Posted: 6/23/2010 9:36:08 PM EDT
| Five new born rabbits in my back yard, with no mother to be found? Whats next ARFCOM? |
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She'll be back. Mama's instincts are to run away and lead you away from them. Baby's instincts are to sit perfectly still because they can't run fast yet. And not newborns. Probably a few weeks old. I don't know much about rabbits. They looked scared shitless, rustlin in the bushes. Cute lil fuckers I tell ya. |
| Rabbits won't eat iceburg lettuce. Even they know there's zero nutritional value in it. If you want to feed them, give them garden greens. Better yet, leave them be and mom will come back. If she doesn't, and they die or get eaten, well, there's no shortage of bunnies in suburbia. |
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She'll be back. Mama's instincts are to run away and lead you away from them. Baby's instincts are to sit perfectly still because they can't run fast yet. And not newborns. Probably a few weeks old. This. I found the same thing a few weeks ago. Research pointed me to the same answer. |
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Here's a pic! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v448/kappa4life7987/34125_935286750791_10026624_5325026.jpg The beagles tore through a nest of bunnies about size and then had a shout-down over who was going to eat the most. Brutal scene. Bunny fur, guts, blood and body parts galore. Such a racket that the neighbors came out. Thank God their young girls missed the excitement. The Mrs had a helluva time gettin' the dogs away from the mess and then cleaning it up. They fought over that spot for a week afterwards; even after it rained and I sprayed it down with coon piss. Don't know much about wild rabbits. They'll tame eventually. We have a good friend who breeds 'show' rabbits; at one time she had introduced a wild rabbit into a breeding line. Not sure why or what the outcome was. |
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If you found them on the ground, no nest, she may have been in the process of moving them from one place to another. There are usually six.
If you found them in a hole put them back in it and cover it with a thin layer of long grass. Arrange a few peices of the grass to form an X on top so you can tell if the mother has visited. After a day if she hasn't disturbed the X. It's a safe bet she ran off or something got her. They look about 5 to 8 days old an will need milk at this point. Goats milk is best for them, you can find it in grocery stores usually in a can. Feed them 3 or 4 times a day with a dropper, about a dropper full per rabbit each feeding. When they begin eating greens regularly, you may supplement the milk for a few days but then as much as they go crazy for it you will have to cut them back to half then to only once. then none, again this is over the course of a few days. When they open their eyes in a day or so you will be theirs. They will trust you and look to you to feed them and will play on you. A few days after they open their eyes, begin letting them have a few leaves of dark salad greens and no more than an 1/8" of water in a jar lid as they can accidently drown in anything deep. Preferably, use thinly sliced raw carrots. kepp them stored in cold water and give them a slice each they get plenty of moisture this way as well. They love bananas only give a piece about as big as a sugar cube to each, they also love yogurt. Both of these are extremely beneficial for them. Be careful when handling them as they unpredictably jump and can at this age easily fracure their bones if they fall from height. Keep an eye on their butts as they may get crap stuck in their fur that causes them to be unable to evacute themselves, a gentle wiping with a warm wet paper towel will do the trick. Keep them until they can run and jump and then take them some where with plenty of brush for cover and let them go. Good luck. |
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There's something about how they have to pick up the proper gut bacteria from the mother to properly digest plant matter as they make the transition off of milk. If they don't, they'll die from GI issues. Hence the yogurt, it is full of active cultures of beneficial probiotics to aid in proper digestive function, also there are Cecotropes. Here Unlike most other mammals, lagomorphs (including domestic rabbits) produce two types of droppings, fecal pellets (the round, dry ones you usually see in the litterbox) and cecotropes. The latter are produced in a region of the rabbit's digestive tract called the cecum, a blind-end pouch located at the junction of the small and large intestines. The cecum contains a natural community of bacteria and fungi that provide essential nutrients and may even protect the rabbit from potentially harmful pathogens. How does the rabbit get those essential nutrients? She eats the cecotropes as they exit the anus. The rabbits blissful expression when she's engaging in cecotrophy (the ingestion of cecotropes) will tell you that she finds this anything but disgusting. In fact, rabbits deprived of their cecotropes will eventually succumb to malnutrition. Cecotropes are not feces. They are nutrient-packed dietary items essential to your companion rabbit's good health. A rabbit may produce cecotropes at various times during the day, and this periodicity may vary from rabbit to rabbit. Some produce cecotropes in the late morning, some in the late afternoon, and some at night. In any case, they usually do this when you're not watching (quite polite of them). This might be why some people refer to cecotropes as "night droppings," though cecotropes are not always produced at night. A human face is apparently an excellent and refreshing palate-cleanser, as a favorite activity immediately post-cecotrophy often seems to be "kiss the caregiver". Mmmmmm. |