Doe gave birth in our garden and now we have little bunnies hiding

[Lostbunnies]

Hello all,

We recently adopted a doe from a rescur centre and we were assured she had been sprayed by staff at the centre. We took the rabbit home and put it with our other rabbit. They've been together for 5 months and today we seen five small bunny rabbits in our garden. When I went outside to see what was going on they all ran away.

Some ran under our shed and some under our decking. We are very concerned over their safety and health as we have a rat problem in our garden.

Any advice would be great. The baby rabbits under the decking do come out to eat food but they run back under as soon as they hear anybody going outside.

 

[Hoppla]

I have no idea how you could catch them. but they won't survive long outside.

you need to serperate the doe from your other rabbit asap as she can get pregnant again. she probably already is pregnant again.

 

[Lostbunnies]

Thanks for the reply,

We have since seperated her and had we also believe she is pregnant. Unknown to us she had been digging a new burrow.

We genuinely have no idea what to do here. We usually let her run around our garden during the day but now she is constantly digging we've bought a seperate hutch to keep her inside away from the male.

We managed to catch two of the five baby rabbits and put them in a cage indoors. They are eating well, carrots, apples, broccoli and bannas however we are wondering if we should put them in the hutch with their monther? From goofle searching they look 4 weeks old.

There's three left outside in the garden, two under our decking and we have no idea where the other one is. They've been out all night but we know that two definitely are still alive.

 

[tonibun]

What a predicament! I would keep the rescued babies separate now as Mum is obviously getting ready to have more babies. I am not sure if she will be happy having her babies in a hutch if she has already got her mind on a burrow. You will have to assess her and if she seems very stressed you will have to let her do it her way.

The surviving babies need to be eating grass, hay and possibly some of Mum's food which I assume is Rabbit Muesli or Pellets. Carrots are not very good only as a treat. If you have an empty hutch you could start putting some food into that in the hopes that you can get the babies used to going into it and they might eventually become tamer. Obviously in a few weeks time the boys will need to be separated otherwise you will have loads of babies everywhere. Please keep us informed.

 

[Omi]

Crikey :shock:

I presume that your male rabbit is not neutered? Where was the doe living around the time that she gave birth, as female rabbits will tend to make a nest where they are living so that they have access to the kits for feeding. If you have judged that the kits are now 4 weeks old, have they been living outside all that time?

What can you now do to help the situation? Well, as Tonibun says, the kits should not be eating carrots. Nor should they be eating bananas or apple. I would just give them hay, grass (as I presume this is what they have been eating outside) and whatever pellet food you are feeding your other rabbits. You could try to tempt the kits remaining outside with food and if you catch them put them with the two inside. They will not survive long outside. Your doe will be exhausted from two pregnancies in quick succesion and should be given lots of nutritious food. I do not think I would put the kits back with Mum. This would be ideal, but not if she is preparing to give birth to a second litter. Your, presumably, entire buck should be neutered. It is not ideal for a buck to be entire as he will become frustrated, your doe will be pestered (if you intend to finally bond them together again) and there are health risks to unneutered rabbits, both males and females. And finally, I would suggest that you get your doe neutered.

Btw I presume you mean that the rabbits were kept free range in the garden during the day. I would advise you to reconsider this as a general rule unless you are keeping watch on them all the time. In particular if you know you have rats, but other predators such as foxes will also enter the garden even during the daytime.

Best of luck with your situation. Please keep us updated and just ask if you need further advice.

 

[Lostbunnies]

Hi and thanks for the replies!

We are going to call the vets first thing in morning to get them both made sterile, it was a big mistake on our part not to have the male neutered however we were told the female had been sprayed already, you make a good point about how the male could frustrate the doe so we will definitely get him done on Monday.

The doe's first nest was constructed at the top of our garden and we are quite astonished how well she managed to keep it a secret. When we had a closer look around our garden yesterday we found a second burrow that she had been constructing so we are expecting another batch soon...

As for our rat problem we keep the rabbits in a fenced off area in our garden and the rats just happen to be in the lower end under our decking which is seperated. The reason the baby rabbits got under there was because we had left the gate open as we went outside to see them!

Very disappointed in ourselves, we should have had confirmation that the doe and been sprayed and we should have had the buck neutered when we first got him.

Thanks for the info on what to feed the babies too and we will take all this advice on-board!

 

[tonibun]

Just to let you know the male can remain fertile for around 6 weeks after he has been neutered and you can't have the doe spayed until she is over feeding her babies, so it's important to keep the buck separate from the doe for 6 weeks post neuter. Hope everything works out in the end - yes they can be very secretive over their nest sites. I have been fooled before!

 

[Omi]

Hi and thanks for the replies!

Very disappointed in ourselves, we should have had confirmation that the doe and been sprayed and we should have had the buck neutered when we first got him.

Don't be too hard on yourselves Rescues don't usually make such mistakes and it's not always easy to confirm whether a doe has been spayed, especially if the scar is not visible to a vet.

I wish you luck with finding the remaining kits and with rearing the two inside. I hope the next litter arrive safely and are healthy.

Please stick around on the forum and let us know how you get on.

 

[Tamsin]

Wow, I bet that was a little bit of a surprise when you saw them!

I'd be slightly concerned she could have given birth already, as she's been with the male constantly litter number two would be about 28 days after litter number one. If the babies are out and about then as you've worked out they are around 3-4 weeks already. You need to be sure she's not got a litter somewhere before cutting off her access. It's normal for rabbit mums to spend most of the time away from their kits, they'll actually dig a tunnel for the nest and then when they leave they fill in the entrance to hide the babies from predators, they go back once a day and unfill the hole, feed the babies and leave again. So that's why she managed to raise them separately without you knowing. There maybe a covered hole that's quite well hidden.

If the area she's in is safe and secure, and she can't get out, there is no reason you couldn't let her raise litter number two the same way. The only downside would be you couldn't handle the babies until they came out which makes socialising harder - how are the ones you've caught?

For catching the lose ones, with mum and dad confined, I'd suggest leaving the gate open and I expect they'll go back in, at which point you can close the gate behind them and have at least got them in a smaller area. Chasing rabbits isn't a good way to catch them, you need to outsmart them They like hiding places so things like a piece of pipe or boxes (let them explore until they are comfortable and then block the entrances. Another way is to make a big pen with puppy panels or net around the area they are in and then gradually walk it smaller until you've got them.

 

[Lostbunnies]

Hi all,

The two babies we have caught are doing really well, eating grass and hay and are not as shy as they first were.

The three other babies who are outside is a different story. One has been missing for 48 hours whereas the other two are still living under the decking. We leave hay out and rabbit food for them which they eat. They come out when the sun sets and follow their mother around.

 

[tonibun]

When a rabbit of mine had a litter in the garden she was living in a shed on the floor at the time and the babies all followed Mum back into the shed once they started running around. I didn't know she had had the babies and couldn't believe my eyes when I saw these tiny bunnies running about! Babies have no sense of danger and they are really adventurous so will squeeze through tiny gaps.

 

[Hoppla]

Ideally mum should feed the babies until 8 wks old.

It is really important that you catch the remaining ones outside of you want them to survive.
Can you lure them in to a box with food?

Also extremely important like somebody else suggested, don't neuter the mum until she has finished feeding the second batch after 8 weeks.

You must keep her seperated from him until a minimum of 6wks after his castration. Don't beat yourself up for it, but learn from it.
I almost killed my now 13yr old rabbit by feeding him too many calcium rich vegetables. We all make mistakes at some stage but the most important thing is to learn from them.

 

[Lostbunnies]

It has been very educational reading the replies on here, we had been feeding our rabbits fresh vegetables but now we know what their diet should be and only give carrots etc as a treat.

From the three that were outside we only have one left. We are presuming the other two have died or escaped as they haven't been seen in a while. The rabbit that's still hiding comes out when it sees mum, it tries to go under her but mum runs off.

The two we have caught inside are still doing well. They are getting used to humans and are not very nervous. We are continuing to feed them hay and mums dry food.

Such as shame about the two that are missing. Can't help but feel responsible. Dad has been neutered and is resting in his hutch, vet confirmed mum is pregnant also.

 

[willow and squiggles]

aww i hope you manage to get the baby thats still out there. xxx

 

[Omi]

Is it possible that you could construct a pen with puppy panels or similar, put lots of food inside and use Mum also as a bait for the remaining one? I really hope you can catch the kit.

 

[Lostbunnies]

Hi and thanks for the kind words,

We have bought some live traps to try and catch the remaining kit, as drastic as that may sound it's better than it dieing. We are staying up throughout the night so if it does get trapped we can get it before any predators do.

Because of the shape of our decking it's very difficult to construct a containment area but we are looking into every possibility. If we do not catch any of the remaining kits tonight we have a friend with a drain camera that can get under the decking and look in all the hard to see places. Hopefully we can get some answers as to where the missing kits have gone.

Thanks once again, I will continue to give updates!

 

[Zoobec]

I'm sorry you have found yourself in this situation. You are clearly doing the best you can, I hope you manage to catch the remaining baby.

 

[TheThreeB's]

How did it go? Any sign? X