First, why should foster rabbits
A female rabbit generally has only 8 nipples. The number of puppies a mother rabbit sucks should match the number of nipples she has. If the female rabbit has fewer litters but has sufficient milk secretion, it can be used as a milk substitute for mother rabbits who have produced many litters, have no milk, died, or suffer from mastitis after giving birth, that is, the pups will be fostered. In addition, some large-scale rabbit farms generally adjust all the young rabbits born at the same time according to factors such as body weight, physical strength, etc., and group the young rabbits to breastfeed, that is, to achieve high yield and high efficiency through the use of foster care.
However, successfully fostering rabbits is challenging, because rabbits have a well-developed sense of smell, and mother rabbits rely on their sense of smell to identify their own littermates or littermates after giving birth. If the mother rabbit sniffs out that they are not her own babies, she will not breastfeed and may even kill the babies. tragedy.
In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention to adopting special methods when brooding or fostering the young rabbits so that the mother rabbit cannot distinguish whether it is a biological rabbit or not, so as to successfully realize the fostering or brooding of young rabbits.
Second, the skills of fostering rabbits
Generally speaking, it is reasonable Fostering rabbits should meet the following requirements: try to foster the puppies within one week after the mother rabbit is born; the age difference between two litters of rabbits should not exceed 3 days; the mother rabbit who undertakes breastfeeding has sufficient milk production and is healthy and disease-free. There are three main ways of fostering:
1. Mixing the taste of pups and mother rabbits: For pups that need to be fostered, they can be brought into contact with the birthing box that is responsible for the nursing mother before fostering. The smell of rabbit hair and bedding can be used to cover up the original taste of the young rabbits, so that the taste of the young rabbits can be mixed with the taste of the mother rabbit’s birth box, and the foster care is successfully realized. The specific operations are as follows: take the nursing mother out of the birthing box, put the young rabbits into the center of the birthing nest while avoiding her sight, and cover them with rabbit fur and bedding, and wait 2 to 3 hours before Putting the female rabbit back into the birthing box can generally achieve foster care.
2. Change the smell of the pups: take the mother rabbit out of the birthing box, smear some of its milk or urine on the fostered pups when she can’t see the pups, Put the young rabbits into the birthing box, cover them with rabbit fur and bedding, and put the mother rabbits into the birthing box after 2 to 3 hours.
3. Disturb the female rabbit’s sense of smell: first take the female rabbit out of the birthing box, and then apply paraffin oil or iodine to the nose of the female rabbit to disrupt the female rabbit’s sense of smell in this way. Put the young rabbits to be fostered into its birthing box, cover them with rabbit fur and bedding at the same time, and put the mother rabbit into the birthing box after 2 to 3 hours.
Note: After returning the mother rabbit to the birthing box, pay attention to observe the mother rabbit’s attitude towards the offspring. Take the rabbit out, and then do it again according to the above method. In addition, if you want to use foster rabbits as breeding rabbits, you should pay attention to keeping records of them to ensure that their blood relationship is clear.
