Freinds Left Us With 3 Baby Bunnies- Help!

ChickenPeep

Faith & Feathers
11 Years
Joined
May 1, 2011
Messages
7,006
Reaction score
117
Points
361
Location
Olathe, Kansas
This morning, our Friends found 3 baby bunnies in their backyard while mowing. There wasn't a mom anywhere, and they were super skinny. They had to move them because their dog surely would've killed them.

Knowing that we have had pet rabbits for years, they dropped them off at our house.

I love bunnies, but what do I do?! They're skinny and haven't even opened their eyes yet. My mom is currently at work and is stopping by Petsmart on the way home to get some milk formula stuff. Does anyone know how much I give them, and does it matter what kind we get? Are they safe to handle?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated as soon as possible!

Thanks!

 
Last edited:
Considering where you live, those are probably baby cottontails. Cottontail mothers don't dig a burrow, their nests are usually little more than bowl-shaped scrapes on the surface with a little bit of fur for warmth and some grass and/or leaves as cover. The doe only comes to feed her kits around dawn and dusk, otherwise, she stays away from them. I'd be willing to bet that those babies' mom is sitting in deep cover less than a hundred feet from where they were found.

Putting a nest in a yard where there is a dog seems pretty crazy, but there are predators everywhere in the wild. A rabbit once nested in the back yard where we had 5 dogs, and nearly succeeded, too; the kits had their eyes open when one of my dogs finally found them. Sadly, the dog was an experienced ratter and was very fast, and killed 3 before we got to her. I had to finish raising the last one; the dog wouldn't leave the nest alone once discovered. There was another situation where I wound up taking in a litter when a nest site was disturbed past recognition, there were 4 in that litter, too.

Legally speaking, the only people who are supposed to do this sort of thing are licensed wildlife rehabilitators, if you can find one to get them to, great! If not, these are the things that I did:

KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) - a few cc's at a time. I fed with an eyedropper at first, until they got the idea. You have to be very, very careful not to get it in the nose, as breathing it in can cause aspiration pneumonia. Once they get the idea, you can use a kitten-sized bottle (pet shops often have them, in the same area as the KMR). I only fed them 2 -3 times a day, since wild things are so stressed by being handled. KMR is not as nutrient-dense as rabbit milk, but I figured they were better off growing slowly due to lack of nutrition than dealing with all that stress!

I bedded the kits in hay; once they had their eyes open, they started nibbling on it. I also provided dry rolled oats (like you make oatmeal with) for them to nibble at that age, too.

Obviously, rabbit food pellets aren't natural wild food, so I only added it to the diet because I had it on hand. I provided lots of fresh green grass and other wild foods like blackberry leaves. The cage they were in had a wire floor, so I set it out in shady parts of the yard so the bunnies could "graze."

Wild rabbit kits wean and disperse at a pretty young age. They really aren't social at all. If you wind up raising these kits, you will need to release them when they are about a month to 6 weeks old. Any older than that, and they will begin fighting with each other. Wild rabbits really don't make good pets, because most of them never really get over being wild. I didn't even try to tame the ones I had, it was in my mind all along that they would be released as soon as I felt they could fend for themselves.
 
Last edited:
Considering where you live, those are probably baby cottontails. Cottontail mothers don't dig a burrow, their nests are usually little more than bowl-shaped scrapes on the surface with a little bit of fur for warmth and some grass and/or leaves as cover. The doe only comes to feed her kits around dawn and dusk, otherwise, she stays away from them. I'd be willing to bet that those babies' mom is sitting in deep cover less than a hundred feet from where they were found.

Putting a nest in a yard where there is a dog seems pretty crazy, but there are predators everywhere in the wild. A rabbit once nested in the back yard where we had 5 dogs, and nearly succeeded, too; the kits had their eyes open when one of my dogs finally found them. Sadly, the dog was an experienced ratter and was very fast, and killed 3 before we got to her. I had to finish raising the last one; the dog wouldn't leave the nest alone once discovered. There was another situation where I wound up taking in a litter when a nest site was disturbed past recognition, there were 4 in that litter, too.

Legally speaking, the only people who are supposed to do this sort of thing are licensed wildlife rehabilitators, if you can find one to get them to, great! If not, these are the things that I did:

KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) - a few cc's at a time. I fed with an eyedropper at first, until they got the idea. You have to be very, very careful not to get it in the nose, as breathing it in can cause aspiration pneumonia. Once they get the idea, you can use a kitten-sized bottle (pet shops often have them, in the same area as the KMR). I only fed them 2 -3 times a day, since wild things are so stressed by being handled. KMR is not as nutrient-dense as rabbit milk, but I figured they were better off growing slowly due to lack of nutrition than dealing with all that stress!

I bedded the kits in hay; once they had their eyes open, they started nibbling on it. I also provided dry rolled oats (like you make oatmeal with) for them to nibble at that age, too.

Obviously, rabbit food pellets aren't natural wild food, so I only added it to the diet because I had it on hand. I provided lots of fresh green grass and other wild foods like blackberry leaves. The cage they were in had a wire floor, so I set it out in shady parts of the yard so the bunnies could "graze."

Wild rabbit kits wean and disperse at a pretty young age. They really aren't social at all. If you wind up raising these kits, you will need to release them when they are about a month to 6 weeks old. Any older than that, and they will begin fighting with each other. Wild rabbits really don't make good pets, because most of them never really get over being wild. I didn't even try to tame the ones I had, it was in my mind all along that they would be released as soon as I felt they could fend for themselves.
Thank you so much!
 
Hey there!
I raise rabbits & while looking for some rabbit threads, I happened upon your post.

The best milk replacer I have found is goat's milk (can be found at local pets stores - usually has a puppy on the can Esbilac is one of the brands I think) yes you will want to feed them 2-3 times daily, you will want to have a warm damp wash cloth to use to massage their lower belly to help stimulate them so they go to the bathroom, after each feeding.-patience with feeding is key, they may not take to it right away(with nursing from an eyedropper/small animal bottle) Wild rabbits can be out on their own as early as 2wks. Since you have them safe you can keep them a few weeks longer to give them a better chance at survival. I personally would only provide a dish with water & fresh grass, hay(if you have it) along with some veggies since that is what they would normally eat in their own habitat.

I have had great success with hand rearing rabbits, along with other animals I've taken in along the way.

I hope everything works out with them. If you need any other info give a shout on over!
 
Than you very much. We actually already bought a can of KMR for them and they haven't wanted to drink it.
hmm.png
 
Well i had a nest in my backyard last summer and i never saw the mom in the nest with them and they look thin when they are young, but they grew up and got chubby and cute! You won't see the mom bunny because she is out during the day but at night she comes back to nurse. They shouldn't have been taken out but if you can find the nest maybe try to put them back but if the mother doesn't come back then just keep them
big_smile.png
 
Last edited:
Well i had a nest in my backyard last summer and i never saw the mom in the nest with them and they look thin when they are young, but they grew up and got chubby and cute! You won't see the mom bunny because she is out during the day but at night she comes back to nurse. They shouldn't have been taken out but if you can find the nest maybe try to put them back but if the mother doesn't come back then just keep them
big_smile.png
I would try to put them back, but there are dogs running around in that yard. We're lucky the dogs hadn't found them yet.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom