Help!!!!

[chloesmom]

My dog dug up a rabbit nest in our backyard. We only found one baby, eyes are still closed. There are no wildlife rescues in this area. Does anyone have experience with wild baby bunnies? It is about 2 inches long. We moved the fur nest out of the dog’s area, but I am afraid the mother won’t come back. Please help!

 

[KatnipCrzy]

Wild Cottontails have a high mortality rate in rehab- the best chance for the baby is to let Mom reclaim it.

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

[RabbitPam]

As Katnip’s article link suggests, keep your dog away from the area for a few days to give the mom a chance to find the baby. Try to put it back in the nest as close to the spot where you found it, so the mom won’t have to search for the baby. The mother has not abandoned it – but only comes back to feed the baby for about 5 minutes. She will probably move the nest herself to a safer spot.

[chloesmom]

Thanks so much for the link. I rebuilt the nest right outside my dog’s area. The little thing cried a bit when I put him in the new hole. It said to make a criss cross pattern with grass or sticks to put over the nest so you can tell if the Mom returns. I will just hope for the best.

[BinkyBunny]

Keep us updated!

[chloesmom]

I checked the nest today. It looks like the Mom came back. The clover we layed on top was moved. I saw movement under the fur nest, so he must be OK!!

[bunnytowne]

Glad to hear she found him.  He should be ok now.

[chloesmom]

The baby bun took a turn for the worse today. When I checked him this morning he was laying on top of the nest. I tried putting him back under the grass but he kept wiggling back out. We had a bad storm this afternoon and when I checked on him afterwards he was a foot away from the nest. He was soaking wet and very limp. I tried again to return him to the nest. He was pushing his head against my finger, probably looking for milk. I was so upset. I called the Humane League and they gave me a number of someone who might be able to help. I talked to the woman who proceded to chew me out for moving the little guy. She told me to box him up and deliver him to her house. She told me to leave him outside in a dog house . Oh gosh I hope I did the right thing. I took some pics of the little sweetie and tried to attach them, but it said they are too large. I left a note on his box asking for an update. Will let you know if I hear anything.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Aw, that’s so sad.

Sending the baby bun some {{{{{Binky Bunny Healing Vibes}}}}}}

[RabbitPam]

It sounds like she will be able to help.
You can copy your pix and save it again, only save it to a smaller size.

[MarkBun]

Ah, she seems to be of the “Don’t touch the rabbit else the mom won’t want anything to do with it again” variety. This has been a common misnomer for some time but has been a great help in keeping kids (and apparently adults) who love animals from bothering fragile, baby wildlife. Overhandling can be an issue as it will desenitize the animal from it’s healthy fear of humans but putting it back into a burrow when its been blown out by a storm or dug up by a dog won’t hurt it.

[LizzieKnittyBun]

I heard similar advice about birds – don’t touch the baby bird or the nest or the mother bird won’t come back!

I wonder if that’s a common misconception too.

[KytKattin]

Actually Lizzie, birds can’t smell so touching them is not a problem. If you (or anyone!) finds a baby bird or a bird’s nest on the ground you should try to put it back up in a safe place as long as it is not injured. Occasionally we will find baby Scrub Jays in our backyard just learning to fly, but exhausted. In those cases we actually will keep the birds overnight in a rabbit hutch turned chicken coop. The parents continue to watch the baby overnight and we let it out first thing in the morning after it has had a safe night. Once we did find a much smaller baby, and the parents continued to feed it through the bars for the next week or so until it grew it’s flight feathers in. The only reason we keep the birds is because of not only the large number of natural predators, but also a large number of cats. Plus we physically can’t get the nests or birds back into the ancient oak trees. I’m sure that some people would say that nature should take it’s course, but w/e. If the baby birds don’t have to die, then they shouldn’t!

[LizzieKnittyBun]

I’m the same way. Nature shmature! If I can save an animal, I’m doin it!

Insects, on the other hand…. ew.

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