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pet wild/wild x rabbits dietry needs

bunlover

Warren Veteran
hi there, ive been off forum a lot recently this is mainly due to a "rescue" that myself and another forum member were doing, pah had a wild bunny brought in by a man found in his garden, they had it in the adoption centre for a pet home, it was scared and sad and we were concerend about her going to live in a tiny hutch or in a house wihtout someone knowing about her needs if she was wild or wild cross, we decided to take it on and see if was wild and releasable or x and needed a home, unfortunatly it seems the rabbit is not fully wild it is either a cross domestic or is hand reared or just been tamed by someone as its very easy to pick up and allows you to stroke it, she is female and is now called bracken obviously she cannot be released to the wild due to this, the other member involved in taking her from going to a "non knowledgable home" is hopeing to bond her into her group once she is neutered and vaccinated to live in a large shed with attatched run and free run of the garden, now she doesnt really eat pellets wil lnibble a few if you hand feed them to her, she eats tonnes of grass and hay wont eat "standered veg" but will eat dandilions, bramble leaves, apple twigs, rose leaves basically "wild veg" now my question to get to the bottem of it all sorry so long winded is should i be supplimenting her diet with anything are there any special dietry needs ? i am currently "fostering" her here she has a 6x2x2ft hutch with a 6x6ft run permenanlty and free run of garden when im home she is roughly 3-4months old at a guess, we have spoken to the rescue we help at and they agreed that if she doesnt bond in then will find a good home originally she would have stayed at the rescue till then but was petrified of the rescu owners dog (who only walked past once) and she ended up smashing into the side of her run cutting her head slightly(she is fine now) thanks for any advice given. many thanks x
 
The running into the side of the cage sounds like very typical wildie behaviour, although some domestics will do it if they are very timid.

Eating certain foods doesn't necessarily mean anything...in fact neither of my wildies are very interested in grass, and much prefer pellets...although they were both hand reared, so maybe your little one was already used to eating grass?

As far as set-up goes...wildies are VERY quick, so even if they are tame, they can easily nip past you when you open the hutch/shed door. IMO the ideal set-up for a wildie is a large aviary with a safety porch (so you can shut the outer door before opening the inner one). Plenty of hiding places and lots of bedding are must haves.

The main issue with wildies is that they have extreme personalities...they seem to either love or hate other rabbits, and nothing in-between! Luckily mine don't seem to fight like domestics, instead they opt for a 'bite and run away' tactic :lol:

Good luck...I love wildies, they are truly magical to watch :love:
 
Just to add that the dietry needs of a wildie are exactly the same as a domestic, although mine tend to eat more food than my domestics.

She should be fine eating good quality hay, grass, weeds, etc.
 
Our first rabbit was a wildies and we fed him the same as our domestic rabbits. He was housed in a 6 ft by 14ft aviary type run and shut in a big hutch at night with his 2 dwarf lop girlfriends. He was never a cuddly rabbit but we could handle him without him kicking or biting and he lived to a ripe old age of 9.:D
 
thanks for all the info, its her behaviour in general and her looks i have never seen a domestic rabbit that looks the way she does ever, she looks pure wild yet is affectionate, but her eating habits also indicate thats she is wild, i would upload some pics but im struggling to use our new pc?!!! she slept in a tunnel the first night i had her(out of choice not because she only could go there) and likes to be in a digging box where possible within the hutch she is very eu natrual lol she likes dora (through the mesh) but dislikes arthur so that stands with what you ahve said, i hope she will bond with the others when the rescue tries them together (yeh im not even attempting this bond iv never had a wildie before)!.
well thanks everyone when i work out the comnputer i will upload piccys! :) she looks a lot like scamp tamsins wild rabbit though! x
 
Rabbits will tend to eat what they are brought up with hence you get rabbits that refuse hay - they are just not in the habit of eating it. My wild rabbit eats the same as my domestic.

Grass is fine instead of hay but it does mean, like hay, you need to make sure it's available 24/7. I would try mixing grass and hay together to encourage her to eat it as from a practical standpoint if f she starts eating hay too that will make it easier to meet her needs particularly in winter when they grass isn't so prolific.

Wild buns are quite small - mine only gets a pinch of pellets a day, part in a treat ball and part hand fed. If she'll eat pellets hand fed give her a few a day and that will help ensure a full range of vitamins.

Then just feed as large a range of rabbit safe weeds as possible. I would keep trying different vegetables. There are wild rabbits that are fed things like carrots by humans and happily eat them - they'll eat any food they can access hence they can be a pest to farmers or on allotments. There is no reason why being wild means she won't eat veg.
 
Rabbits will tend to eat what they are brought up with hence you get rabbits that refuse hay - they are just not in the habit of eating it. My wild rabbit eats the same as my domestic.

Grass is fine instead of hay but it does mean, like hay, you need to make sure it's available 24/7. I would try mixing grass and hay together to encourage her to eat it as from a practical standpoint if f she starts eating hay too that will make it easier to meet her needs particularly in winter when they grass isn't so prolific.

Wild buns are quite small - mine only gets a pinch of pellets a day, part in a treat ball and part hand fed. If she'll eat pellets hand fed give her a few a day and that will help ensure a full range of vitamins.

Then just feed as large a range of rabbit safe weeds as possible. I would keep trying different vegetables. There are wild rabbits that are fed things like carrots by humans and happily eat them - they'll eat any food they can access hence they can be a pest to farmers or on allotments. There is no reason why being wild means she won't eat veg.

thanks i will try her with differnet things slowly! she is small and maybe the amount of pellets is right for her she is about half the size of dora my enthie cross bless her!, she does eat hay and grass so im not worried about that she will eat plenty of both! i was just making sure there wasnt anything else she needed because of ehr wild heritage, i will keep giving her rabbit safe plants adn start introducing veg slowly to her! many thanks to all...oh and iv noticed she jumps and climbs much hiugher than my domestic buns will reach i was hoping it was only scamp who did this though she hasnt got as high as him yet!!! lol x
 
Scamp's about 1.4kg now I think but it took him a long time to fill out to that, over a year. I imagine she'll grow quite a bit more, Scamp was all legs at that age :)

oh and iv noticed she jumps and climbs much hiugher than my domestic buns will reach i was hoping it was only scamp who did this though she hasnt got as high as him yet!!! lol x

:lol: just you wait, she's probably just plotting the most alarming route ;)
 
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