Feeding Baby Rabbits

Feeding baby rabbits who are not yet weaned and who's mother have died can prove to be slightly difficult if you do not know what to do.  Babies will drink the milk formula you make for them through a syringe or eye-dropper. 

The picture on the right is a baby rabbit being fed who is not even 10 days old.  This baby was from a litter quite some time ago and was sold to a nice family. 

As you can tell, he's wrapped in a small towel, this just helps you keep a grip on him as babies are extremely wiggly and you do NOT want to drop them. 

When they are this young, you want to feed them with the syringe through the side of the mouth with the baby sitting upright.  This prevents you from squirting the formula down into their lungs.   While they're drinking, sitting up helps prevent that too.

The babies we have are older than that.  They are 4 weeks, which means they are extremely active!  They do not have to be held while drinking the formula, instead they can drink it from a bowl. 

While this works for 5 out of 6, we still have a little albino female who cannot quite figure out the whole drinking from a bowl thing.  We, therefore, still feed her with a syringe.  Rabbits who are 3-4 weeks drink between 7 - 13 (it slowly increases as they get older) ml of the formula at each feeding.  They get fed twice a day.  In the morning and evening like they would be getting fed if their mother was alive and taking care of them. 

While they have set amounts to feed babies, it's more of a guide-line and not 'set in stone'.  Just like people, some rabbits need more food than others. 

Give or take a few ml.'s, each baby is currently drinking around 10 - 18 ml.'s.  

And you don't have to worry about knowing exactly how much they will need.  When they hit this age, they will eat until done. 

This little albino girl on the left is the smallest in her litter.  She eats until full, and she's normally done around 9 ml.'s.   However, one of her brother's can eat 18 ml.'s and still be hungry.  All in all, these rabbits are doing very well without their mother.   And every day they are getting bigger!