I posted here nearly two weeks ago regarding two very young kits from a disturbed nest in my backyard, in the previous post I mentioned that mother did not return after well over 24 hours so I rescued the one remaining kit (the second died in the interim). I wanted to give a quick update on the surviving kit and request a little more advice.
For the update, the surviving kit is doing well, I’ve had him on a diet of KMR with some solid foods (Timothy hay, rabbit pellet food, and some fresh greens) for the last 13 days and he has seemed to respond well. He’s gone from about 35 grams to 60 grams in body weight and is now pooping and peeing on his own. His eyes have opened and I needed to move him to a larger box with higher walls and more obstacles etc. as he has become much more active. Right now he is still getting bottle fed twice per day with the first feeding supplemented with Bene-bac, I also leave him with a small bowl of formula which he sometimes eats and some of the other foods mentioned which he has been experimenting with.
My questions at this point are as follows:
1) How much weight should he be gaining? He still feels pretty boney even though he is gaining weight and has been eating pretty well.
2) Various things I’ve seen online suggest that he should be about done bottle feeding but he shows little interest in solid foods other than fresh veggies. Should I just continue to bottle feed until he stops wanting to bottle feed?
3) I’m trying to limit interaction with him so that I can release him when he’s large enough and can eat local grasses etc. Should I be doing anything to prepare him for the outside world? Right now he’s in a box the vast majority of the day with just a few things to eat and climb on.
by HeavyWeightSquash
