Hand Rearing

Bottle feeding baby chinchillaWhere fostering is necessary the chinchilla, sow or doe should be distracted with a tasty titbit and the young to be fostered gently handled with some of the nest litter (rabbits) or the foster mothers babies to transfer the smell.  If fostering is not possible, guinea babies should at least have the company of an adult sow to teach them all about eating solid food and how to behave as a guinea pig.  Guinea pigs, like rabbits, cannot vomit and rely on the adults around them to show them what is good and safe to eat.

Hand feeding should only be undertaken as a last resort and must be done with great care as the most common cause of death amongst hand fed youngsters is milk on the lungs. Goat or sheep milk can be used fresh or powdered or one of the veterinary milk substitutes such as Cimicat Esbilac or Lactol. Use a kitten nurser  for baby rabbits which has a very small teat and allows the baby to suck. Don't syringe or pour liquid into the babies mouth as their sucking/breathing co-ordination is poor. For guinea pigs, dip a small clean paintbrush or eyeshadow sponge applicator in the milk substitute and let the baby suck on that. (Tip from Nichola Hadley's article in Cavies Magazine) or use the method recommended by Myra Mahoney in her Really Useful Guinea Pig Guide, and feed a mix of evaporated milk and cooled boiled water (50:50) on a small piece of bread on a spoon.

If the youngsters are orphaned at birth and are being hand reared you will help them greatly if you can obtain some form of colostrum which helps support the immune system. If you live in the country you may be able to obtain fresh or dried/powdered colostrum for lambs, kids or foals. In urban areas you will probably have to use powdered colostrum for kittens.  Colostrum is also used as a health supplement for people so you can now buy organic colostrum via mail order. Although it will not provide the same antibodies that the mother's milk would provide, all colostrum  is a rich source of lactoferrin which is very important for the immune system.

After feeding the baby must be encouraged to urinate. The mother does this by licking the babies genitals after feeding. Humans can get away with using a cotton ball dipped in warm water!

Guinea pig milk is 3.9% fat, 8.1% protein, 3% lactose 0.82% ash and 15.8% solids.  Rabbit milk is 12.2% fat, 10.4% protein, 1.8% lactose, 2% ash and 26.4% solids.  In comparison goat's milk is 3.5% fat, 3.1% protein, 4.6% lactose, 0.79% ash and 12% solids, sheep's milk is 5.3% fat, 5.5% protein, 4.6% lactose, 0.9% ash and 16.3% solids.  The fat in most milks is made up of palmitic and oleic acids, but rabbit milk fat is mainly capric acid.  Rabbit milk is richer because rabbits feed their babies only once a day.  When feeding substitute milk to rabbits however you will need to feed more often, 3-4 times per day, as the substitute milk is unlikely to be as rich.

EXTERNAL LINKS

Hand rearing orphaned rabbits by Dana M Krempels PhD,University of Miami

Cotton Tails Rabbit Rescue hand rearing advice

In the US Wombaroo (Australian made) specialist rabbit and guinea pig milk formulae are available from Healthy Bird

Composition of Rabbit Milk PDF from Ingenta

Composition of Chinchilla Milk PDF from Ingenta

Guide to hand feeding chinchillas is available from Chinchilla Rescue Service

Chinchilla Milk formula

Azure Chinchillas Hand Feeding Guide