Wild Baby Rabbits

Rescued Baby Rabbits...

Our Great Pyrenees dog, Millie, found two wild baby rabbits out in the rain in my garden today so I brought the poor little things inside to dry them off and warm them up. I suspect my dog had pulled the baby bunnies out of their nest as I saw signs of nest material in the spot in the dirt where Millie was playing with them like a cat plays with a mouse.

Caring for the Bunnies

I made a makeshift nest for the baby rabbits by placing a small bowl inside of a cardboard box. I lined the bowl with lint from my clothes dryer. I had washed a dog blanket yesterday so I had a nice combination of blanket fiber and dog hair to make the bedding nice and warm and soft.

I'm "guestimating" the baby rabbits to be around 7-10 days old. They look like gerbils don't they?

Poor little bunnies are wet and cold

I went back outside to see if I could find more rabbits around the yard as usually rabbits have more than two in a litter.  I didn't see any but I did find the nest! The mother rabbit had burrowed a hole into the dirt in my galvanized planter tub. She lined the hole with dried grass and fur which she had pulled from her body.

I found the rabbit nest in my flower tub

The dirt and leaves were wet and the nest was damp from the rain so I pulled out the extension cord from the shed and plugged in my hair dryer in an attempt to dry it out.  It worked pretty good so after that I covered the tub up with a plastic table and our barbeque tarp to keep the rain from making the situation worse.

Bunny nest protected from the rain

After going back inside the house and checking on the baby rabbits I noticed that they were still pretty wet and cold.  I was worried that they could be suffering from hypothermia so I put a heat lamp on the bunnies just long enough to warm them up being careful not to get them hot. After that,  I filled an old sock with some rice and put it in the microwave to heat it up just a tad.

I  then brushed Millie and wrapped her hair around the sock...  (It's the least Millie could do to make up for stealing the bunnies!) I then put the sock inside the bowl for the baby rabbits to receive additional warmth. 

Millie surrendering some hair for the bunny nest!

Throughout the day I re-heated the sock and continued to use it to keep the little bunnies warm and comfy. They really liked snuggling into it and appeared more relaxed and content as they buried themselves deeper into the makeshift nest.

Toasty warm and dry snuggled up to Mommy sock!

Returning the Wild Baby Rabbits to their Nest

 

So far, so good! I won't attempt to feed the bunnies. I'm going to wait and see if mommy rabbit comes back first. I read on the internet that the mother rabbit might come back and care for her babies even though she could smell dog and human scent on them so I'm going to put the bunnies back in their nest after dinner this evening.

I read that the mother stays away from her young during the day to deter predators from knowing where her young are. She comes back between dusk and midnight to feed her baby bunnies and clean them up and then leaves them again before anyone sees her.

Bunnies returned to the nest

I returned the wild bunnies to their outside nest.  They quickly wiggled deep inside the hole as if they realized they were back home!  I read to cover the nest in a "criss/cross" pattern using light string or dental floss (which I did as you can see in the picture above).  I'll know if the mother rabbit came back to feed her babies if the dental floss has been disturbed. In that case they were likely fed and cared for and all is well.  If she didn't come back, I'm going to attempt to care for the wild baby rabbits myself.

Update:   Mommy rabbit didn't come back.   I tried to raise them myself but they died after a few weeks.   I'm too upset to write about it right now but maybe some day I will.  I have some really cute pictures of them as they grew from day to day.

Blessings,

Linda

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