One of our does had and unusually large litter of kits last summer. She had so many babies, that she couldn't feed all of them. In fact, all of the does had larger litters, so we couldn't foster kits from one litter to another -like we would normally do. So that meant at least 2 kits from this particular doe were gunna be in trouble. Soon. So I scooped up the smallest two babies and brought them in the house. I made up a little box and a smaller cage that would fit on one of my desks. And then I went searching for some eye droppers and kitten formula. I have read that hand feeding a baby bunny is pretty much a last ditch, do or die kinda thing. Something like only a 10 percent chance of the kit making it. And then the feeding schedule... I had my work cut out for me. And having tried this with baby buns several times, I knew what to expect. It wasn't looking all that great. But, this chimeric pattern is pretty rare. And the little thing seemed like it had a will to survive. Actually, they both did. So I figured I would give it a go again. Hoping for the best.
The black and white one I called Brillo. The orange chimeric Harlequin we called Kaylee. The kitten formula worked out. I had to add a small amount of heavy cream to the formula, but it turned out to be enough. After a month or two, the lil ones were weaned off the formula, and on to solids and water. Brillo went to the local county fair with several of his litter mates. He liked to sit on your shoulder, like a parrot. He was a slam hit at the fair, and it didn't take long for someone to adopt him. Our own family fell in love with this silly orange thing. She loves people. LOVES to be petted. And gets quite spoiled by all of us. As she out grew the small cage on my desk, we moved her out to the bunny barn with the rest of our adorable hairballs. (aka, rabbits) Here she is, about a month ago -wanting to be a mommy soooooo bad. She has to wait a few more weeks before we start breeding the does. But she's getting a head start on making things ready.
