Miracle Bunnies

Last Sunday, in the dead of the night, we had a tragedy. But out of this tragedy we have a miracle! Read on to find out what happened...

Last Sunday, Sprinkles, one of our mummy rabbits, jumped out of her hutch when the guard opened the door. Sadly, he didn't notice. The dogs found her and almost killed her, but not quite. They then left her dying under the hutch. The next morning our day guard found her and we placed her back in the hutch. She didn't seem herself; her eyes were half closed and she wasn't moving or eating normally. But even in her struggles, she fed her five babies. She cared for them and loved them, until the next day, we found her lying dead by their side.

It was sad to lose Sprinkles, but now we had to focus on saving her five baby bunnies who were only ten days old. So we decided to move two of them into Sniffles nest of babies (she had given birth on the same day as Sprinkles and had four of her own). We were desperately hoping that she would welcome them, and not reject them. She took one kit as her own, so we put in the second one, nuzzling it in between the other kits, so she wouldn't be noticed so much and she wouldn't smell so different. But at first Sniffles wouldn't let her feed, and tried to eat the poor bunny. We were really worried, but this mum was their only hope of survival.

Now, a week later, the two kits are very happy and doing well with their foster mum and new brothers and sisters.

It would have been too much to give all the kits to Sniffles as she wouldn't have enough milk (and also we weren't sure any foster kits would survive with her). And so we adopted the other three bunnies. We mixed up a formula of milk, egg yolk and honey and have been feeding them the milk from pippettes every day, at 5:45 in the morning, 4:00pm in the afternoon, and sometimes in the evening. We wash them gently with a warm wet flannel and most importantly massage them to help them to urinate and poo as they are too young to do so by themselves.

They are very sweet, but this week has been very tiring! It is seriously hard work and although it was fun at first, it isn't always easy and it takes a long time to feed them all! They are now two and half weeks old and after keeping them alive for a week, we hope they will survive. They starting now to be able to eat some solid food. It is amazing they are all alive! They are all miracle bunnies!

Me feeding the smallest kit

Sniffles' four kits

Louisa holding her favourite, the biggest kit

They are sooooo small, and extremely cute!

Inviting some friends to help to look after the bunnies

Bunny feeding time