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help wild baby rabbits!

Beatrix Potter

Mama Doe
Hello

My partner has tonight brought home a few tiny bunnies which he found whilst digging our allotment! This is the second lot we have found, the first we removed and took to an animal rescue centre. these ones however are a few days old at the most.

do we try and handrear them and release them at a later date? is it at all possible to keep them as pets?
 
Id say find a rescue if youve never hand raised before as there are lots of health problems that can arise.

Give kitten milk primarily until you can. But dont release them once you have reared them or other rabbits will kill them..

Id either RSPCA it or the BETTER option- a rescue centre.

where are you from
 
Hiya,

From past experience local branches of the RSPCA do not usually want to know about wild buns, especially babies that are very vulnerable and need round the clock care. Hand rearing babies is a very difficult process . They have to be fed around the clock and this needs to be done by somebody who has experience. Even to the most experienced people it is a challenge as they have such delicate digestive systems and at such a young age are very vulnerable. If they are fed incorrectly the feed can go into their lungs. They also need to be given food that is 100% right for them and has the right nutritional values . If the wrong food is given it will kill them as they have such delicate stomachs. They need to be fed correctly in the correct way. They rely on constant nurturing and feeding. Without this they will die.

The best people to contact is a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre as they will have the facilities and knowledge to care for them around the clock.

Ideally baby rabbits shouldn't be taken from the wild as their mother would have been nearby.

I would really advise you to contact your nearest wildlife centre as soon as possible as without the correct care, feeding they will go downhill very quickly and the chances of thioer survival will be slight. They require around the clock care and the best people to do that are a wildlife rescue.

Please let us know what happens.

L O L,

Nicola and Harvey xxx
 
sorry, not being very helpful, but can't your partner just leave them where he finds them ?

can't help thinking that they are probably going to die without their mum
 
Hi Suzynick,

Any news on the wild babies?

Have you managed to find a wildlife rescue nr you that will take them?

Please let us know what happens.

L O L,

Nicola and Harvey xxx
 
Once the babies have been moved you can't put them back. A rescue's your best bet or a wildlife sanctuary. It's very very hard to successfully hand rear buns and would be best to hand them over to someone who has the experience and time, also you could do without the heartbreak.
 
update on bunnies

Hi everyone

thanks for your messages. Firstly my partner couldn't possibly have left them where they were as they were in our allotment where we have vegetables growing! Most people at our allotments would have killed them I know that for a fact, these ones were almost minced alive as my partner was rotavating the ground so they were very lucky!

We tried putting them outside our allotment in a warm box which we hoped their mum would take them from, as if we had left them in our allotment i doubt she would attempt to remove them over the fence probably put them back in the burrow. 5 rabbits and an allotment don't go very well!

unfortuanately mum came back into the plot looking for them but failed to find them outside. Temparatures dropped the night after and obviously they hadn't received any food for a while so i decided the best thing to do was to take them to my local vets for advice.

i have decided with the full support of a lovely veterinary nurse to handrear them myself. i had some training on this yesterday! i have so far sucessfully gave them a feed last night and this morning, and hopefully my partner is now giving them their lunchtime feed!

in the meantime we have made the fences even higher in our allotment and are taking other measures to stop this from happening again. i love rabbits and have previously kept them for years so do have some experience but obviously not of wild ones so i'm going to do the best for them that i possibly can!

the only thing worrying me is the releasing of them if they do survive. i've seen stoats take bunnies at our allotment before a few times, plus most of them have mxy. my vet told me they have a man who rescued a wild bunny and has brought it up as a pet, apparently not the friendliest bunny but doing fine. I had a rabbit who was a belgian hare and i used to have to put gardening gloves on to pick her up!
 
Re: update on bunnies

suzynick said:
Hi everyone

thanks for your messages. Firstly my partner couldn't possibly have left them where they were as they were in our allotment where we have vegetables growing! Most people at our allotments would have killed them I know that for a fact, these ones were almost minced alive as my partner was rotavating the ground so they were very lucky!

We tried putting them outside our allotment in a warm box which we hoped their mum would take them from, as if we had left them in our allotment i doubt she would attempt to remove them over the fence probably put them back in the burrow. 5 rabbits and an allotment don't go very well!

unfortuanately mum came back into the plot looking for them but failed to find them outside. Temparatures dropped the night after and obviously they hadn't received any food for a while so i decided the best thing to do was to take them to my local vets for advice.

i have decided with the full support of a lovely veterinary nurse to handrear them myself. i had some training on this yesterday! i have so far sucessfully gave them a feed last night and this morning, and hopefully my partner is now giving them their lunchtime feed!

in the meantime we have made the fences even higher in our allotment and are taking other measures to stop this from happening again. i love rabbits and have previously kept them for years so do have some experience but obviously not of wild ones so i'm going to do the best for them that i possibly can!

the only thing worrying me is the releasing of them if they do survive. i've seen stoats take bunnies at our allotment before a few times, plus most of them have mxy. my vet told me they have a man who rescued a wild bunny and has brought it up as a pet, apparently not the friendliest bunny but doing fine. I had a rabbit who was a belgian hare and i used to have to put gardening gloves on to pick her up!

ah, it was thought through properly, thats cool

if you're anywhere near southampton and need a hand, drop me a PM

I have no experience either, but am willing !
 
ah, it was thought through properly, thats cool

if you're anywhere near southampton and need a hand, drop me a PM

I have no experience either, but am willing !

hello thanks for your message! glad after my message that you understand that we couldn't just leave them alone much as i'd have liked to have done. i feel so sorry for them and their mum who is obviously distraught at them having dissapeared.

the bunnies are still with us, did a feed last night, first thing this morning, lunchtime and this evening and its going ok so far. one more feed at midnight and then off to bed for a few hours....

will keep you all updated
suzanne

PS in northamptonshire but thanks for your kind offer
 
Rabbits can't pick up and carry their young like cats/dogs do so they've got no wa of trasnporting them anywhere.

Good lcuk with the handrearing :)
 
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