Found stray rabbit, not sure whether wild or not?

Hi i'm here because i've just rescued a small barely bigger than a hand sized rabbit/bunny up near my best friend house. I'm pretty sure he's not a wild rabbit because we don't/havent seen any wild rabbits around the area before and i am looking for some advice. We have 3 rabbits of our own so have hay in but not alfalfa hay and i dont wanna give him pellets because i don't want to upset his digestive system. I've set him up in a little pen with hay, a blanket and a small bowl of water, is there anything else i should do?

Here he is:

SecretlyDying said:

Hi i'm here because i've just rescued a small barely bigger than a hand sized rabbit/bunny up near my best friend house. I'm pretty sure he's not a wild rabbit because we don't/havent seen any wild rabbits around the area before and i am looking for some advice. We have 3 rabbits of our own so have hay in but not alfalfa hay and i dont wanna give him pellets because i don't want to upset his digestive system. I've set him up in a little pen with hay, a blanket and a small bowl of water, is there anything else i should do?

Here he is:

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All sounds great, maybe post online to try find owner? He doesn't look wild to me, but I'm not really an expert on that [emoji38] hope you can find where he came from, glad he found you though as it sounds as he is in good hands with you

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I really don't think he's a wildie, he looks nothing alike them. so I would hunch my bets on being a stray. he's lucky to have found you who knows what they're doing!

I think its also a good call to give nothing other than hay & water, as you don't know what he's had previously. it could cause more issues. he's probably a bit scared.

long shot, but see if you can book a vet appointment to get him checked for a microchip, some rabbits have them so it might link back to his owner. if not, if you're able to hold onto him you could put up some posters around your neighbourhood or in vet offices saying you've found a stray bunny.. I wouldn't put any pictures as there has been some instances of people scamming to get a free pet or..erm using them as animal feed. its sad. without the picture when they call you, you can ask them to describe the rabbit, if they're spot on they're likely the right people, if not you can tell them its not the bunny they're looking for

I hope he can be reunited with his family soon

Yea def not a wild bun. Hope he has some owners who are looking for him. It's great he's been found by another bunny owner!

Thanks everyone for the replies, i'm glad no one thinks hes a wild bun because i was doubting my choice to take him in incase he was but he definitely doesnt look like one and is calm/chilled and allows you to stroke him which i don't think a wild bun would.

i'm glad my best friend phoned me immediately after spotting him and made it possible for me to go get him because we have a lot of cats around the area, I'm not sure i'll be able to get him to a vets to check for a microchip but will definitely consider it. Me and my best friend plan to knock on some houses up near his house (where bunny was found) in the morning to see if anyone has lost a bunny, if that isn't successful i'll post online and put posters up. I really hope we're able to find his home because we don't really have the space to keep him here long term.

I would offer a few pellets in case he isn't used to eating hay, as we know too well some people don't give hay just pellets.

I'm still wary about giving him pellets so instead i gave him a bit of a timothy hay/forage cookie which he ate and he is now happily eating the hay. I did also syringe him some water (for peace of mind since i hadn't seen him drink from the bowl) and offered a toilet roll tube for him to play with. He seems to be doing quite well although hasn't urinated/defecated just yet.

I agree with what others have said. I would definitely get him checked over by a vet, especially for a microchip.

One important thing that has not been mentioned is that I would observe very strict quarantine procedures with him. If you have your own rabbits, I would ensure that you wash thoroughly when moving between the new rabbit and yours, don't use the same cleaning tools etc for both areas and have a change of clothing ready. Your new rabbit may not be fully vaccinated and if he has been living wild, you would not want any virus to be transferred. You might already be doing this, but I thought I'd mention it.

Other than that, I would start thinking of what you will do with the new rabbit if his previous owner does not show up.

Best of luck with him/her. It's a very cute rabbit and I hope he ends up living in a super home, either with you or someone else. Well done for caring

Omi said:

I agree with what others have said. I would definitely get him checked over by a vet, especially for a microchip.

One important thing that has not been mentioned is that I would observe very strict quarantine procedures with him. If you have your own rabbits, I would ensure that you wash thoroughly when moving between the new rabbit and yours, don't use the same cleaning tools etc for both areas and have a change of clothing ready. Your new rabbit may not be fully vaccinated and if he has been living wild, you would not want any virus to be transferred. You might already be doing this, but I thought I'd mention it.

Other than that, I would start thinking of what you will do with the new rabbit if his previous owner does not show up.

Best of luck with him/her. It's a very cute rabbit and I hope he ends up living in a super home, either with you or someone else. Well done for caring

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Thank you, i am taking quarantine very seriously and have been taking care to ensure that nothing (virus etc) can cross between this lil guy and my other rabbits. As for future plans should his owner not show up we've decided to keep him, he'll be moved into a smallish pen upstairs while he's still a baby and the end goal is to eventually have a large hutch/run outside. I'm also going to try get him to the vets on Tuesday for a check up & will ask about a microchip then.

Just as an update on him: he seems to be doing really well, has drank more water today (via syringe - he's started to learn how to use a bottle now though) and has urinated and defecated. He doesn't seem to be active much i.e not playing/moving around - he tends to stay lay down apart from when he's eating hay/grooming - could this be because of his age? I've still not introduced pellets yet as i'll be going to pets@home to buy some junior rabbit pellets as well as some alfalfa hay later on today so i can slowly introduce them both to his diet.

Everyone here has been very helpful and its much appreciated

Maybe he's a bit bewildered by the change. Do you think he would eat a little bit of grass if you have any? I'm just a bit worried surely they must have given him more than hay?

tonibun said:

Maybe he's a bit bewildered by the change. Do you think he would eat a little bit of grass if you have any? I'm just a bit worried surely they must have given him more than hay?

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I can try him with some grass today that's not a problem & he was trying to eat the grass on the field where I found him so hopefully he'll enjoy some today, thank you for the idea