PLEASE HELP! Trapping problem

[chickschool]

 

[chickschool]

I'm sorry. I had this problem one other time when I posted something but my message wasn't there.

Let's try this again. Long story short I have 4 ten week old bunnies that escaped on our 8 acre school campus. They have been sited several times by lots of different people. We have set out live traps in the areas they seem to favor but I think due to our extensive gardens they have no desire to "take the bait". I have used fresh apples, carrots and corn on the cob. Does anybody have any other treats that they might find irresistible? Or any other way to catch them?

 

[Duckchick2011]

The best thing you can do is set the trap along trail lines...well, what I mean is, along wall edges, fence lines, garden borders, paths...in general any area where the bunnies would have to pass through or beside to get from one place to another. Imagine you are a rabbit, you will like to lay low, go under stuff, sneak between bushes, follow walls and edges where you feel for secure. You won't be doing much all terrain stuff but mostly trying to find the easiest way to get to food while still feeling hidden. Rabbits LOVE to take trails and paths so those should be the first places your check.

Look for any places in the undergrowth, bushes, or grass that looks like something has been traveling through. If you find a place with little rabbit droppings that should be the first place you set your trap. Set it where it follows with the flow of the area, path, fence, trail, what ever.

The idea is to put the trap where the rabbit will be passing through anyway and the food will only encourage them to not be spooked by the strange metal thing. I encourage you to use bananas for bait, rabbits cannot resist them and they have a strong attractive smell, only put about an inch of banana in the trap, too much will spike their blood sugar. Putting something over the trap, so that it feels like a tunnel that they can walk through will help too. Just make sure what ever you cover it with isn't flappy or shiny. Hay or leaves would be the perfect trap cover.

I speak from experience in the art of bunny trapping.

Just be glad you are only trapping domestic bunnies, wild bunnies take extra precautions with scent and such.

 

[chickschool]

Oh my goodness. Thank you so much!!! I was envisioning having to have someone shoot them before they started breeding.

 

[Duckchick2011]

No biggie!

Hopefully you will be able to nab the little suckers in time. Although, you should not have to worry about breeding for at least another 2 months . Something I thought of, if it is getting above 80 degrees where you are I would also check around in places where they can get cool and especially places where there is standing water. Bunnies need to stay hydrated and cool during the hot months or they can die from heat stroke. Males can also become heat steril, another reason you shouldn't have to worry about breeding just yet.