This is not a chick!

[red horse ranch]

I have 32 3 week old chicks in the brooder and they had a house guest today. My brooder is a 5' x 7' room with an attached pen of chicken wire. Room and pen are in the barn. On nice afternoons I will let the chicks into the pen for exercise. When I went to check on them at noon today there was a baby rabbit sitting under the heat lamp in the brooder with chicks all around it. 'What's wrong with this picture' went thru my mind. I took the baby rabbit outside the pen and set it in the hay and then checked the pen and brooder for holes. There were none other than the chicken wire. Several hours later I went back out to check on the chicks. The baby rabbit was back under the heat lamp with the chicks! So now what do I do with it? It can't be more that 3 weeks old itself to be able to get thru the chicken wire.
It looks hungry. I warmed some cream and added chick vitamins and the rabbit licked it from an eye dropper.
I can't find the momma rabbit nest and I can't just leave the baby rabbit outside. It's in one of my nursery cages in the house right now. I will try setting it back out in the hay tomorrow and hope momma can find it. I don't want to make a pet of a wild rabbit but I'd like for it to survive. Any advice would be welcome.

 

[Yay Chicks!]

I can't help you specifically, but that sounds like a pretty adorable scene.

I'm thinking that if you post this under the Other Pets and Livestock section that you might get some good answers from the rabbit people.

Good luck (and if you can get a picture of that, I'd love to see it!).

 

[JessicaThistle]

Very cute! You could try to find out if you have a rabbit rescue nearby. The town that I live in has a wonderful rabbit rescue, but we are far from you.

 

[subhanalah]

Is it a wild or escaped domestic rabbit? They grow pretty fast. Is it fully furred? Eyes open? I'm thinking if it found its way to your heat lamp, it's not with its mother anymore.

 

[3riverschick]

if you touched it , mama rabbit won't take it anymore. congrats, you're a bunny mama! check it for fleas and such and contact a local rabbitry for more advice on raising it. there is a neat rabbit forum right here on byc.
best,
Karen

 

[Skink]

That's not true, actually! Mums won't abandon their babies just because they've been touched by a person.

Rabbits with their eyes open that can move around are fully independent. So long as this is a wild rabbit you have on your hands, putting them outside (and maybe watching to see how they keep getting in so you can stop it) is all you really have to do. If the rabbit is actually sick (labored breathing, bum limb, goopy eyes, visible wounds, drool, etc) contacting a wildlife rehabilitation center is the way to go. You won't be happy raising a wild rabbit.. even if they become sweet on you, once they hit sexual maturity they're not going to stay that way.

You REALLY want them away from your chicks... if they decide to bite one of those poor babies for any reason, I'm sure you can guess what a disaster that would be, and there's no way to be confident that a wild rabbit with no socialization won't bite all these noisy, strange creatures piling on to it. Consider the fact that you should not feed live domestic bunnies to 20 ft+ pythons simply because the bunny is a danger to the giant snake. Chicks won't stand a chance!

If it's a domestic bunny... I have no idea. You could try researching raising orphaned bunny suggestions from breeders, that would probably get you the most relevant information.

 

[Sjisty]

Pictures, must have pictures!

 

[ChaoSS]

if you touched it , mama rabbit won't take it anymore. congrats, you're a bunny mama! check it for fleas and such and contact a local rabbitry for more advice on raising it. there is a neat rabbit forum right here on byc.
best,
Karen

Not the least bit true. Rabbit mom doesn't care.

The nest is likely nearby, if you can get the rabbit to stay out of your pen, it will likely make it's own way back.

Rabbits need a pretty specialized diet, and unless you know what you are doing, trying to feed it too much is a good way to kill it. It stands a good chance at surviving just letting i back out in the wild.


Unless, of course, you have a problem with rabbits tearing up your garden, in which case it may need to be a snack for your dogs.

 

[chickencoop789]

I think it just wants some heat. Maybe put another lamp outside of the brooder and put it under there so it wont try to get back in with the chicks. Maybe the mom will find it, but if she doesn't then I would just keep it

 

[red horse ranch]

Since yesterday was Easter my hubby says that the Easter Bunny brought it for me!

Nevertheless I still don't want to raise a wild bunny with my chicks. It escaped from the nursery cage in the house last night and I was afraid my dog would kill it. So it went back out to the brooder at midnight. I watched it push it's way into the middle of the chicks under the heat lamp. And it was still there this morning. When it warms up today I will put it back out in the hay again and hopefully find it's way back to momma. Or l will find it in the brooder again.