When I checked the nest box tonight, I was concerned when I could only find 10 kits - I finally found one of the runts, very skinny and weak, while Andy removed all the kits from the nest box and was able to locate the other runt, equally skinny and even weaker.
Raising rabbits, I love my animals, and will do everything within reason to help them through injury, illness, and even staggeringly bad odds...because I'm raising rabbits primarily as a food source for our family, I have to temper my love of animals with a healthy dose of reality - there's a good chance these kits, in such a large litter, just won't make it.
Of course, that doesn't mean I won't do everything possible to tip the scales enough in their favor to give the little guys/girls a fighting chance ;)
Fortunately, two does had litters within a day of one another - unfortunately, they are both large litters, especially considering they were only bred 3 times; 12 kits in one, 10 kits in the other. The litter with 12 kits has both runts. Andy and I took both runts and their mom into the house, I securely held mom on her back in my lap, while Andy and I each took a kit and held each one to a nipple, even being so devious as to wait until the kit gaped it's mouth wide, then placing said mouth firmly over a nipple. Despite our best efforts with mom, it seemed she was already empty from feeding the rest of her litter.
Okay...Plan B.
We took mom back out to her hutch, and fetched the mom of 10 into the house for the same process - bingo! Thankfully, she still had milk, even though she had just fed her own litter. I had noticed one of her own kits was a little slender, so was planning on bringing it in to join the two runts for a semi private feeding frenzy...I felt around her nest box, and EVERYONE had huge full bellies, including the formerly slender kit - good momma! This mom held amazingly still while I held her, allowing both kits to feed. They showed immediate improvement, and their bellies filled out a bit. After they were done eating, looking much better and showing a great deal more energy, I decided to put them in with the litter of 10 instead of returning them to their own mom.
I'll check on them multiple times each day to track their progress, and am cautiously hopeful that we may have tipped the scales just enough so that these two little underdogs might just make a great comeback story for themselves :)