Night attack on poor BunBun?!

This morning, I found that my new rabbit hutch was nearly broken into....the metal wiring was bent and chunks of woods were mauled off with plenty of bite and claw marks on the top of the hutch. Sunny was covered in it own poops and was quite skiddish when i try to approach it.

I live in the city and was wondering what type of urban predator got enough power to do such damage and how I could reinforce the hutch/safeguard Sunny from future attack.

I can't keep it indoor because my parents aren't exactly over the moon when I brang it home, it also not litter trained yet and my sister pet Shih Tzu barks and chase/bite when i let it out to roam. When I put tried to make BoBo(Shih Tzu) sit next to Sunny, she would try to move away, yet Sunny is not that all afraid, except when BoBo is chasing it but will still try to approach BoBo when she not chasing it. But i'm sure only time will tell when both my parents and BoBo will accept it.

probly a fox or a badger eitehr could do this damage... you need to check the wood is thick and strong you could reenforce with metal around the bits that have been chewed. i would try and get a shed to put bun in..would be warmer too... also as for shitzu they should prob be kept apart from bunny as its most dogs natrual instinct to chase prey such as rabbits and you dont want bunbun hurt. also make sure the hutch door has padlocks on um what else can i think of...um... oh i know check your mesh is proper mesh and not chicken wire as they could bite through this....also is hutch raised off floor? a bit of height could help?...let us know xx

Sounds like a fox and he will be back tonight - please barricade the hutch every night behind some dustbins, fencing panels, rugs - anything as foxes are very determined and just the fear alone can kill your rabbit

this is how I do my hutches at night

By the way - a good way to clean the poop off sunny is using cooking cornflour, used as a thickener for sauces usually. just rub pinches of dry cornflour into the dirty fur and the dirt will slide off easily - you mustn't wet a rabbit this time of year as it will get too cold, and if you leave it dirty then flies may lay eggs on him, which will kill him.

i agree it will be back tonight so you'd better get some defences up.

Do you have a shed? X

I would also say it's probably a fox :evil: :evil:

get a shotgun out and sit and wait in the garden. :evil:

how did last night go?

Thx for the help you guys......i think that predator returned last night because i found a piece of turd right outside Sunny cage....the smell was really really awful when i scraped it off the concrete.

The hutch i got is similar to your "elve"..it is double layers with legs(and wooh......elve that is some heavy duty security).

No..I don't have a shed...but I do have a long lane/alley which my father added a roof over years ago...it where we store some junks(so it kinda like a shed)...it also where BoBo do her business on the newspaper when she indoor.

I kept Sunny indoor last nite and also tonite and maybe future nites too until spring arrive. Sunny was kept in the long roofed lane/alley in a cage i found in the basement used by my late cat on a raised platform. I covered the top with a blanket so BoBo wouldn't see Sunny and also it would keep it warm.

Oh ok...I will give the cornflour a go when it pooped itself again..which will probably be in the morning. Is there also a homemade alternative to cleaning urine off it legs because the cat cage i kept Sunny in is not that large, it tends to cover the whole cage in poops and urine in a matter of minutes..so it will be sleeping in it own excrement throughout the night.

My father say he will help me patch up the broken parts and i might ask him to reinforce the hutch with a thin sheet of durable metal....let see mr fox.....climb that....

can you move the hutch indoors? how big is the cat cage he is in?

No, I can't..the hutch is just under 4 foot in length and the roofed alley is already quite cramped.

The cat cage is about 60 cm by 40cm by 40cm in height. Sunny could easily fit one corner with plenty of head room.

Last nite around 1am, i heard a noise in the roofed alley. When i went and check, Sunny cage was toppled over on the floor, cement bags and bags of rabbit food were ripped open and scattered all over the floor. I saw no movement in the cat cage.....but the cage door,the whole cage was intact.

When i open the cat cage, I was relieved to find Sunny under the layers of newspaper, but when i picked him up, i saw blood on both of his front paws. On one side of the cage it was literally sprayed with blood....i was just wondering how that predator bit Sunny paws because the cage door is made up of layers of small squares unless Sunny is so curious, he stuck both his paws out to be bitten. The door to the roofed alley was also close, so i wonder how the predator got in, until closer examination..I found a damage part at the bottom of the corrugated plastic wall. The size is just narrow enough for a fox to come through.

I cleaned up the mess and then disinfected the wound, bandage it and made Sunny wear a cone shape head piece which i made from a old ring binder folder.

My father wasn't exactly pleased with the mess and he blamed me for luring a fox into our garden.... mom was in her own world, fearing for BoBo and i told her BoBo is not a prey to foxes. Talk about being hysterical!!!

Thankfully, Sunny wounds closed up and he cleaned his messy bottom from last nite incident. He is kept in my room at the moment until his wound heal and until I've buy some additional materials to reinforce and hide Sunny presence from the fox vision when he is in his hutch.

If I was you I would go and get him checked over by a vet, the last thing you want is for the bites to get infected.

Also keeping him in a cage that small over night is ideal, its too small my rabbits are most active and night and would hate it if I kept them locked up in a box like that.

I hope you get the cage fixed quickly and the fox goes away

Awww poor Sunny I hope you manage to keep him safe now and he gets better soon - it's quite likely he'll need antibiotics at the vets for the bites. Rabbits need to eat the soft poops they do at night as they digest their food twice, so especially if he's had a head collar on, he may get a bad stomach from not eating right and from all the stress. If you really can't keep him safe it would be kinder to find him a new home as it sounds like just a matter of time till the fox gets him, and it's really not fair to let a rabbit suffer so much terror every night. It sounds like you are doing your best but unfortunately so is the fox

Hi there this is awful I feel so sorry for you. I would suggest a vet check and keeping him indoors if you can as this sounds like a determined predator... poor you xxxx

Please do not put him back outside unless it is absolutely safe for him. The fox does seem determined. Please think about whether you can protect him or best to consider rehoming.

if he is in a cat cage does he have anywhere he can go to hide/feel safe and keep warm and stuff or is he just sitting in the open cage? He must be very very frightened. If the fox got to his cage again last night as well you need to move him somewhere else. It is not fair on him to go through all the trauma every night.

Please keep him indoors tonight, putting this bun through all this stress will lead either to GI stasis or possibly a heart attack. This is not fair on any rabbit.

I note from your post that you are in London, if you can get this bun to me I will happily have him here until you can get your Dad to arrange some secure accomodation sorted out, If you wish to have any advise about securing hutches please do ask.

jrn1310 said:

Please keep him indoors tonight, putting this bun through all this stress will lead either to GI stasis or possibly a heart attack. This is not fair on any rabbit.

I note from your post that you are in London, if you can get this bun to me I will happily have him here until you can get your Dad to arrange some secure accomodation sorted out, If you wish to have any advise about securing hutches please do ask.

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Thats a lovely thing to offer to do I agree with everyone else it's not fair to put the poor bunny through the stress everynight. I hope you manage to get it sorted.
Sallyx

You made a cone shaped head piece from an old ring binder folder :?