How can I release 3 wild 400g bunnies safely into a field and wood?

Hello - I have three baby wild rabbits approx 6 weeks old that I've looked after since they were 3 weeks. They are now weaned and each weigh just under 400g. They have been living outside in a safe cage standing on grass.

There were four rabbits until 1pm today, when we found one lying on the grass dead; I do not know what it died of Up until then they all seemed healthy and running around when not inside their box.

Nearby there is a large wood and a field and I think other groups of rabbits are living there. The wood is where we found these ones under a bonfire.

How should I put these three back into the field safely ? Will they be accepted by the others? Should I make a sort of burrow nearby the others? How much longer should I keep them in the cage ?

The entrance to the large fields is about 70m from the garden where they are currently living. There are overgrown bushes hedges where I think there are other warrens.

please help if you have advice ! I don't want to keep them longer if they become very unhappy but I also want to release them as safely as possible.

THANK YOU

LucyR said:

Hello - I have three baby wild rabbits approx 6 weeks old that I've looked after since they were 3 weeks. They are now weaned and each weigh just under 400g. They have been living outside in a safe cage standing on grass.

There were four rabbits until 1pm today, when we found one lying on the grass dead; I do not know what it died of Up until then they all seemed healthy and running around when not inside their box.

Nearby there is a large wood and a field and I think other groups of rabbits are living there. The wood is where we found these ones under a bonfire.

How should I put these three back into the field safely ? Will they be accepted by the others? Should I make a sort of burrow nearby the others? How much longer should I keep them in the cage ?

The entrance to the large fields is about 70m from the garden where they are currently living. There are overgrown bushes hedges where I think there are other warrens.

please help if you have advice ! I don't want to keep them longer if they become very unhappy but I also want to release them as safely as possible.

THANK YOU

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Hello, I would contact these folk for advice

https://www.sttiggywinkles.org.uk/

You can't. Wild rabbits die, very young.
The only way to keep them safe is in your garden.

There were 10 full grown ones in the field yesterday, they must have been young once. And the one that escaped on 27 August is still alive, I saw it this morning. So I'm not as pessimistic as you !

LucyR said:

There were 10 full grown ones in the field yesterday, they must have been young once. And the one that escaped on 27 August is still alive, I saw it this morning. So I'm not as pessimistic as you !

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:thumb:

I agree I would contact the link Jane posted if you've not already done so. Or another wildlife charity if there is any nearby as they will have experience with this situation, hope it goes well they've done well so far

Where are you, what kind of rabbits do you have there?

If UK, and this are european rabbits, I just would expand their territory and then open it, but keeping their feeding station filled up. Until they don't return anymore.

Even domestic rabbits have enough instincts left to fare pretty well in the wild. I had two escapees once, the two does adapted to living in the wild so quickly that I didn't have the heart to put them back into captivity, I met them now and then for 4 years (moved away then), they got them a wild Romeo, built warrens and had offspring. They became kind of pets at the demolition rubble recycling plant where they lived. There wasn't any trace of the domestic heritage left in the offspring.

Preitler said:

Where are you, what kind of rabbits do you have there?

If UK, and this are european rabbits, I just would expand their territory and then open it, but keeping their feeding station filled up. Until they don't return anymore.

Even domestic rabbits have enough instincts left to fare pretty well in the wild. I had two escapees once, the two does adapted to living in the wild so quickly that I didn't have the heart to put them back into captivity, I met them now and then for 4 years (moved away then), they got them a wild Romeo, built warrens and had offspring. They became kind of pets at the demolition rubble recycling plant where they lived. There wasn't any trace of the domestic heritage left in the offspring.

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Sorry, but I have to post to say that no-one should release Domestic Rabbits into the wild, not ever. In the UK it would be considered to be an offence under the Animal Welfare Act, a case of ‘ abandonment’. All Rabbit Welfare organisations in the UK are 100% against releasing Pet Rabbits into the wild.

InspectorMorse said:

Sorry, but I have to post to say that no-one should release Domestic Rabbits into the wild, not ever. In the UK it would be considered to be an offence under the Animal Welfare Act, a case of ‘ abandonment’. All Rabbit Welfare organisations in the UK are 100% against releasing Pet Rabbits into the wild.

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I also have to agree with IM.

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Thank you for that (sorry I thought I had posted this before).

That's a good story!

Thank you , and I made some progress today. Rabbit Welfare Association is good.

LucyR said:

Thank you for that (sorry I thought I had posted this before).

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We were responding to preitler’s post about releasing Domestic Pet Rabbits, we realise you are asking about Wild Rabbits

InspectorMorse said:

Sorry, but I have to post to say that no-one should release Domestic Rabbits into the wild, not ever. In the UK it would be considered to be an offence under the Animal Welfare Act, a case of ‘ abandonment’. All Rabbit Welfare organisations in the UK are 100% against releasing Pet Rabbits into the wild.

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Ah, right, sorry, should have pointed out that that was a long time ago, that I tried to catch them for 3 weeks (I got 1 out of 3), and that it was in an industrial zone with few predators. I mentioned it because I don't think releasing wild rabbits back out, with other wild rabbits around anyway, is more of a problem than keeping those in captivity. The first thing bred into domestic rabbits was their ability to cope with captivity, imho wild rabbits would need a lot of space ( I know of a farmer who tried to breed wild rabbits to repopulate his land, and failed miserably)

Pets in the wild pretty soon become a snack (here, since advertising animals online mostly got restricted to commercial breeders and business and rescues (there aren't enough that take rabbits around here, have all hands full with cats and dogs) a lot of bunnys get dumped in the woods, to be never seen again. Cruel and illegal, but too little options left for many people to find new homes, shortsighted laws...) , and if there aren't predators around a feral population can start to create real problems. A recreational area here (fenced, dog free) got real problems with rabbits people released there, multiplying, digging up everything. Shooting them wasn't an option since there were always visitors around, that would have been real bad publicity. Then I heard from an employee that "something had been done about that problem", a few weeks later a myxomatosis outbreak wiped out most wild and domestic rabbits in the whole area, all but one of mine too. No way to proof that they released the myxo, but to me it looks like a suspicious coincidence, I saw a sick rabbit there before it really spread, but had no idea what I was looking at. Just because people thought that would be a nice place to dump their pets.