Found Baby Rabbit ??

[3BFarms]

While gathering eggs today in all my hens nests, something caught my eye. There is a baby rabbit in one of the nests! It wasn't there yesterday and it doesn't look to be a newborn. Maybe a couple days old? We have rabbits but never had this problem. Could it have wiggled off from its nest? Or what do you guys think? What should I do?

 

[bhaugh]

Any chance a mom put it there?

 

[3BFarms]

Any chance a mom put it there?

I'm not sure. Will they move their babies like that?

 

[NatJ]

That is defintiely unusual.

I agree with you that the bunny is not newly-born (too much fur) but is too young to be out & about on its own (eyes closed, not enough coordination to reasonably go anywhere.

I don't think mother rabbits carry their babies around. So it may have crawled from some nest nearby, although I still find that puzzling.

Or maybe it was carried by some other animal, although I cannot think of why any animal would carry a young rabbit and put it in a chicken nestbox. I would expect a wild animal to eat it, and I would expect a pet to either eat it or play with it rather than putting it down and leaving it there.

For what to do, I don't know what to suggest, because I see problems with anything I can think of. Returning it to the mother is impossible unless you find the nest, bottle-feeding would be a lot of work with a fairly high chance of failure, and humanely dispatching it is sad.

 

[3BFarms]

Sadly I found the nest in some loose hay nearby where it was this evening with 2 other babies in it that were perfectly fine. It must have wiggled off for some reason which I find odd. I returned it to the nest but the poor little thing was quite cold so I'm not expecting it to make it through the night.

 

[New duck mommy 2021]

Sadly I found the nest in some loose hay nearby where it was this evening with 2 other babies in it that were perfectly fine. It must have wiggled off for some reason which I find odd. I returned it to the nest but the poor little thing was quite cold so I'm not expecting it to make it through the night.

Mom will come back
Often they only come in to feed a few times
Wonder if baby snuggled under one of your chickens for warmth when she was laying an egg
They would be a whole new type of broody chicken
Hopefully the babies will keep the little one warmed up now

 

[3BFarms]

Just a quick update, the little one made it through the night! The other 2 must have warmed it up and mom came back to feed them. I really didn't think it'd make it but they are all 3 doing great!