Wild Bunnies

:wave: Who on here has got pet wild bunny? I had Wobbles :angel: and now have Nettle :rabbit2: who you can see on my avatar or on this video:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=104786

Who else has them?

Hi Rachel!

Great idea! As you know I have Spudsey who is 6 months old and a little beauty!

Suzanne

I'd love to have a pet wild bunny. ^^
There's a small warren on a race track at my local park, and at the moment they have a small litter of four babies... They look pocket sized. Except, these wild bunnies are both the natural wild colour, and a good few of them are black. So two of the babies are black... anyway, each time I go to visit them and watch them, I half hope I'll find one of the babies in need of help. But then I tell myself that's selfish, because they're happier not needing my help.... But I'd still love to have a wild rabbit as a pet. They're so handsome.

casu consulto said:

I'd love to have a pet wild bunny. ^^
There's a small warren on a race track at my local park, and at the moment they have a small litter of four babies... They look pocket sized. Except, these wild bunnies are both the natural wild colour, and a good few of them are black. So two of the babies are black... anyway, each time I go to visit them and watch them, I half hope I'll find one of the babies in need of help. But then I tell myself that's selfish, because they're happier not needing my help.... But I'd still love to have a wild rabbit as a pet. They're so handsome.

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Doesnt that mean theyre NOT totally wild if a few of them are black!/:?

Doncat5 said:

Doesnt that mean theyre NOT totally wild if a few of them are black!/:?

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My dad sees some black bunnies mixed in with a load of wild ones in a lorry park...

casu consulto said:

I'd love to have a pet wild bunny. ^^
There's a small warren on a race track at my local park, and at the moment they have a small litter of four babies... They look pocket sized. Except, these wild bunnies are both the natural wild colour, and a good few of them are black. So two of the babies are black... anyway, each time I go to visit them and watch them, I half hope I'll find one of the babies in need of help. But then I tell myself that's selfish, because they're happier not needing my help.... But I'd still love to have a wild rabbit as a pet. They're so handsome.

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They are adorable, but still have feelings of guilt thinking that I should have released her into the wild where she belongs. But she is a happy little bun I just make sure I don't treat her as a 'domestic' by not picking her up (although I do regular checks when I can). And allowing her loads of room to binky and run at top speeds around the house!

The rabbits are wild. I don't know if at some point someone released a black pet rabbit in there, and it bred with the existing wild population. But the black ones there now are certainly wild - they've been there for years. At least 8-10 years, anyway. And I remember reading on this forum that black wild rabbits can occur due to some gene.

There are black ones in a warren near me as well.

suzynick said:

They are adorable, but still have feelings of guilt thinking that I should have released her into the wild where she belongs. But she is a happy little bun I just make sure I don't treat her as a 'domestic' by not picking her up (although I do regular checks when I can). And allowing her loads of room to binky and run at top speeds around the house!

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:wave: I felt like that at first with Nettle (was different from Wobbles as not injured) but when I spoke to Dorset wildlife Rescue they didn't seem to think there was a major moral dilemma (I was tormented for days). He said 80% of wild baby buns don't make it past being a baby. He said they can make good pets so is not like having a wildebeast in your sitting room. He told me the best way to release it if I decided to as babies can be introduced to a different warren no probs as babies are just ignored(adults can't coz will be attacked). But I didn't and now I have Nettle doing 360 degree binkys round the room!

how strange i have just got back from the lakes and a friend of mine who was with me said she saw some black rabbits running about - i have never seen or heard of them before in the wild. So not i believe she did see one lol:lol: i fort maybe she had a glass of wine too many.

this was in winderemere just for the record...lol

how strange i have just got back from the lakes and a friend of mine who was with me said she saw some black rabbits running about - i have never seen or heard of them before in the wild. So not i believe she did see one lol:lol: i fort maybe she had a glass of wine too many.

this was in winderemere just for the record...lol

You can get naturally melanistic rabbits - so they aren't necessarily descendents of a pet rabbit. After all, genetic mutations of the natural wild colour is how we got all the 'domestic' colours anyway

In Britain we also get black squirrels...and in Africa and South America, the naturally melanistic jaguars/leopards = panthers

feeling_the_wrath_already said:

You can get naturally melanistic rabbits - so they aren't necessarily descendents of a pet rabbit. After all, genetic mutations of the natural wild colour is how we got all the 'domestic' colours anyway

In Britain we also get black squirrels...and in Africa and South America, the naturally melanistic jaguars/leopards = panthers

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You beat me to it :lol: heres a link anyway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanism

I don't have any 'pet' wild rabbits, all my hand rears get released back to the wild - 8 this year and 5 last year.
I don't blame anyone for wanting to keep them though as they are beautiful!

I saw a film from Gressholmen in Norway where there are quite a few "wild" rabbits (mostly pets that have been released ) and on the video it seemed most of them were black:lol: (Though as far as I know there are no predators on that island) Black is recessive to aguti, so two aguti-rabbits can get a black kit if both parents carry black, but two black rabbits can't give one aguti..
It's not impossible that the black gene appeared in the wild rabbit population, and as they're not all that easy to spot for predators (like white bunnies) they can survive and breed, creating more black rabbits.

All in all we don't have wild rabbits in Norway, just lost pets, and most of these die as they can't get food or get caught by predators. My teacher once had a hare that refused to leave though:lol:

Rachel told me about this thread so i thought i'd let you know about my wild bunny.

Hi name is Oscar and he is nearly 3. A man whose garden is adjacent to mine and along a bit, aquired a family of wild rabbits that just appeared in his garden. There was a mum, dad and about 4 babies. He used took them in and fenced off his garden as there are many foxes who hid in the bushes of flats a few houses along. He let the rabbits have access to the top of his shed as there are loads of bushes for them to run around in. Unfortunately one day the parents and one baby escaped from the bushes and the baby ended up in my neighbours garden and the parents in the one next to that.

The parents are now living in a hutch in that garden (neva let out as they have dogs. I look at them in disbelief) and the baby was taken by my neighbour. my neighbour had him for 2 1/2 years and left him in the hutch forgetting to feed him for up to 3 weeks at a time.

I know its tresspassing but i couldnt let it suffer so one day i popped over the wall when she was out to look in the hutch(it was facing away from our garden) and found it had no water, no bedding, no mineral stones, toys etc. It didnt even have any food except a few cornflakes dumped on the floor. (he didnt even have a bowl) Well i couldnt leave him so i fed and watered him, gave him a toy and some food and had a word with my neighbour.

Unfortunatley i got a load of abuse from her and she neva spoke to me for months. I kept popping back over her wall ever couple of days to find no food etc again. We had had a lot of trouble with our neighbours and even had our door kicked in b4 so i was too scared to call rspca. But i perserveered with it and to my surprise, 4 months later she asked me if i could take him off her hands.

Of course i said yes and although he is a wild rabbit, he was so used to being cooped up that when i let him out he couldnt figure out what to do with himself. But now he's happy and goes out atleast 4-5 times a week for a run. He has fallen in love with 2 of my does and his skeletal body is now plump and full.

He didnt have a name when we got him but Oscar seemed appropriate - Oscar as in Oscar Wilde (wild bun) and Oscar as i think he deserves one after his rough start in life.

I'm pretty sure my three are wild bunnies or at least half wild. I do wish they could have lived a free life, but they certainly wouldnt survive very long!

I dont really think there's that much difference between 'wild' and 'pet' rabbits. After all they're the same species, domestication was very recent and I'd imagine there's been plenty of mixing between the two groups. The main difference is how they're reared (and of course that pet rabbits have been bred for their coat colour).

NB since all rabbit colours originated by breeding from wild rabbits, all the colours are probably technically possible -they're just unlikely to occur and unlikely to survive because they stand out.

:wave: Blimey how lucky was Oscar having you as a neighbour - it is so sad that people let buns get like that - but great that in this case there was a happy ending. Great name too!!

I've got 4 that I hand reared from a week old. Their now 5 weeks old and very naughty:shock:

I think we need photos! Here's mine:

:wave: rachel

Thanks. Well it took a bit of persuading from my parents but this time 2 years ago i would never have been allowed one. Now 2 years on i have 6 (3 of whom are rescue) and im just going to get another. So much for my mum saying, you can have ONE hehe