Baby bunnies?

[Entropymama]

Hey 4H and animal lovers! 

 

Our terrier got into a den? Burrow? of baby bunnies last night. He killed three and there are at least four left. We haven't seen the parents since. 

 

Will they come back? If my daughter wanted to try to save them, could she? What do they eat? 

[Murphy101]

I doubt she can save them. The mama bunny only visits once or twice every night to nurse. Is put the survivors back in the burrow and cover them back up so they stay nice and toasty and how mom takes care of the rest.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I doubt she can save them. The mama bunny only visits once or twice every night to nurse. Is put the survivors back in the burrow and cover them back up so they stay nice and toasty and how mom takes care of the rest.

 

This. Put them back and cover the nest with the nesting material. You can make an X with light twigs on the top of it, and then tomorrow you should be able to see if the nest was disturbed. If it was, that means mama is still coming back to care for them. 

 

It's highly unlikely that you could save them yourselves, for a number of reasons. (They are so fragile that they can literally die of fright or break their own backs/necks in terror. They need special formula, and they need special supplementation to replace certain nutrients they'd get from their mother's feces [i know that sounds weird!] in order to digest the roughage they eat after they're done nursing.) If after a night or two you can tell that mom's not coming back (the X is never disturbed), your best bet is to see if you can find a wildlife rehabilitator in your area who can take them. They'll have the knowledge and tools to care for them. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the mom does come back though. We have baby bunnies in our yard every spring and summer, and they're more resilient than you'd think. 

 

Good luck!

Edited May 22, 2016 by ILiveInFlipFlops

[Entropymama]

Well, we found the mom (we think) and she's been dead for a while. We put the sticks over the den and they weren't disturbed overnight. I hate to try, because I'm sure they'll die anyway, but the kids want to try to save them. What are your suggestions? Is a cardboard box enough? I'm doing some other research as well. 

[FaithManor]

Baby bunnies are near impossible to save. Now that said, it is entirely possible that this batch - given the time of year - were getting pretty close to leaving the next on their own so they may be coming out at night to nibble on grass and clover. I'd leave them entirely alone and definitely keep the dog in after dusk and not let him out before dawn. Bunnies stay in their dens most of the day, come out at night.

[Prairie~Phlox]

They are wild animals, if you must, take them to someone that specializes in wild animals.  I would just put them out of their misery, sorry, that's part of life and parenting.  Rabbits eat my garden, we don't care for them.  You should not try to raise them.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We took them to a wildlife rehab center.  They tried, but later let us know that they did not survive.  (They apparently used the "kitten milk" you can find in some pet stores with an eye dropper.)

[Entropymama]

Well, we spent the last hour googling how to rescue baby bunnies and I made the executive decision not to try. The kids are heartbroken, but I can't put in that much time and effort and expense knowing they will likely die. We found mom and she's clearly been dead more than 48 hours, so they're going to be dehydrated beyond what we can fix. Either they'll survive on their own or they won't. I feel pretty cold hearted about it, but that's the wild, eh? 

[tm919]

ugh. Our resident mommy rabbit got hit by a car (I came home to her stiff body and had to shovel it out of the way) last week and the babies didn't make it. We couldn't find them. Then we smelled them from under our porch. =( I felt so guilty that I didn't know they were down there, but we probably couldn't have saved them.

[hornblower]

fwiw, my dd works at a wildlife rehab and young bunnies are extremely difficult to care for. Their guts are terribly sensitive and even a slight disturbance will cause huge intestinal upset and death. 

IMO they should be taken to a willdife rehab center for humane euthanasia.  I would not leave them to suffer. 

[FaithManor]

Well, we spent the last hour googling how to rescue baby bunnies and I made the executive decision not to try. The kids are heartbroken, but I can't put in that much time and effort and expense knowing they will likely die. We found mom and she's clearly been dead more than 48 hours, so they're going to be dehydrated beyond what we can fix. Either they'll survive on their own or they won't. I feel pretty cold hearted about it, but that's the wild, eh? 

It is a tough lesson, but it is an important one. There are many times in which our interference with mother nature doesn't end well. Bunnies are one of these. They just aren't hearty. That said, as heartless as this sounds, it is kind of important that things like this happen. You know the old adage "breeding like rabbits". If all batches of bunnies survived, we'd be over run, there would be a major imbalance in the food chain, and we'd see problems because of it. 

 

It is for the best. And they might yet survive as this time of year and awful lot of bunnies are coming of age and exiting the nest at night to eat and drink.

[Murphy101]

Well there's the breeding like bunnies, but also, many critters in nature need dead bunnies to live. Birds of prey like owls for example.

 

Now I've got that circle of life song from Lion King in my head.