Fostering and Caring for Kits
Hello
West Coast Flemish Giants members,
As we
go into the cooler seasons, we all are very excited to
breed our rabbits and expand our herds. But what happens
when a mother will not, or is incapable of, caring for
her kits? We usually have two options: 1) Bottle
feeding, or, 2) Fostering the kit(s) to another milking
mother. I would like to discuss the two possibilities
with you and to inform you of what we do when faced with
this problem.
The
first option I would like to discuss with all of you is
bottle feeding. This way can be difficult and sometimes,
ineffective. But if you don't have a open fostering
mother and/or the biological mother cannot care for the
kit(s), it is usually your only other way. When bottle
feeding, or hand feeding as some put it, you want to be
gentle, make sure you are using a small tip nipple so it
may fit into the kit's mouth, have puppy milk formula,
and have patience. If the kit(s)' eyes are not opened
yet I suggest having someone else help you by either
hold or feeding the kit (If you are a youth I STRONGLY
suggest having an adult to help you). If the kit(s) eyes
are open, I suggest the same team style procedure. This
method, if successful, can sometimes, stunt the growth
in the rabbit later in the years as it gets older.
The
second option is fostering the kit(s) to another mother.
This way can go in a good way or can go down hill: If
the kit(s) are near the same age as the fostering
mother's original kits she will usually take the other
kit(s) in. But, if they are more than about 2 weeks
apart or if the fostering mother has a full litter (size
depends on if the Foster Mother is of a small, medium,
or large breed), she most likely will NOT take them in.
Now it also depends on what breed the Foster Mother is,
for example: If you are fostering a Flemish kit which is
of a larger breed, it would be more appropriate to
foster it to a large or medium sized breed, other than a
small breed such as a Polish. When first adding the
kit(s) to the Foster Mother's kit(s), you will want to
watch the Foster Mother for about 15 minutes or so, just
to see if she will feed it right away, and/or to make
sure she doesn't try to harm the kit(s) in anyway. If
she does feed them the first day, come back everyday for
about a week or so to make sure that the Foster Mother
is taking care of the kit(s). This method, if successful
at the beginning, will usually allow the kit(s) to live.
Now,
when we ourselves are faced with these problems, we tend
now to use the second option. But, when I had my first
litter that faced this problem, we had to resort to the
first method. We weren't very experienced with any sort
of fostering or bottle feeding at the time, but we tried
our hardest. Recently, this past summer, (about 5 years
after our first bottle feeding litter) I had a very
anticipated kit be born, but the mother was incapable of
caring for it. I was very afraid of bottle feeding it
since we have had such low success rates, and the side
effects that came if it did live. Then I remembered a
lady informing me about the new breed that I had gotten
in Texas, Harlequins. She had told me that Harlequins
make excellent foster mothers for almost any breed, so
we tried it. My goodness, was she ever right! My
Harlequin doe, Zakuro, jumped right into the birthing
box as soon as we put the kit in there, and started
feeding it right away. The kit is still alive and is
doing well. (Now, I'm not saying you should all go
out and get a Harlequin for fostering, there are plenty
of other breeds that are good at fostering.
As
you can see, both methods have they're good and bad
sides, but they help you learn and care for a kit. I
hope that if you have or ever will be faced with this
kind of problem, that you will choose a method that is
best for you and the kit(s).
Till
next time,
Pauline Herring
WCFG Director