quinoa will be to your taste. In winter, with a poorer choice, you can pay attention to oatmeal, dried fruits, hay, dried berries, herbal granules (not biofeed).

It is important to maintain water balance when feeding any animal. Every body needs water. It should be freely available for the hare, the need for water does not depend on the juiciness of the consumed fruits and herbs.

When feeding hares at home, there may be such an inconvenience as the preference of the hare to eat at dusk and at night. If this can cause the owner severe discomfort, it is better to abandon the idea of going against the nature of the oblique and get another animal. It is worth remembering that even following all the recommendations for rabbit nutrition, you should not lose sight of the need for movement. For a hare, movement is life, you can’t keep him in a cage like a rabbit. Otherwise, the hare will not survive. If it is not possible to allow the hare to move freely around the "possessions", and the love for the eared knows no bounds, it is better to opt for a rabbit.

Do's and Don'ts for a domestic hare

Under no circumstances should cow's milk be used from a carton. Hare milk with a fat content of more than 15% contains a lot of protein (casein, globulin), 6 times more than in cow's milk and 4 times more nutritious. Methods in the form of adding eggs or cream to milk are not only ineffective, but also detrimental to the animal. An egg can cause frightening salmonellosis and metabolic disorders, an obstacle to the absorption of vitamin B1. Antibiotics that are given in factories to birds can lead to poisoning of hares. Intoxication and poisoning are not immediately noticeable, but only for 3-4 days, however, a knowledgeable veterinarian will immediately detect malaise as a result of malnutrition of the tails.

Infant formula will not replace rabbit milk, but will only harm the animal (an autopsy shows a greatly enlarged heart, spleen, liver, and intestinal problems after baby food). Beofar dog milk replacer causes diarrhea.

Bread is a universal product that is used to feed the animals you like, but in vain. Flour will easily disrupt the metabolism and lead to the suffering of the animal.

Biofeed for rabbits, let it remain for rabbits, it is not recommended to give such feed to a hare. Coarse fibers quickly clog the gastrointestinal tract, leading to disorders and death

White cabbage, according to cartoon stereotypes, is liked by rabbits, but it is also a forbidden product for long-ears. It is better to replace cabbage with another cartoonish recommendation - carrots.

At home, hares will not refuse to gnaw wires, furniture, so it is worth removing something useful in everyday life, but harmful to the pet, in an inaccessible place. The same goes for pills, which, if consumed by a hare, can be fatal.

The common table with the animal should be excluded, the hare does not need leftovers left after dinner.

Nutrition of wild hares

If at home the feeding of a hare depends on a person, then in natural conditions the hare is free to choose the right food for himself, and different hares have different preferences. The white hare, known for its changing white color among taiga forage, gives preference to willow, aspen and birch. The basis of nutrition is connected with the terrain and the predominance of shrubs, so clearings are revived by birches and aspens, and it is with them that the hare living near the Karelian lakes limits itself. Depending on the geography and the predominance of species of shrubs and trees, the hare's views on food change. The closer to the north, the slower the process of regeneration of forests, and therefore less food for the long-eared. To the south, the hare no longer actively eats willow, birch and aspen; oak twigs and bark occupy an increasing place in the diet. Hare delicacy - terminal soft shoots, nutritious in their structure. In the north, a meager selection of bark makes the hare gnaw at the beavers' houses. Also in the north, the white hare prevents the partridge from being content with the ends of birch and willow shoots, buds, ahead of them in this matter.

Moose are also competitors in eating young shoots, but at the same time they help the hare by breaking trees and bushes, opening access to trees and shrubs.
Without grandfather Mazay, his wards adapt well to conditions and food resources, despite floods. Brown hares prefer open areas, preferably with nearby fields sown by humans, or in light forests with an abundance of blueberries and blueberries. Rusaki influence the spread of plants by eating seeds in late summer, not all of which are digestible. Summer herbs: clover, dandelion are essential components of the diet. In winter, finds under the snow in the form of remaining fruits, as well as shoots and bark of oak, aspen, broom, and apple trees bring joy to the hare. The hare has enough strength to search for food under the snow, unlike partridges, which come to the excavation sites after the hares, in search of a tasty and overlooked hare.

Hares often come down from the forests to watering holes, they start drinking water from about two to four weeks, but for now they do not need to feed on milk.

What a wild hare cannot do

Poisonous plants are contraindicated in nature, which the hare will not eat on his own. Mushrooms, berries that do not benefit the animal will not be in its diet. So at a juniper, a hare gnaws only twigs, leaving poisonous berries unattended. Do not doubt the choice of tailed ones. The negative human impact on the forest, waste, garbage is eaten by the inhabitants, which leads to irreparable consequences for their health.

How to feed a hare

The microbiota in cubs is formed as a result of feeding mother's milk and imitating adults: sucking on grass, or eating small amounts of soil. This is important for the health of the hare, so obliques feel great without human care. In the case when a person tries to feed a hare, it is required to follow the rules established by nature. In nature, the female feeds the hare for a short time and 2 times a day; at home, when the hare is exhausted, you can try to feed it more often, once every 2. 5-3 hours. As noted earlier, the hare should be fed with substitutes for cat or bitch milk, as well as goat. The powder should be diluted thicker than for a kitten or puppy. Cow's milk and cream should be avoided. Treating condensed milk will not lead to anything good.

A hare does not always willingly take merciful milk from a person, in these cases it is necessary to take care of the cub with force. You can collect milk in a syringe without a needle for 10-20 ml, it is convenient for feeding. Gradually, you need to increase the dose, and feed less and less. Warm food, not from the refrigerator, is more useful for the digestive tract system. To avoid problems with the stool, you can massage the abdomen with a cotton swab.

In the first week, the milk teeth of hares change, if during this period the animal tries to eat grass, it may not have enough milk. The norm of milk is 100 ml per day. On milk substitutes, you should keep the hare for up to one and a half months, introducing other foods into the diet after 14 days (preference for legumes and soft branches along with leaves), but leaving the milk base. By 20 days, you should drink from coccidiosis and helminths. By a month or two, the hare should be completely transferred to adult food.
born. In addition to proper nutrition, you do not need to deprive the baby of warmth (heater).

Experts can also easily determine the age of a hare from a photo. The minimum weight for switching to more rigid food from milk substitutes is more than 600 grams.
When deciding to feed a hare, a person needs to track the weight gain of the animal, the norm is 30-70 grams per day. For example, at birth, a hare weighs a little over 100 grams, by day 20 600, after a month about 950 grams.

You need to understand that a hare is not a cat, even the most experienced pet lover, sometimes unable to leave a hare. The cat itself will not be able to feed the rabbits, its milk contains pathogenic substances dangerous for the eared, and the difference in the approach to feeding the offspring is significant. So hares rarely eat, quickly and a lot, kittens can lie with their mother for a long time, slowly sucking milk drop by drop. A single serving of cat's milk is not enough for a hare.

When meeting cute fluffies, it's best to walk past. The mother hare will feed them, so the animal will have more chances to survive. According to statistics, only 5 out of 100 survive next to a person. But if a person decides to take a hare home, one should approach his feeding and maintenance with special responsibility. If the error is recognized within 24 hours, it is not too late to return the hare to its place, or contact the specialists.

Irina Ivanishchena

I am engaged in professional breeding of hamsters and rats on a permanent basis. I know things about them that most people don't. Always open to constructive discussion

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Peculiarities of keeping and breeding rabbits - veterinary clinic "AMIKUS VET"

Reading time 3 min.
The article was prepared jointly with Dmitry Ivanovich Gildikov

Rabbits are mammals belonging to the order Lagomorphs, the hare family. The birthplace of wild rabbits is Spain. On their basis, breeders bred about 60 domestic breeds that spread throughout the world.

Reproduction

Female rabbits become sexually mature already at 3.5-4 months. But they happen not earlier than 5-6 months of age, after young animals reach at least 80% of the live weight of adults.

Sexual hunting lasts for females 3-5 days every 5-6 days in summer and every 8-9 days in winter. Rabbits are born 28-32 days after mating.

Mating well-fed, but not obese animals. Older males are used to cover young females, and young rabbits are allowed to approach old rabbits. When mating, the female is placed in the male's cage. On the fifth or sixth day, control mating is carried out. The female rabbit will not let the male near her.

5-6 days before the expected birth, the nest is well cleaned, treated with disinfectants and covered with hay. It is necessary to ensure that the cage is constantly full of food and water. In the absence of water, as well as a deficiency of vitamins or minerals in the body, the rabbit can eat the cubs.

Usually a female brings 6-12 babies at a time, occasionally 16-19. Rabbits are born completely helpless. They are naked and blind.

Babies leave the nest on the sixteenth or eighteenth day. At the same time, they begin to eat food on their own.

The development of young rabbits is judged by their weight. At birth, babies weigh 50-70 grams, and on the twentieth day - 5-6 times more (250-300 grams). The intensity of growth depends on the milk yield of the mother rabbits and the number of young rabbits in the litter.

Babies are weaned from their mother when they reach 30-45 days of age.