Wild baby bunnies question

[teamturner]

We brought 4 baby bunnies into our house last Friday night because it was going to get cold (it snowed on Sunday here in the Dallas area) and my dc had touched them for several days so I was worried the mother had abandoned them. I have since realized that you never take bunnies out of the wild as they will not survive. We've tried to feed them cow milk and yesterday some goat milk. THey haven't eaten very much but don't look like they are not thriving. We decided to put them back out today as I discovered that the mommy bunny may still be looking for them and will still care for them despite us touching them. We just released them and were trying to put them back in the burrow where we found them in our flower bed. It looks like their mother may have been digging in the hole they were in as it is a lot deeper. Anyways, they started running all around from fright and we eventually left the area so they could calm down. Watching them from our kitchen window, they started eating clover and other green plants they have near them. Does this mean that they will survive even w/o their mother since they are eating themselves? I wonder if they still need her milk to live. They had their eyes opened when we found them and by the time we brought them in the house they had grown.

 

Anyone have ideas as to what we should do at this point? If they are truly abandoned then we will just take them to a wildlife rescue center. IF they won't stay in their nest for their mother to find them, will they be okay?

 

Thanks so much!!

[Prairie~Phlox]

I'm not fond of rabbits as they eat my garden, so my opinion is not very highly rated. But you are right, you should have never brought them into the house, they are still wild animals no matter how cute you think they might be. We try to teach our children that things like raccoons, no matter how cute people think they are, they are dangerous and that rabbits just reproduce and eat things in our yard that you don't want them to. Creatures like that are not welcome here and we are not afraid to use guns on them. Sorry, I know that's not very nice, but we are just teaching our children that that's part of life.

[teamturner]

We are no fans of rabbits either as we are already overrun with them. We try to make it so they cannot get into our yard and eat all of our herbs and flowers. They are everywhere so I agree that the world could be just fine w/o these 4 rabbits. I just felt responsible since our dc didn't listen to us and leave them alone. However, they were in our flower bed and little girls cannot resist. ;) We live in the city and cannot shoot anything in our yard, at least that's my impression. Our yard is tiny!!

 

I guess I'll just leave them outside and what ever happens happens.

 

Thanks!

[Jean in Newcastle]

If they are able to eat clover then they should be probably be ok. The tiny bunnies that we've rescued from dogs and cats in the neighborhood were still nursing only and ended up not surviving even when we took them to wildlife rescue.

[Jen in PA]

When our cats would bring us half-dead baby rabbits the vet told us to give them milk mixed with Karo syrup to more closely replicate rabbit milk. I have no idea if that is necessary, but it did work. We had success breeding one of our wild rabbits to a Flemish giant -- we got huge rabbits with cottontail markings!HTH.

[swellmomma]

If they are eating clover they will be fine, they start going out on their own around that time anyway. Last spring we had a baby bunny that ds saved after his friend broke it's leg. I kept it alive on my breastmilk served from a syringe, and it was doing well for the week we had it, but had to be put down at the vet because the broken bone punctured the skin, and would be able to be reset(tiny little bunny, broken hind leg). The kids learned a valuable lesson about leaving wild animals alone, but I am not one to want to kill them either. (I also pulled over one day last spring to stop traffic when a mother duck was taking her duckling across the road and the traffic was coming too close to hitting them). We have a big field behind our house that has lots of rabbits, and they come to munch on our front lawn each day. We love to sit in livingroom watching them through the big window in the evening. They look so neat right now because their fur is changing back from white to brown.

 

Long story short, I am sure the bunnies will be fine whether their mother comes back for them or not.

[Mommyfaithe]

We have resued baby bunnies. Soak a piece of bread with the milk. They can eat pretty soon after birth. Within a day or 2 start dark leafy greens. Really, they don't have a high survival rate, BUT we have had success. Make sure they have fresh water too. A little Karo in the milk won't hurt, but we never did that.

 

Let us know....

 

Faithe (who loves the bunnies even though they eat my garden too.)

[Pippen]

(I also pulled over one day last spring to stop traffic when a mother duck was taking her duckling across the road and the traffic was coming too close to hitting them). .

 

I got rear-ended by another vehicle when I slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting a pair of mallards who were wandering in traffic on a busy street. The cop was so amused he didn't even give a ticket to the guy who hit me.

 

My husband wasn't so amused at the damage done on my vehicle. :001_huh:

[OHGrandma]

I've raised a few bunnies that had their nests disturbed by spring plowing. If they were big enough to run away and start eating clover when you released them, they will be OK without milk. If they stick around you could put a little rolled oats out for them.

[teamturner]

I wanted to give an update for those who were concerned for our little bunnies. This morning we saw all four bunnies huddled together under the box that they were in while in our house that was laying on top of a bush and up against our brick of the house. My dh put the bandana that they had used to sleep while inside on top of them before he went to work. Once my youngest ventured outside, they all got scared and ran in all directions. They seem to eventually come back to the same location once the backyard is quiet again (they did this yesterday when all the kids were playing). I think they will be fine.

 

Thanks for the advice and help! It won't be long until we spruce up our flower beds at which time we hope they find another home. ;)

[teamturner]

Three of the bunnies died last night. My dh thinks from the cold temps last night (44 degrees). They were not in a burrow but were huddled together under a bandana. There is one lone survivor. He is quite tame and lets my 8 dd pick him up and seems to like her. It's supposed to get down to 50 tonight. My dh wants to bring the bunny inside. He's eating around the flower beds and some of the goat milk and carrots my dc gave him today.

 

Should we just make him our pet or will that cause more harm?? He's in a hole now that I think the mother bunny dug last week while searching for her babies.

 

Thanks!

[Jann in TX]

He WILL be a wild bunny---

Feed him a large assortment of greens found in your yard... a few choice salad greens from your table won't hurt. Offer him water--maybe goats milk too--if he is under 4 weeks old.

 

Try to refrain from handling him--it will be HARD... contain him to a rabbit hutch or small bathroom (what we did).

 

For warmth--fill a sock up with 1 cup of dry rice. Tie closed and microwave for 30 seconds or so until warm. Place sock under a towel. This gives him something to cuddle.

 

The bunny we rescued eventually potty trained himself--to a towel...

 

When the weather is warmer then put him outside in a 'cage' for a few hours each day --so he can get used to the sights and smells of the outside world. After a week of this (extending the time each day) our bunny was ready to go back into the wild...