today while getting ready for a yard sale my sister and i saw a small furry rodent run across the yard. we thought it was a mouse and at closer look we seen it was a baby bunny. we were kinda shocked because we didnt know they were so small. it's about the size of a large mouse. it's so cute, but anyway we caught it for the kids and put it in a box with soft carrotts and grass. my question is, is it ok to keep it. do they have diseases or anything. and how do we go about taking good care of it. any help would be helpful. thanx
Answers:
It is illegal to keep wild animals unless you have the proper permits.
Best advice on orphaned wild rabbis comes from this website: http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orpha...
It states: Many people mean well when they contact HRS after discovering an "abandoned" nest of wild rabbits. Often they wish to "rehabilitate" them with some advice from others. The reality is fewer than 10% of orphaned rabbits survive a week, and the care that people attempt to provide can be illegal, unnecessary, and potentially harmful. The best thing you can do is put the bunny right back where you found him, in the general area, as the Mom will only come back at night to call and find him. Leave the area. If injured, please contact a Wildlife Rehabilitator or rabbit vet immediately.
Rabbit mothers nurse their babies for approximately 5 minutes a day. They will be in the nest early in the morning and then again in the evening. The milk is very rich and the babies "fill up" to capacity within minutes. Mother rabbits do not "sit" on the babies to keep them warm as do some mammals and birds. They build a nest with fur and grasses which helps to keep the babies warm in between feedings.
Mom will be coming back at night to call and feed him only once in the middle of the night. Do not take the bunny inside or feed him. That is the mom's job. IT IS A MATTER OF HIS/HER SURVIVAL AND UP TO US AS HUMANS TO LEAVE NATURE BE AND LET THE MOM CARE FOR HER YOUNG. We often hear of mothers moving their babies and their nests, and have seen moms come back every night for up to a week to look for her missing baby. Do not take the baby from the mom or she will be frantic.
Older baby bunnies who are found outside of the nest may not be orphaned or in need of assistance. Baby cottontails are born without fur but develop a full coat in a week. Their eyes open in 10 days, and in three to four weeks they are weaned. At this age, they may explore the world outside of the nest but return there to sleep. They are not ignored by the mother but stay with the family group until four or five weeks of age. To determine whether a bunny of this age needs assistance, perform the dehydration test. Also look for bleeding, convulsing, fly larvae, broken limbs; if any, get to a rabbit vet or emergency vet immediately. If he is just out and about, leave him be. He is discovering his world, waiting for mom to return at night when we humans are asleep
If you need a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, you can find one here: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.
They have the training to care for wild animals, and they have the state and federal licenses required by law to keep wild animals, even for a short time.
That is nice you took it in. Yes, some rabbits have diseases, you should turn the bunny in to a vet's office.
better turn it loose - it is illegal to keep wild rabbits in captivity. it will most likely die if you keep it, because there is no way you can duplicate its diet
OMG! It's the Easter Bunny!
You really should have left it alone. It's Mom would have found it but now you've handled it she won't take it back. Take it to the Vet, he'll be the best one with all the answers.
We found one of those awhile back. Turns out, (though we couldn't tell) that it was a baby jackrabbit (mouse sized and TINY. Looked just like a regular baby bunny) anyway, it's probably not the kind that will make a good pet. Jackrabbits get HUGE and are always wild. It's Mom would like it back, I'm guessing. You can call the Humane Society and they will get you in touch with a wild life rescue who will come get it and introduce it back in to the wild. It's just not a good idea to keep that one, but many bunny rescues would LOVE to let you have a domestic bunny.
if you picked it up with your bare hands, the mother probably won't want it anymore. which means.. it probably wont be able to survive.
let it go.! the momma is close by.
RAbbits in the wild are usually infested with fleas and intestinal worms.
Give it up to animal control.
You really should have let it alone so its mother could return it to the nest.
you should turn it loose...some wilds animals, specifically bunnies, will not eat if they're taken from the wild and put into captivity
You should put it back where you found it. It is a myth that once you handle it the mother will reject it. The mother will accept the baby unless you keep it for a long time.
if it is brown it is a wild rabbit i breed rabbits nd babys are small when there born there pink!!bring it t a vet if it is a different color than brown it may have a disease
i agree with o0opink_fuzzy. if u ever find a stray animal u should ALWAYS take it to a vet's office before even SHOWING it to your kids. that way they wont know about it and they wont want to hang around it.this is a big risk that you've gotten yourself into.
try to keep your kids away from it until you take it to the vet. hopefully your kids didn't already catch something.
well good luck! i hope everything works out well.
Savannah L.
Yes, a wild rabbit will have parasites. Heck, I treat my sparkling clean domestic show rabbits for parasites on a regular basis.
Put the baby back as close to where you found it as possible. Maybe it ran out from a sheltered area? Like a bush or a dip in the grass?
It doesn't matter if you handled it or not. It's best chance for survival is with it's mother. At that size it is sure to still be nursing still. This is a critical time for it systematically. Bottle fed baby rabbits just don't live. They must be tube fed and most people don't know how to do that properly. It's different than with a cat or a dog. Even then, they don't always live.
It's way better off outside where mom can find it. Don't keep looking out the window for mom. She'll likely be scared and stay away fom her baby. Mothers feed leave their babies to keep them safe. They only come back to feed every 24 hours and that is enough for baby to grow up healthy. Put it back.
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