Keeping Bunnies safe

Hiya :wave:,
I live in Aberdeenshire and a family of wild bunnies have moved in under our shed over the last couple of years. Last year mummmy had 3 litters totally 21 babies!
We have about 5 that have stayed in the area and i feed them kale and apple to keep them near!
Unfortunately a coupe of local cats have sussed they are there and come sniffing around.
Does any one know if the ultrasonic cat repellants on sale are safe for bunnies?
Many thanks
Nicky x

I am envious! I would love to be able to study rabbits "in the wild". Anyway, I really don't think cat repellants work very well. You could try a hosepipe on them as they don't like getting wet! Lots of wild rabbits die young due to predators and diseases this is what happens sadly.

Hiya,
They are ace, we spend hours watching them.
Tried water pistols - the cats just hide!
Yep, mummy had 3 litters last summner, one was a litter of 9 and only 2 made it. Which is a good proportion considering.

I can't help with your problem but how wonderful to have wildies so close. I think you should hang round (on the forum) & let us know what they get up to. it must be fascinating & I'm more than a little envious

Welcome to RU

this is our third year of noticing them.
we have a couple under the shed, and i think their brothers / sisters live under our delapidated summer house. Our garden backs onto a primary scool playing field so they have plenty of room to explore and grass to eat!
We leave them chopped up apple (we call it bapple - bunny apple) every day. They eat half in the afternoon, and save the rest for the next morning. They like kale as well.
we have blackbirds that steal some of the bapple!
They are quite happy sitting on our chuckies if we are very quiet.
every evening from about 7 i can see them in the field, nom nom nom like little piglets!

Aww sounds a wonderful thing to watch.

Why do you think only 2 of the babies survived? We don't tend to give rabbits apple, it's not really too good for domestic rabbits as it's too high in sugar. When are they most active?

hi, as per above they are not domestic rabbits, they are wild ones in the garden.
we give them apple as they like it, and after over 2 years its done them no harm!
we think there may be only 2 from the large litter, as they disappeared quickly when they were very small, and there are horrid cats that hang around.
At present there are at least 3 hanging around (we think one from the last litter), and at least two live under our shed (same litter).
They are active about 7am (they eat the last of the apple for breakfast!)
They are wandering around out lock block til about 10:30am.
We put apple down about 3pm - its usally gone from the shed by 5:30. But they leave another place for morning.
They are then in the school playing field behind us from about 7 - 10pm (when the light go off!)

it is!
especially when they are babies, they just play on the chucckies and don't care that we are watching!!

I wish I knew what to do about cats. a big tom cat chased my bunnies yesterday in my garden. I throw potatoes at them when I see them & they learn to keep out but after a few months they seem to come back. it is a worry as I can't be on the lookout all the time. summer is easier as I often outside but not so much during the winter.
I looked into the ultrasonic things but i'm not convinced they do any good (ppl saying the cats just walk past them quite normal) and obviously there is the issue that the rabbits may trigger them continuously.
any other ideas I have had either wouldn't be appropriate for your case (electric fence wire on top of the fencing around my garden) or not humane.

i can't understand why ppl have cats as pets. they kill so much wildlife.

ha ha ha i know. they are a pain!
i want to catch them and put bells on their collars so at least you can hear them approaching!