Orphaned Baby Rabbits

[Jengerbread88]

After repeatedly not listening to my urging to leave the rabbits alone after their momma died, my brother's girlfriend was alllllll over these bunnies. She has put them in a bunny cage and I don't know that ththey will survive in the wild (or even a cage) because she and her friends went stop touching them!


Against my better judgement, it looks like we are going to try to help the bunnies. Any advice?

They're really young, like a week old.

[nun69]

no advice, but we tried this a couple of summers ago and the baby didn't survive...it only lasted about 4 days...

[rachaelsscraps]

If you call a local wildlife officer they could probably give you the number to someone who often cares for orphaned babies.

do you know that they were in fact orphaned? Because mama rabbits dont stay with their nest because they know staying around will attract predators.
http://www.messingerwoods.org/babybunny.htm


http://www.wildlifehotline.com/welco.../baby-bunnies/

[AmaG]

Def. give your local wildlife rehab a call. If you can't find their number, the local domestic animal shelter should have it.

[Valgal]

Pretty sure the likelihood of baby bunnies surviving in capture is pretty slim

[jessica31876]

yes I was going to sak the same thing baby bunnies are left alone as a natural way of protecting them from predators. The momma stays near but not in the den with the bunnies. So unless you know for a fact that the mother is dead she is probably still out there.

[Jengerbread88]

I asked the same question, because I questioned if they were abandoned or not. They said that they saw a car hit the mom as she was hopping away from the nest. I asked them to show me, and we walked over there. Sure enough, dead adult bunny in the road.

I tried calling the wildlife shelter in the area, but there was no answer. I'll try again in the morning.

I read some care stuff online today, and pretty much all of them said the same thing-- don't expect them to live. One of the websites said that even in the wild, the chance of the bunnies surviving is slim, as only about 10-20% of the new bunny population lives to the following year (due to population sizes). I just told the kids not to get too upset if the bunnies don't make it. I'm trying the shelter again tomorrow if they make it through another night.

[mkcdaisy]

There is just so much that mom provides in the beginning that they most likely won't survive but the same is often said for kittens. Keep trying the wildlife peeps and in the mean time fiind replacement milk and keep them warm.

[Sherri Tierney]

We have rabbits and have had 2 litters of kits. I just can't see them surviving at that age without mom unless you have experience with them... lots of experience. I doubt I could have kept them alive without mama. So sorry. Hopefully you can get in touch with the wildlife shelter.

[Jengerbread88]

Wildlife shelter is taking care of them. His girlfriend was TICKED that we turned them over to the rescue, but seriously, she dropped them at our place and never showed up to feed them... I was paying for stuff to feed them, and my brother and I were going out every 2 hours to feed them (as recommended by the web AND the wildlife shelter). So, yeah, she can deal. She wasn't the one taking care of them.

[joelsgirl]

I'm glad they ;asted this long! Glad you're not having to feed them every two hours, too!