Looking after baby . . .

We had a phone call the day before yesterday. 


It was from the co-ordinator of the Badger Rescue Trust for our area and, as hubby is a member, he was called, as he lived the nearest to an emergency call-out.


A phone call had been made to the trust by some holidaymakers, who had found what they thought were some orphaned badger cubs, and so hubby was asked to go pick them up, and keep them overnight, where they would then be picked up by another member who had land safeguarded for Badgers to live in peace.


When he got there, hubby discovered that the new-born babies were Rabbits, and not Badgers. The couple who had found them told hubby that they'd come across the remains of a nest while walking in the woods. The nest was apparently above ground, and with obvious signs of an attack on it, along with one dead kit, and with the remains of an adult animal, but there hadn't been enough remains to see what it had been, hence the mistaken identity.


This kindly couple had gone to the expense of buying powdered lactose, and bottles, in order to feed the 2 orphans but, due to circumstances, they couldn't look after them any more - so, could hubby take them?


Of course hubby did, and he brought them home to me, as he knew I'd do my utmost to keep any young orphaned animal alive, if it were possible :)


Well, I got a box fixed up as a nest, weighed the 2 baby bunny's (1 was 32g, and the other 30g), and I made up the formula, and began the long drawn out task of feeding them both.


I wasn't quite sure how often they would need feeding, so I attempted it every 60-90 minutes or so and, as I could only feed them one tiny drop at a time, I then seemed to have the task in front of me of being awake for quite some time.


This morning, I went online, and found out that they only needed feeding about 4-5 times a day and, as both bunnies had caught on to the idea of beginning to suckle on the bottle teat, which meant that they were drinking a lot more with each session, I breathed a sigh of relief, and managed a  couple of hours sleep :)


I weighed the babies this afternoon, and bunny 1 is now 35g, and bunny 2, 34g, so it looks like they are actually putting on some weight.


I don't know whether they will survive, but I'm going to do my utmost to make sure that they do :)


It's just as well that my new module hasn't started yet, isn't it? {grin}






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