How to take care about one month old baby bunny?

Hello everyone.

Yesterday I got a new little friend but she is only one month old…I had only adult rabbits before so I really have no idea how to take care of such a young rabbit, I’m not even sure that it is good to sell bunnies when they are so small… But whatever now I’m responsible for raising her and I want your advices.

I read different articles, some of them claims that baby rabbits should eat hays only, some of them recommends to add pellets and greens to young rabbit’s diet. I fell very confused, I am not sure if one month old rabbit’s stomach can deal with pellets and greens. Now I gave hays and a few pellets for my bunny, she doesn’t seem to like pellets at all. And I saw her chewing hays sometimes but she didn’t eat a lot of hay during the night. Is it normal? How much hays should baby rabbits eat per day?

I also don’t like her poops. It’s small and dark, from previous experience I learned that it is not good. I’m thinking if I should risk and make my bunny more stressed by taking her to the vet or her poops are like that just because her diet is changing from mother’s milk to solid food? And how many poops should little rabbit produce? I would like to know how can I check her health and stomach, I read that one rabbit owner checks her bunny’s tummy every day and she could predict that her rabbit is sick. I don’t understand how to check it, I tried to touch my rabbit’s stomach but I don’t know how should it feel when rabbit is healthy or sick…

In other stuff my bun is normal (I guess), she is drinking water, playing with her hay toy, exploring the cage. She is just sleeping more than my previous adult rabbit. I think it’s because she is a baby? She is not vaccinated yet, when can I vaccinate her and what kind of vaccination does she need?

I really hope that someone can help me cause I’m very scared about my rabbit and I don’t wanna harm her

[Limit]

A month old?! As in 4 weeks? They shouldn’t be away from mum before 6-8 weeks

As I know yes, she’s a month old. Maybe 5-6 weeks I don’t know for sure, I dunno how to check it… I read that some rabbit breeders take babies away from their mother at the age of like 4 weeks, it’s not good but she was already living in pet shop like one week and eats hays and pellets so I hope if she survived it she may be okay later, I just dunno how to help her and what can I do for her…

[kirstyol]

If she came from a pet shop (assuming she is a she, its impossible to tell at this age) surely she cant be as young as four weeks? Certainly here in the UK there are laws preventing that and I assume other countries would be similar. Unlimited hay and unlimited pellets is what a very young bun needs – no veggies until at least 12 weeks old. You can get pellets specifically for junior buns and alfalfa hay is best at this age

[Blue Moon]

milk substitute is the best at this age as well as fresh water and alfalfa hay. also feed the milk substitute from a baby animal bottle like one for a kitten

[Lupin]

If you can’t get the proper milk, feed alfalfa hay as the bulk of her diet. It’s yummy, contains higher protein for growing babies and fibre for the small poop problem. But the alfalfa will cause her poop to be darker. To encourage her to eat more Alfalfa, try what I did for Bill & see if it works for you – I cut the stems up into small <1-inch pieces (like chaff) and put that into a bowl/pile. He ate more if the hay was cut up & fresh. Now that he's bigger, he can eat the long hay strands without being picky.

If she isn’t eating much & is skinny/not active, you could give her a teaspoon of oat groats (rabbits love it) to keep her weight up, while you find some good pellets (for the vitamins). If your bun is picky, it will take a few days for her to get used to the new pellets before she eats them in a good amount.

Or.. try cutting up the pellets also? Maybe her mouth is too small? 

[Yoyo]

Hi La Min! Welcome

I’m curious, but, need to ask – how did you come to acquire this young baby? — Reason I am asking, is, I’m trying to figure out, if this is a wild rabbit, or, a tame, pet one. ( * explains further,.. many times, wild rabbit nests, outside, are found by people, and, the extremely young kits, need immediate care.. due to yard maintenance) – if you acquired your baby,, from such a circumstance,.. that would explain a lot, but,.. if you got this month old from a person, that would help also.

If its a wild rabbit, its different information advice, is all I mean… if it was a pet rabbits baby,.. advice would be a bit different. — and I agree, with who posted above – hay, at this age, is simply NOT acceptable.

—————–

ETA – just reread, and noticed the petshop bit,…* bangs head on desk … — what petshop, on earth, would sell ANY month old babies, just tears me up.. very very sad

[Azerane]

Yoyo the rabbit is from a pet store.

I’m not sure if she is 4 weeks old…could be 5, maybe even 6 but not sure…

Here no one really cares I guess I always see very small baby rabbits in pet shops or breeder’s web pages, so probably they are selling even one week old bunnies. Thank for advice, we have pellets for junior rabbits and she started to eat it yesterday. She seems to really like pellets but he doesn’t eat very much hay. Is it because she’s a baby? We don’t give her a lot of pellets cause we think she can get spoiled and refuse to eat anything else that is not pellets.

I dunno about milk. Is it good idea? She is already changed to eating hays and pellets for like 10-14 days, I dunno if it is good to change back, at 6-7 weeks she will have to eat hay and pellets.

Now she is eating hays and pellets. I didn’t find alfalfa hay so I’m just giving her normal hay. But I have no idea how much hays should baby rabbit eat maybe for her size and age it’s okay not to eat so much… She’s not skinny or something, she looks normal. She’s not active the whole day, mostly she’s just sitting but few times a day she starts to explore her cage, chew hay toy etc. Maybe I need to provide more toys for her to make her more active? I dunno what kind of toys can baby rabbit like, I’m thinking if she’s bored because she’s alone and if she needs company of another rabbit.

Hi, Yoyo

She maybe not just 4 weeks old, it can be 5-6… I got her from pet store but I think they could lie a little about the age because they think that customers want only very young bunnies…They also said that she’s already eating hays and pellets like one week so I dunno if I change her diet again to milk only and than back to hays..I think she might get used to her hays already…

[kirstyol]

dont try to give her milk if she is eating on her own. She needs unlimited hay and unlimited pellets at this age, nothing less and nothing else. Rabbits can never have nothing available to eat, they should always have hay available and at such a young age unlimited pellets is a must too.

[Author]

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