Cassanova near our ladies...

[Cinnabun14]

I'm not even sure where to put this thread!

Our neighbors have some trees where a warren of rabbits lives (around 4-5 probably). Since it's been snowing quite a bit, I noticed wild bunny prints leading from the trees to our hutch, along with some poop and pee (of course). This evening, I saw him, a big wild buck bunny, by our hutch. The girls were out in the run waiting for him. My siblings call him Scooter/Boots, I call him a menace . It seems he's been visiting Chika and Cinnamon for a couple of days now, leaving his nasty little presents everywhere! He's interested in them because they're not spayed yet, I know. I told the girls they needed to stay away from that sort of boy, that he's a single-minded bunny and not worth their time, but they just told me I didn't know him like they did . They insist they were just talking, but I told them no more boys unless I was around to make sure he behaved himself!

In all seriousness, is there anything I shoukd be worried about/do? They will be spayed in the summer, when it's warm enough for them to recover, but I don't want to take a risk doing anything now. I think they're okay disease wise, at least with rhdv and myxoma since we haven't had any cases where I'm at. And I've been watching this warren for quite some time, they all look very healthy from the distance I could see (but we all know how good rabbits are at hiding these things). There's no chance of him coming in; my girls are locked away in the tower tighter than Rapunzel, and I've been cleaning up his droppings too (albeit a bit annoyed!).

Also...I read somewhere else on here that it has been know for rabbits to mate through the bars of a playpen. Is this possible with meshweld/hardware cloth?

 

[Omi]

I think it's possible that your bunny visitor is more interested because the girls aren't spayed, but we rarely get rabbits in the garden, but there have been rare occasions when a rabbit has taken an interest in our neutered bunnies. They have all tended to do territorial things like running up and down next to the wire mesh and leaving droppings. Clear up all the droppings that you can.

If you are confident that the weldmesh has too small a gap to allow mating to occur, then your main concern would be infection risk. Do you know what viruses are within your wild rabbit population? I have also read of mating through bars, but I can't imagine it would be easy and also it would depend on the size of the gap.

I would want to discourage this visitor asap. Is he visiting only during the hours of darkness? If you can establish a pattern in his visiting times, I would try to go out with a flashlight to shoo him away. In my experience if you do that several times and if there is no hint of any food available for him, I think he will consider it not worth the risk.

Good luck!

 

[William]

Are you sure they're wild rabbits, not pets that were dumped? Since you live in the US, they would be cottontail rabbits, which don't live in warrens like European rabbits do.

They also can't breed with domesticated rabbits as they're entirely different species. So I imagine a boy cottontail wouldn't be attracted to your girls, and even if he was, it wouldn't result in offspring.

 

[Cinnabun14]

Thank you both!

@Omi, I'm pretty sure the gaps are too small, since it's meshweld/hardware cloth, but honestly, I don't know about these kinds of things! I'm mostly concerned with fleas getting to our rabbits. I've tried putting up the puppy pen as a semi-permanent fence, but that doesn't seem to be working. He visits both day and night, but maybe a motion sensor light would still be worth it?

@William, good point! Maybe warren was the wrong word, but there is definitely more than one rabbit living over there. It's very possible it could be a dumped bunny. I only saw him at night, and he looked like a wild rabbit, but rabbits can look like anything, can't they? I thought he might be interested in the girls in the same way some coyotes or wolves are attracted to dogs in heat, but I don't know how closely cottontails are related to Europeans for that.

 

[pandrhola]

I'm not even sure where to put this thread!

Our neighbors have some trees where a warren of rabbits lives (around 4-5 probably). Since it's been snowing quite a bit, I noticed wild bunny prints leading from the trees to our hutch, along with some poop and pee (of course). This evening, I saw him, a big wild buck bunny, by our hutch. The girls were out in the run waiting for him. My siblings call him Scooter/Boots, I call him a menace . It seems he's been visiting Chika and Cinnamon for a couple of days now, leaving his nasty little presents everywhere! He's interested in them because they're not spayed yet, I know. I told the girls they needed to stay away from that sort of boy, that he's a single-minded bunny and not worth their time, but they just told me I didn't know him like they did . They insist they were just talking, but I told them no more boys unless I was around to make sure he behaved himself!

In all seriousness, is there anything I shoukd be worried about/do? They will be spayed in the summer, when it's warm enough for them to recover, but I don't want to take a risk doing anything now. I think they're okay disease wise, at least with rhdv and myxoma since we haven't had any cases where I'm at. And I've been watching this warren for quite some time, they all look very healthy from the distance I could see (but we all know how good rabbits are at hiding these things). There's no chance of him coming in; my girls are locked away in the tower tighter than Rapunzel, and I've been cleaning up his droppings too (albeit a bit annoyed!).

Also...I read somewhere else on here that it has been know for rabbits to mate through the bars of a playpen. Is this possible with meshweld/hardware cloth? Cool Games Free

If it were me, until they're spayed, I’d limit how much access they have to areas where he visits, just to reduce frustration and territorial stress

 

[Cinnabun14]

Thank you, good suggestion. Actually, I haven't seen Scooter/Boots/Skipper (they all wanted to name him ) for a couple of weeks now. There's no more droppings either, so I guess he's done? I think the neighbor's dog scared him into never coming back again (I hope!)