I had a friend call me today to say that she\'d found a wild baby rabbit that is about 7 inches long and the mother rabbit was injured (I think hit by a car and I don\'t know if she will live or not) and taken to the vet. She would like to know if the baby rabbit can make it on its own in the wild or should she try to take care of it. Right now, she has it indoors, but she\'d like to know what is the best thing that she can do for the baby as far as caring for it or releasing it and how to care for it. I don\'t know anything about wild bunnies so I didn\'t know what to tell her. Any advice would be appreciated...
It\'s seven inches long? That\'s a pretty good size baby, I\'m assuming its\' eyes are open? If it is that big she may want to just try it on pellets -maybe some greens.
It probably will eat on its own. ?? Anyone else??
The eyes are open and it has fur, but she said that it won\'t drink water. I haven\'t personally seen it, but my first thought was that a 7 inch long baby could probably survive on its own. I will suggest pellets and timothy hay for her to try but I don\'t know what to tell her about it not drinking water.
Maybe its not thirsty. If she leaves water out for it in a non-tippable dish chances are it will drink sooner or later. I wouldn\'t use a water bottle for a wild baby. Too confusing. It\'s probably just really really scared and went into survival mode. It\'s chances of survival are better in the wild I\'d say. I would release it where I found it.
Unless of course she lives on a really busy road or has really big hungry dogs.
Thanks for your advice. After talking to my friend today she said that the baby was actually about 4 inches long. I got my facts wrong. So do you still think that a 4 inch long baby will survive in the wild without its mother?
No, it\'s probably only 2 weeks old -3 tops. What is she feeding it now?
If she does feed it -it should only be once in the morning and once at night. Over feeding will kil it. Has she tried any of those orphan animal formulas?
I only ever found one that survived and it was already eating solids. She could try solids -if it 3 weeks old he could probably manage it.
That\'s all I know to say -they are not easy to raise. Was that the only one she found? Did she look for more?
I\'m sending her over some timothy hay and pellets to see if it will eat that. She has been feeding it yogurt. I did suggest an orphan animal formula. My husband is going by after work and he\'ll be able to tell her a better idea on the age and if it can survive without its mom. Yes, they did see more. She lives in a neighborhood with a pretty small yard and the nest was disturbed when her husband ran over it with the lawn mower. The mother was seen in the road I guess hit by a car and she was taken to the vet. The kits weren\'t hit by the lawn mower, but they all scattered under the fence except this one that ended up on her porch. Thanks again for the advice since I\'m clueless about wild bunnies.
How is the bunny?
The bunny has started acting more like a bunny with increased activity. I think it was really scared before so it just layed their. My husband got to see the bunny and he said that it definately couldn\'t survive on its own so my friend will take care of it until its a little older and so far it seems to be doing well.
Oh that\'s good. It\'s a good thing that is was old enough to survive.
My dog has a bad habit of raiding nests in the back pasture and bringing me blind bare little kits that are barely a week old. That is frustrating but I guess that is why they breed the way they do. Survival instinct.
She also found some kittens the beginning of this Spring. We did see the nest where she got them and put the kitten back but the new mother didn\'t have any interest in them and soon were dead.
