Our rabbits are typically good mamas, but every once in a while something goes wrong. One challenge we’ve come across a few times is rabbit kits who get out of the nesting box too early. They’re not old enough to coordinate getting out and back in the box, and they’re not furry enough to stay warm yet. So they somehow get out of the nesting box, can’t be back in, and get cold.
We try to prevent this problem by checking on our rabbits frequently. Observing the rabbits often is the number one thing you can do for their health! It allows us to prevent many little issues before they become big problems. If we see some young rabbits out of the nesting box on one of our checks, we just pop them back in the nest. Easy.
Sometimes, though, they get out overnight and that’s when we have problems. Since we’re not checking on them in the middle of the night, and if it’s a cold night, the kits can be pretty frigid by the time we find them in the morning. This is what happened to the kit in the photo below. Sometimes, when they’re at this point, it’s impossible to determine if the kit is alive or dead. Unless rigor mortis has set in and the kit is stiff, we operate under the assumption it’s alive. We have had kits that seemed dead end up being just fine! This little guy in the photo below wasn’t moving at all when we found him, and ended up being just fine after our rescue mission!
When we find ourselves faced with the problem of these frozen kits, we immediately get to work warming them up. The most effective first step is to get them against your skin. Body heat is a great warmer. A pocket works well, but fur to skin is best. Rice or flaxseed heating pads, warmed in the microwave, are a great heat supplement, too. Towels warmed in the dryer also help.
If we have a bunch of kits that are cold, since we can’t hold them all against our skin we’ll run the dryer with towels in it for a few minutes, then turn the dryer off, and put the kits in the towels inside the dryer. Make sure the dryer stays OFF while the kits are inside!
Another wonderful way to warm the kits is to set them in front of a wood stove. We’ll set them on a towel right in front, where it’s warm but not too hot. Make sure dogs or cats cannot get to the rabbits during this time. Their squeaking is quite enticing to other critters!
As the kits warm up, you’ll see them start to move around and you’ll hear them squeak. Once they’re nice and warm, which you’ll judge based on their activity level, they’re ready for a snack.
We like to offer the kits milk before returning them to their nest in case they missed a feeding during this adventure. We want to make sure they have the nutrients needed to recuperate from this ordeal!
We first heat up a very small amount of milk. We use raw goat milk, but any milk will do in a pinch. Raw is best, and whole is better than lowfat or skim. Keep in mind these rabbits are tiny, and just a few drops of milk will fill their tummies. So we pour between 1 and 3 tablespoons into a small bowl, and warm it for just a few seconds in the microwave. It’s so little milk, it’ll warm quickly. Test that the milk is not too hot. Then we use a syringe, like the one pictured, to pick up some of the milk and dropper it into a kit’s mouth. Sometimes the rabbit kits actively engage in drinking the milk, sometimes they seem to struggle. Either way, we’ve given them the opportunity to drink if they needed to.
Once the rabbit is warm and full, we return the rabbit to its nesting box. Usually, if they’re active at this time, they survive. We’ve also never had a mama rabbit reject the kits because of our intervention. She acts like everything is normal, and accepts the kit just fine.
Hopefully this helps any of you faced with a similar situation!
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