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Rabbits & Magpies

Sam_Spice

Mama Doe
I am only guessing these are magpies :oops: my knowledge of birds goes about as far as pigeons and seagulls :shock: :lol: but two seem to have decided our rabbits fur make good nesting material :shock: :lol:

These two guys: (seen here with little Spice)
DSC01610.jpg


They are about the same size (or bigger? :shock:) as our buns and they hop around pulling fur from our buns (not alot, just tiny bits at a time). They don't seem to mind which bun they take it from but weirdly the rabbits don't seem bothered at all :shock:.

We can't see any pecks/cuts on them (incase their beaks were hurting the buns) so I wondered if I should stop the birds? I normally do chase them away if I see them, and we also put a bit of hay out so they can take that for there nest instead but it seems that rabbit fur is the bedding to have :lol:

Any ideas if this is good/bad/safe?
 
Wow.
Yes they are magpies, and the cheek of it! :shock:
I have never seen or heard of them doing this. I have nesting blue-**** in my garden who are collecting bits of bunny fur that is lying on the grass, but to actually pluck it from the rabbit is amazing.
If the rabbits don't seem to mind, then I guess it can't be hurting them.
My buns love to chase birds that have dared to land on our lawn, I guess yours would if they didn't like the idea of furnishing a magpie nest with fur.

Brill story, keep us up to date. You should see extra-cossetted baby magpies soon!
 
i wonder where the nest in :love: there around basically every day so I presume the buns are prime target lol I will try and get some videos/pics when I see them again :D
 
Hi, we have that too where the birds are picking up the straw and fur but not actually pucking it from the bun's! I would keep an eye on them but if the bun's dont seem to mind then it can't be hurting them?

I (personally) would kepp a VERY close eye on them x
 
I guess they are getting the fur that is moulting off but I think I would scare them off anyway :?
 
I've got a problem with Magpies, it started about a week ago. There are mainly 2 of them, but sometimes 4 and I've caught them terrorising my rabbits through the run. Today I saw them trying to peck through the mesh before I scared them away.

I've been looking them up and seen a mention that they are very clever and have been known to unlatch pet houses. Twiggy is padlocked though, so they'd have to be very clever to pick that! But I am finding it worrying. I would continue to chase them off if I were you as I think they might just get too comfortable and might peck your rabbits one day.

I've been reading on how to discourage magpies from the garden and it seems reflective objects is the way to go, for example hanging up old cds, helium balloons (the silver ones). So I might try this.
 
I've been reading on how to discourage magpies from the garden and it seems reflective objects is the way to go, for example hanging up old cds, helium balloons (the silver ones). So I might try this.

I always thought magpies were attracted to shiny things, and stole them to keep in their nests!!
 
I would chase them away. Don't want to upset you but magpies are in the same family as crows and I have seen a crow kill a wild bunny before.
 
I would not let the bunnies unsupervised in the garden, that wall is no problem for a fox. And I would chase away the magpies. What if they hit your bunnies' eyes? I would not trust these birds.
 
I'd find it useful if birdies got rid of my rabbits moulting fur :lol: but they don't, the little birds take fur that's blown off and the last time a magpie landed near my rabbits Batbunny attacked it :shock: so we don't see many now days xD
 
I saw one magpie yesturday (or the day before) but not seen any since, maybe ones on the nest? I really have now idea how they behave :oops: lol I chase them away whenever I see then as I still worry about the buns, and now especially there eyes!! :shock:

The buns have ran out of back garden grass so now have to move down the side of the house which means there under constant supervision (to the annoyment of the housemates we blackmail into it sometimes :lol: )

Hopefully the birds of gone ;)
 
I've had magpies and crows terrorise my guineapigs through their run, luckily they've not tried the bunny. They waited till the guineapigs came to the side and then pecked at them through the mesh- it didn't look like they were just trying to get their fur it looked more like they wanted to eat them !!! Seriously !!
 
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