Will the baby runt live?

Question

hehe I asked this question in the wrong cat b4, oops!My rabbit had the babies (born last wed) and all are doing well except one - tiny little thing with lots of skin and not alot of a belly like the others. Is he/she out of the danger zone yet? Or when are all of them out of the "danger zone" do you think they are by now, they are a week old 2moro? Thanks guys

Answer 1

Lots of runts survive. If that little guy is already a week old, he is maybe fully developed, just small. No big deal. I agree with the other answer. Let the mama do her thing. If there is anything wrong, nature will take it's course.

And in answer to your second question...NONE of them are out of the danger zone until they can hop around and live on their own.

Answer 2

What kind of rabbit was the mother and father? If they were both dwarfs then your baby may be a "peanut" - a baby with the double dwarf gene. It will die because it cannot process milk. I just let them "go their way". Check the nest box every morning and remove the kit when it passes on. Two weeks is a long time. If it where a peanut, it would look pretty bad by now. How sad. :(

It may also be a "fader". It just begins to not thrive. That's tough. It's difficult to know what to do to help them. Bottle fed baby rabbits usually never live. The only other option involving humans is tube feeding but it's done differently for rabbits and hardly anyone knows how to do it. It is much better off being left with mom.

You CAN help the baby nurse. Flip mom over on you lap. Get baby and hold the baby's mouth/nose to a nipple. As soon as it touches it the baby should struggle to find it and latch on. Let the baby go on to another nipple when it releases and so on. If the baby doesn't seem to be able to latch on (you'll hear sucking noises and the baby will definately be "stuck" to the nipple) then that is a sign that there is a problem. The baby will die. Just let it be with its mother and siblings until then.

If the baby does nurse successfully, do it again in12 - 24 hours. It just needs help being first in line for dinner, so to speak.

From your description - tiny, lots of skin, not a lot of belly, it really does sound like a peanut. I feel for you in any case. It never gets any easier to deal with. Best wishes to you and you tiny bunny.

Answer 3

I Breed and show Rabbits and from my experience this little one will not be out of the wood until at least 2 weeks old and is able to leave the nest with it's litter mates, if it's tummy isn't full like the rest of the kits then it mustn't be getting fed, How many are in the litter?? if there is more than 8, mum might struggle to feed them all as she only has 8 nipples, i agree that it may be a peanut and if it is there is nothing you can do. in my experience i would not recommend trying to hand rear it unless you have done it before as it can be quite easy to insert the feeding tube into the wrong pipe so to speak and drown the baby instead of feeding it. i would reccomend that you keep a close eye on the baby, check in the morning and evening and make sure that if it does die that it is removed from the nest as soon as possible.
I've got my fingers crossed for you

Answer 4

You may need to help with feeding of that runt. I have a friend who had to take care of their neighbor's baby bunnies, cuz the friends were in a car accident and couldn't do it themselves. As it happens, the momma bunny had died also, so they all had to be hand fed. It was actually a really great experience for her.

Anyway, she told me about what she was feeding them, but I don't remember exactly what it was. I know there was something about using "kitten formula" and adding a bit of heavy cream (apparently, bunny milk is naturally really rich).

You could try to google about what to feed baby bunnies, or if you can't find it, you can let me know and I will try to call her and find out more about it and let you know.

Be forewarned though, she is often really hard to get a hold of, so I may not be able to find out in time, but I will really try. Let me know if you need the info., but it would probably be best and easiest if you found it in google, that way we don't have to worry about whether or not I can contact my friend.

Good luck, I hope they all make it!

Answer 5

I don't know anything about baby rabbits but runts in cats and dogs do survive quite often, You could phone your vet for advise

Answer 6

Sometimes the runt of a litter grows up to be the strongest. Don't count them out till they're down for the count.

Answer 7

i don't think there is a safe zone for runts, they are in more of a danger to get killed by its own siblings, or it can just die young because it is so small like mine did, but i got a got year out of it.

Answer 8

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Answer 9

well my dog was the runt (i know cause i was there the day he was born) he was given to my family and weve had him ever since

hes 14 years old now an has alredy outlived his brothers and sisters

i know my dog isnt rabbit but i hope this helps atleast a little

Answer 10

a runt doesn't mean its going to die the term runt means smallest of all and runts usually grow up to be very healthy long living animals