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help

Hi everyone my name is julie and i'm new to this site i have joined because i desperatly need help with a very urgent problem, i will probably miss something out so please feel free to ask questions, i have 8 rabbits all of whom live wild in our garden and have so since they were born or rescued, they have loads of burrows and it looks like tellitubby land, we have not had any problems until we rescued 3 cats during this last year, most of the males are castrated and live happily together, unfortunatly one of my caged un castrated males well if you can call it a cage its 10ft by 4ft excaped and yes you have guessed, my females and the male had a good time, this afternoon i heard a scream and one of our cats had caught a baby rabbit, luckily it wasn't hurt but is only 3 weeks old or there abouts, i have fed it lactol and made it warm with covers in an emergancy hutch outside the back door, now the dilemma, i have seen at least 4 babies come out of the burrow tonight, they are safe for the time being as my cats are grounded, but can anyone suggest a way of catching the babies, the mum is star and i can catch her si if i could get the babies i can put them in a hutch until they are ready to leave her, i don't want you to think that i don't care for my rabbits or cats because i do, hence the tellitubby land that costs us a furtune every year, but at the moment the cats are grounded until i can safely get the babies out, any ideas, please help, julie :oops:
 
Are your Warrens purpose built by you or are they done by the buns? Do you have the buns in runs or fenced off atall? Cats unless introduce to rabbits from being kittens will pray on babies unfortunatly. The best way to stop them is to give your buns enclosures Which are fenced in on all sides including the bottom so that they cannot dig warrens, have you tried flushing the babies out of the warrens? You could put covers over all the holes bar one and get the babies out that way. Good Luck XX
 
running free

hi phill
my rabbits are totally free range, they have several huts they can use with only small opening so our dog can't get in, not that he would hurt them but they don't always want to play! they have built most of the burrows themselves and it is fantastic to watch, any babies that we have had have been planned and the mum has been homed in a large hutch a few days before giving birth until the babies are 6 weeks, like i said the 2 males that are not castrated escaped one night, hence the babies we have now, i wasn't sure that any were pregnant as much to popular belief rabbits don't continue to have litters after litters they have to have the right circumstances especially when they are living wild, so it was a shock when 2 made nests we dug one out a few days later knowing who the mum was and she had not had babies so we believed we had got the males back in in time, then these little heads apeared! the messing you mentioned is under all the fences so that the garden is totally escape profe, i was curious what you meant by force them out, let me know i'm really interested as you can imagine i don't want to loose these babies they are beautiful, thanks for your last email julie xxxxxxx
 
Hi Julie, To flush them out as it were you could poor small amounts of water down there warrens as they are usually dry this may bring the buns out to find out what has gone wrong. The only thing i can sugeest with the cats is to errect a fence around the buns with some pea netting over the top to deter the cats from going in there. we have a cat but he has been aournd the buns since he was a kitten and we let him in to the buns runs to get rid of mice, he does an excellant job at this but i wouldn't trust him were babies are concered there just to small! We have babies at the moment (unfortunatly unplanned and half wild) and charlie is not allowed into the pens for this reason. Other than putting a fence up you could let the cats out supervised until they get used to the buns, they shouldn't try to take on the larger ones you have as they will fight back but he might. All the best Phillipa XX
 
Hi again, the cats are great with the other rabbits and they all sit round the garden together, it is only the baby ones, i think at the moment i am going to supervise the cats as best i can, nelson our cat caught a baby this morning, but if you have ever heard a baby rabbit scream it is an arful noise and so the first scream was enough i ran out clapping my hands the cat soon legged it without the baby thankfully, so it looks likes i'm on bunny watch again, i look like an elf sitting on my bench in the garden not daring to move so they come out, if i wasn't so worried it would be funny!!!! sorry to insult any elfs out there. i'll let you know how it goes, sounds like one of your rabbits has been a little naughty, arr bless, we have had wild babies before they are just as friendly, take care julie x
 
Hi again, the cats are great with the other rabbits and they all sit round the garden together, it is only the baby ones, i think at the moment i am going to supervise the cats as best i can, nelson our cat caught a baby this morning, but if you have ever heard a baby rabbit scream it is an arful noise and so the first scream was enough i ran out clapping my hands the cat soon legged it without the baby thankfully, so it looks likes i'm on bunny watch again, i look like an elf sitting on my bench in the garden not daring to move so they come out, if i wasn't so worried it would be funny!!!! sorry to insult any elfs out there. i'll let you know how it goes, sounds like one of your rabbits has been a little naughty, arr bless, we have had wild babies before they are just as friendly, take care julie x
 
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