New Foster Babies (pics)

[sarah bowden]

Hi all,

I am the new foster mommy to Ursala and her 2 sweet babies Pip and Abbey.

They were dropped off at a kill shelter and then picked up by the rabbit rescue that I volunteer for and I brought them home today. They are Polish dwarfs so the babies are not that much smaller that their momma. It was really hard to get a good pic cause they are constantly moving and are binky machines! But here are a few

The first one is of the babies Abbey is the grey and Pip is the white. The second one is the whole family.

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[osprey]

Aiieeeee the little grey is sooo cute!  Tiny little ears too.  The white ones look like my little Deanna.

[Sarita]

They are beautiful! What a pretty family. Is Abbey a female and Pip a male? How old are they?

Thank you for fostering them – I hope you find it very rewarding.

[JK]

Oh they are so adorable!  With all these baby pictures here lately I want one!!!!

[Stef]

They are very cute  

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Wooow they are sooo cute!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Aw, they are so sweet. Bless your heart for helping them out.

[sarah bowden]

They are beautiful! What a pretty family. Is Abbey a female and Pip a male? How old are they?

Both the babies are females, which will make it a lot easier for me so I won’t have to worry about more babies. We don’t really know how old they are since they were just dropped at the shelter. The three of them were dropped off with anouther adult female (who is pregnant and due soon, she is in a foster home as well) and a adult male that we assume is the father for both litters (he had an abcess on his eye so he too is being fostered)
The babies are not nursing any more if that gives any indication.
I would love tips from any one that has helped raise babies before.
So far though I am loving it, they are eating well and very VERY active!

[Sarita]

Most of the babies I’ve fostered have been past nursing age too and the one I have now is about 10 or 12 weeks old as well. She’s a tripod bunny but she still likes to run alot so I suspect these babies are going to be very energetic and need lots of exercise too.

I’m pretty sure they would love some greens too – I’ve been giving Cupcake greens since I brought her home from the vet. I’ve also been giving her a handful of alfalfa daily which she seems to eat more than the regular hay so I may cut that back just a but but they would probably love some alfalfa in small quantities too – it might be good for Ursala as well since who knows what she has been through and what kind of nutrition she has gotten – it would be a good supplement – just not too much that they all ignore the grass hay too.

It is good they are all females too – no worry of pregnancy.

[osprey]

Here is what we feed babies at The Rabbit Haven.  I think others on here (Sarita maybe?  Not sure) have mentioned slightly different diets, but the idea is the same.

– Unlimited alfalfa hay.  This can be mixed with a timothy, orchard grass or oat hay if you want them used to the taste of adult food.  Babies are compulsive nibblers, they’ll browse anything you put in the pen.

– Unlimited alfalfa pellets.  We use the Oxbow 15/23.

– veggies – we feed veggies as soon as the babies show an interest in solid food, somewhere around a month.  This is based on the recommendation of our top rabbit vet, Dr. Carolynn Harvey.  My three week olds are already swiping greens from mom’s portion.  Since they are small, the amounts are smaller than an adult would get, and I stick to the reliable ones that don’t usually cause tummy troubles: italian parsely, carrot tops, red leaf and romaine lettuce and escarole.

Babies are super active!  They bunny 500 and binky like crazy, and they’ll appreciate so space to run around in.  Mine like a tunnel I made from them out of a long rectangular FedEx box, and they are also chewing a small cage mat I gave them.  Boxes with holes are great, although they seem to spend more time on top of the boxes that in them.

The more you can handle them at a young age, the more adoptable they will be.  Babies raised in foster homes that interact with them like people, and really connect with adopters.

Have fun with this!  I made a video of my last batch of babies, I may have to do it again.  Keep posting pictures, yours are adorable!

[Sarita]

Osprey, I totally agree with feeding the babies that age greens too! It just makes sense to me too.

[Lisa_43]

My babies started pinching mum’s vegies at about 3 to 4 weeks and there favourite is chicory, celery tops, carrot tops and eggplant, I have tried other vegies but they won’t touch them.

I don’t give them unlimited pellets they just have a few in the morning and a few at night, should I be giving them unlimited?

                                                            

They sure look adorable.

[sarah bowden]

Thanks for all the info!!
I have been doing pretty much what you guys all mentioned. I thought I would take veggies slow, kind of like I did with my daughter, introducing things one at a time and seeing how they do. So far they are doing great. They love the parsley. The only thing I haven’t been doing is giving them alfalfa hay. I give them the pellets but I have been giving them timothy and orchard grass and they seem to be doing just fine.
It sure is fun watching them when they are out for run time…I have never seen so many binkies…they will just run lap after lap. They make my buns fat and lazy!

[sarah bowden]

Thanks for all the info!!
I have been doing pretty much what you guys all mentioned. I thought I would take veggies slow, kind of like I did with my daughter, introducing things one at a time and seeing how they do. So far they are doing great. They love the parsley. The only thing I haven’t been doing is giving them alfalfa hay. I give them the pellets but I have been giving them timothy and orchard grass and they seem to be doing just fine.
It sure is fun watching them when they are out for run time…I have never seen so many binkies…they will just run lap after lap. They make my buns fat and lazy!

[babybunsmum]

 how adoreable!!!  they’re lovely

[Author]

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