How to Tend to Newborn Rabbits

Signs that a newborn rabbit needs your loving care are a sunken stomach, blue-colored skin, sluggish movements and constant crying. Healthy infant rabbits have pink skin, are active and will cry only about once a day when they are hungry. You can tend to newborn rabbits and raise them to become healthy adult pet rabbits. If you come across an abandoned nest, you can tend the newborn rabbits and later release them into the wild.

Things You'll Need

  • 1 cardboard box
  • 5 clean towels
  • Soft pet nesting wool
  • Heating pad
  • Kitten milk replacer
  • Heavy cream
  • Eye dropper or oral syringe
  • Acidophilus capsules
  • Soft hand towel
  • Soft wash cloth
  • Hay
  • Fresh plain high fiber rabbit pellets without added dried fruit or seeds
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Instructions

    • 1

      Fold a towel and place it in the bottom of a cardboard box. Lay three more towels on top of it. Place a layer of soft pet nesting wool on top of the towels.

    • 2

      Place the newborn rabbits in the box on the nesting material. Loosely drape a towel over the cardboard box to cover it. Leave a one-inch gap between the towel and where the rabbits are lying. Set the box in a quiet, safe place that is 68 degrees Fahrenheit to 72 degree Fahrenheit.

    • 3

      Turn the heating pad on at its lowest setting. Tuck it under half of the bottom towel so the other half is resting against the side of the box. This will give the rabbits the warmth they need while allowing them to move over to the unheated side of the towel if they get too warm.

    • 4

      Feed the newborn rabbits once a day. Add one tablespoon heavy cream to one can of kitten milk replacer. Pick up one teaspoon of this mixture with the eye dropper or oral syringe. Pour it into a clean bowl. Break apart one capsule of acidophilus and pour half of the acidophilus powder into the bowl. Mix it thoroughly to dissolve the acidophilus. Pick up the mixture with the eye dropper or oral syringe. Wrap a newborn rabbit in a soft hand towel and hold it in the crook of your arm or on your lap with the rabbit lying on its back. Touch the eye dropper or syringe to the rabbit's mouth and squeeze a small amount out so that it can taste the milk. Let the rabbit eat at its own pace. If it does not eat the full amount, feed it the rest of the amount later in the day.

    • 5

      Moisten a soft wash cloth with warm water. Clean away any milk that got onto the rabbit's mouth and body. Rinse off the milk and soak the cloth with more warm water. Gently stroke the rabbit with the wet wash cloth, starting between the rabbit's front legs and wiping down its belly and ending near its anus. Repeat this motion in slow, gentle strokes until it urinates and produces stool. This motion is similar to a mother rabbit licking her young to stimulate them to produce urine and stool. The stool will be soft and somewhere between green and yellow in color.

    • 6

      Increase the food to one tablespoon at one week old, using the half acidophilus capsule mixture. At two weeks of age, increase the kitten milk replacer to between 1 1/2 and two tablespoons and mix this with one full capsule of acidophlius granules. At three and four weeks of age, feed two tablespoons, or one ounce, of kitten milk replacer and one full capsule of acidophilus granules.

    • 7

      Wean the rabbits slowly. Once they open their eyes, usually at 10 days of age, you can introduce hay and rabbit pellets. Set a small handful of hay and plain fresh high-fiber rabbit pellets without dried fruit or added seeds into the corner of the box where the rabbits can reach them. Place a small, high-lipped lid with a very shallow amount of water in it. When you find that the rabbits are consuming all of the hay and pellets, double the amount that you give them.